POV: Impeachment Inquiry Is “Nothing More Than a Sham”

Donald Trump looking pensive in front of a textured red background.

AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

Politics

POV: Impeachment Inquiry Is “Nothing More Than a Sham”

Trump phone call with Ukraine leader is “free of any inappropriate behavior”

September 30, 2019
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In their quest to bring about the demise of President Donald Trump, Democrats in Congress continue to trample on our Constitution and long-established legal norms, rules, and expectations. Instead of conducting the business of the American people, they further their assault on the electorate in order to rehash the 2016 election. The announcement of an impeachment inquiry is the latest installment in this derangement saga.

In a move all too characteristic with the current Democratic mind-set of “guilty until proven innocent,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry last Wednesday, following the disclosure of a July 25 phone conversation between President Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukranian leader.

In a prepared speech, Ms. Pelosi declared that “No one is above the law.” What she failed to add is that “No one is above the law, unless you’re a Democrat.”

After spending years being vilified in the Russian hoax, President Trump was completely cleared of any wrongdoing. Was any Democrat held accountable for his/her baseless lies, smears, and inflammatory comments?

No.

Or what about Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), caught mischaracterizing Trump’s Ukraine call during a meeting of the House Intelligence Committee on September 26? Will he face scrutiny or punishment?

Highly unlikely.

In their “quest for truth,” will there be investigations and hearings on credible accounts of presidential candidate and former vice president Joe Biden interfering with the Ukrainian investigation into Burisma Holdings, the employer of Biden’s son, Hunter?

Don’t hold your breath.

Make no mistake. This impeachment inquiry is nothing more than a sham, a desperate political ploy attempting to bring down Trump.

After previous plots to paint the president as a criminal failed, a perfectly normal phone call between Trump and President Zelensky of Ukraine was the next best accusation.

Except, the move has quickly turned against the Democrats.

The White House has already released the transcript of Trump and Zelensky’s conversation. Anyone can see that not only was this call perfectly normal and professional, but also free of any inappropriate behavior.

Preemptive Democratic calls for concern are simply nonexistent.

This move for complete transparency highlights the fact that the president did nothing wrong. Already, we see Democrats backtracking as they see their lies crumbling around them.

Just how serious is the potential impeachment of a sitting president for Democrats? Despite the calls for urgency, including from prominent members of Congress like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) (CAS’11, Pardee’11), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and others, the two-week congressional recess will continue at the end of September.

So much for the insistence that Trump must be removed immediately and without delay.

The only thing the Democrats have accomplished is having made it more difficult for future presidents to conduct diplomacy with foreign leaders, for the threat of inappropriate leaks and wrongful public and political scrutiny will almost certainly follow.

This inquiry also further polarizes this country and stirs unwarranted distrust between the president and the American people. Each side will only continue to dig in their heels and exacerbate crippling gridlock in Congress. If Democrats were serious about leading, they’d stop these senseless, counterproductive, and damaging witch hunts immediately. They’d actually listen to the American people who overwhelmingly disapprove of impeachment. Most of all, they’d apologize to the world for their lies, their deceits, and their cheap political games. If they can’t even hold themselves accountable anymore, we the American electorate must do so by voting them out of office.

 

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POV: Impeachment Inquiry Is “Nothing More Than a Sham”

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  • Frank Serpe

    Frank Serpe (Questrom’21, CAS’21, Pardee’21), secretary of BU’s College Republicans, can be reached at fserpe@bu.edu. Profile

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Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 15 comments on POV: Impeachment Inquiry Is “Nothing More Than a Sham”

  1. Are you guys for real. The evidence here does not support trump being an innocent seeker of justice but rather a bully and intimidator using his power to hold up arms to a country in a fight against Russia so Trump can get some leverage on a political opponent. And you think that’s OK. The constitution of the United States says the Congress has the right to investigate the present but the stonewalling of the White House is OK in your opinion. Let’s see the full transcript of trumps conversation and tell me then that it’s not like an organized crime shakedown. You have seen in the multiport how obstruction of justice and the acceptance of help from a foreign power in an election is considered OK by this president. Just because he’s bold ; doesn’t make him right.

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  2. Please do take another look at the Constitution. I’m afraid it is Trump and his gang of thieves who are doing the trampling. The office of the President was never to be used as a vehicle for personal gain, as Trump has done time and time again.

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    1. Yet the prior President’s net worth increased from 1.5 million prior to taking office to 50 million this past year, Bernie Sanders now has 3 houses and makes over a million a year (prior to his last run he had one and had less than 1 mil net worth), the Clinton ‘Foundation’ funneled in over $500 million during Clinton’s time in office as Sec of State….It’s all so clear where the corruption lies and who is benefiting….it’s not the people these politicians and their party claim to represent as they pedal in rhetoric and divisive politics based on envy, race and class.

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      1. “It’s all so clear where the corruption lies and who is benefiting….it’s not the people these politicians and their party claim to represent as they pedal in rhetoric and divisive politics based on envy, race and class.”

        Pot and kettle. The two party system innately divides and polarizes. Two parties can not contain the breadth of policy issues necessary to functionally represent all Americans.

        Chris Collins pled guilty to insider trading the day before your post. Oops!

