The impeachment inquiry in the U.S. House of Representatives has moved into a new phase in which witnesses are testifying publicly in front of the House Intelligence Committee and being questioned by members of both political parties.
However, the White House has tied one hand behind its back and is not putting its best witnesses forward.
If this was a basketball game, it’s like one team keeping its top players in the locker room while the other team is running fast breaks and scoring easy points over inexperienced opponents.
John Schaaf
Based on that opinion, at least 10 officials have refused to testify although they appear to be the very people who could best describe the White House actions toward Ukraine. Some or all of them could explain if $391 million in military assistance to Ukraine was delayed, and if so, the reasons for the delay.
The President has publicly cited several concerns that may explain his reluctance to send the aid on time to Ukraine, including government corruption in that country, and his claim that other nations have not provided enough support to Ukraine.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney are in the best position to explain the President’s concerns to the public and to Congress.
However, these officials and others are not willing to testify, and the Executive Branch is withholding many documents relating to Ukraine that would help explain the actions of the President and others in the administration.
The President is making his strongest political argument against impeachment by asserting that the Congressional process is a “partisan witch hunt.” However, the Constitution gives the House of Representatives sole power to conduct the impeachment process.
So, while the President may be scoring political points by directing government officials not to testify and by withholding documents, the House Intelligence Committee is hearing from National Security Council staffers, State Department officials, and even a member of Vice-President Pence’s staff.
Despite the White House Counsel’s letter, these officials are testifying to various aspects of the Ukraine situation, and when the threads of their stories are put together, they build a case which the President is not countering or even defending.
If President Trump’s actions toward Ukraine were “perfect”, as he says, or if there are reasonable explanations for what happened, top administration officials and even the President himself should be lining up to testify on Capitol Hill to clear up issues raised by the early testimony.
Again, comparing impeachment to a game of hoops, it’s still in the first half, but so far, with the President’s best players in the locker room, their failure to respond with evidence to counter the Ukraine narrative is putting him way behind on the scoreboard.
John Schaaf of Georgetown is a retired attorney, and he can be reached at John.Schaaf1975@gmail.com
This is the biggest farce and waste of taxpayer’s money. There is literally no evidence and clearly no wrong doing. It’s a game of smoke and mirrors to distract the public. They know for a fact Trump is going to win in 2020 regardless of the contender so they’re actually throwing the kitchen sink in this “fight”. All of the independent voters are looking at this and putting up a wall between them and democrats. First it was Russia, Russia, Russia and that was proven a complete fake lie all around. They talked Russia for literally 2 years straight. The people aren’t this stupid, they know this is another “Russia” witch hunt that is a complete lie. To all of the democratic politicians, get to work fixing america’s problems and not trying to fire someone who has done more good for this country in the past 3 years than most career politicians have done in their entire lives.
No evidence? 6 of President’s men have been found guilty for working/colluding/lying about their work with foreign governments. This doesn’t include the 2 recent buddies of Guiliana that were arrested. ALL of our intelligence services (FBI, CIA, NSA) have said Russia intervened in the election to benefit Trump. Two highly decorated soldiers/public servants have said you are incorrect (Vindiman and Taylor).
You are right about it being a waste of money, but that too is Trump’s fault. Had he not pushed his people to break the law (10+ times as outlined in the Mueller Report) and had he not said stupid things like, “Russia, if you are listening…” and “I need you to do me a favor…”, and “I love Vladimir Putin” he might have a shred of credibility.
Adam, the Clinton’s murdered Epstein (along with dozens of other people), and both them and the Obama’s have net worths in the hundreds of millions while only having 6 figure salaries. Every single political BOTH republican and democrat pull dirty tricks and do behind the scenes schemes, lie cheat steal etc, etc. including Trump no doubt. BUT I think other past administrations over the course of their political careers have done WAY more than Trump has ever come close to and they never once heard the work impeachment in their careers, going back over the years. This is completely biased that he is having to stand impeachments charges. Career politician republicans and democrats collude and are on the same team, they trade votes and favors. This is ONLY happening because Trump is an outsider, a non-politician who is shaking the entire system and wanting to get rid of the status quo of washington not working for the millions of average americans.
Haha Trump said those things to get more news time. That’s the hilarious thing that liberals don’t understand with Trump. He says outlandish things and says them in a way to create drama and almost get himself in trouble so he can dominate TV time. That is his strategy and it works. You’re campaigning for Trump and don’t even know it. Blows my mind no one else sees it.
#Trump2020
I don’t think a majority of Americans actually care about this. Support for impeachment among Independent voters fell 10% in a week. If you hate Trump, then this makes you feel good. However, no actual evidence of wrongdoing has been revealed. It’s hearsay and opinion. Furthermore, once this reaches a Republican controlled senate, they’ll call all of the witnesses they want, and the Democrats can’t stop them.
Even if you hate Trump, it IS concerning that the son of a U.S. vice president makes $50k per month for a job he isn’t qualified for. If it was a Republican vice president, it would be just as smelly. The people who have testified in the past two weeks, even the ones who were “uncomfortable” about Trump’s call, still admit that this relationship gave them concern.
But the only way that this really affects Kentuckians is that billions of our tax dollars are being handed out in one of the most corrupt places on earth for a never-ending war that, at the end of the day doesn’t affect Kentuckians very much. It’s a war that will probably go on forever without being resolved.
All of this mess is over 400 million dollars that we used to buy war materials for soldiers in Ukraine. That money would have been much better spent helping fight addiction that is killing Kentuckians. That money could be spent to incentivize expanded small business in Kentucky.
Its not the democrats pulling the clown show of pretending to have something to impeach him, its the deep state. The super wealthy elite, their puppet politicians, both domestic and international.
I welcome John Schaaf’s rational and civil commentary about the impeachment inquiry.