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    2. Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, Paul Pelosi, John Kerry’s son are all need knee deep in Ukraine corruption for personal gain. What news channel do you watch MSNBC. You are so misinformed it is laughable. Please investigate personal gain a little more closely. Follow the money over the years and it will lead to Democrats. Like Hillary made 145 million selling our uranium to Russia. This will all come out some day — their cover up can not last forever.

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  3. I just want to point out in the last paragraph the author states “This inquiry also further polarizes this country and unwarranted distrust between the president and the American people”.

    It requires a great deal of intellectual dishonesty to say that President Trump, a proven pathological and compulsive liar from day 1 of his campaign, a president who does not operate in good faith and who is completely self serving, should NOT be completely distrusted.

    Trump has made +12,000 lies or misleading claims during his time as President, this alone should be an impeachable offense in the mind of any person who cares about this country. Remember when Republicans impeached Clinton for 1 lie?

    Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/12/president-trump-has-made-false-or-misleading-claims-over-days/

    Unwarranted distrust…give me a break.

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  4. This op-ed is nothing more than a full rehash of White House talking points. It’s dressed up to read a little bit better than Trump’s tweets, but not quite good enough for mainstream conservative media outlets.

    You also conveniently picked a poll published nearly a week ago, and conducted a week before that. Public opinion has shifted drastically since then, and the majority of the country (including increasing amounts of Independents and Republicans) now supports an inquiry.

    Frank – I hope you might be able to look back at this moment in time and realize how the wool was pulled over your eyes. If your dear leader and his administration truly have nothing to hide, then they should cooperate with this ‘sham’ investigation and embarrass the Democrats. Obstructing the inquiry only weakens their case.

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  5. It’s embarrassing to read this in BU Today, given that it’s nothing more than a blatant screed of Fox News talking points. Frankly, I’m disappointed that BU Today would publish a piece so ungrounded in reality, opinion or not.

    And, as Gregory noted, I think you’ll find that the “overwhelming disapproval” poll you cite bears out differently as more and more damning facts come to light about this administration through the impeachment process.

    I hope you take the time to open your eyes to those realities.

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    1. “Frankly, I’m disappointed that BU today would publish this” … I can’t roll my eyes harder than I just did. Time to get off your high horse and get over yourself. Sorry it took you this long to realize not everyone on your campus has the exact same viewpoint as you. Hopefully you’ll learn not to panic whenever it’s expressed.

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  6. It’s sad to see the political minds of our higher education institutions producing such obvious drivel. The argument posed here is fundamentally wrong from the point of view of anyone who understands American bureaucracy. From the get-go, the author proclaims the House’s impeachment inquiry to be the result of a “guilty until proven innocent” attitude. Except that’s not how impeachment works.

    For those who buy into the author’s point of view, I’ll break it down into a simple analogy using a courtroom setting. The impeachment inquiry is not a trial, not a verdict or a sentencing. Rather, it is analogous to the discovery process. It is how the House builds a case, which will then the brought “to trial” before the Senate. If the Senate convicts, the President is removed from office.

    Thus, the impeachment inquiry is not about convicting on false pretenses or preordained results. It is about building a body of evidence to convince senators (majority GOP, assumed to be sympathetic/subservient to this President) of the President’s guilt or unfitness for office. The Senate then convicts.

    To attack this process in the manner of current GOP talking points is to undermine the legal system practiced in courtrooms across this great nation. Self-professed Republicans must now make an important decision: are they the weak-willed denizens of an intemperate megalomaniac in the branch of government they’re tasked with overseeing? Or do they stand up for the conservative values that had once defined the party?

    If you consider yourself a Republican, and you have no problem with the way this President has run roughshod over conservative values, you demonstrate a lack of conviction, principles and morals. You are, in short, a hack.

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  7. That Republicans continue to support this failed administration is testament to the astonishingly hypnotic power of Fox News . I’ve noticed that nearly every defense of their favored reality TV star is an attempt to deflect accountability. The conservative talking points outlined here in this editorial by Mr. Serpe are all essentially cut from the same cloth.. “Look over there… don’t look here… What about A.O.C.. or Rep Omar.. or the Clintons.. or Biden..?” Why can’t conservatives actually face the truth about Trump? Isn’t it all essentially indefensible? Imagine.. just imagine if it were Obama sending Malia out for dirt on Trump. Or Jimmy Carter paying off his porn stars mistresses shortly after Rosalind had given birth to their daughter Amy. Or Bill Clinton insulting Bob Dole for his service of country during WWII. Its impossible to imagine because it would never happen -there could be no defense! The center of this administration is ROTTEN to its core.
    I’d like for a Republican to offer up an honest defense of Donald Trump without equivocation.. but I’m certainly not going to hold my breath.
    I’m all for impeachment and have my doubts that this will lead to: A)The greatest recession the world has ever known. -or B) all out Civil War. -or C) a rewrite of our history books so that the era would become known as greatest Witch Hunt in the history of our country… As Mr. Trump has at times insisted.

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  8. These comments (except 1 so far) are worthy of an institution that ‘taught’ and then issued a diploma to AOC and gave her a degree in economics. I say this with sadness as a graduate myself.

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  9. I hope you’re reading the comments, Frank. I know this might not apply to you, but stickers are never stuck onto the backs of laptops forever.

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