Rich Lowry of National Review Online highlights a particularly disturbing element of congressional Democrats’ argument for impeachment of President Trump.
The Democrats believe that the 2020 election is too important to be left to the voters.
It’s obvious that President Donald Trump withheld defense aid to Ukraine to pressure its president to commit to the investigations that he wanted, an improper use of his power that should rightly be the focus of congressional investigation and hearings.
Where the Democrats have gotten tangled up is trying to find a justification that supports the enormous weight of impeaching and removing a president for the first time in our history.
They’ve cycled through different arguments. First, Trump’s offense was said to be a quid pro quo, a phrase cast aside for supposedly being too Latin for the public to understand; then it was bribery, which has lost ground lately, presumably because of the inherent implausibility of the charge; now, the emphasis is on Trump’s invitation to the Ukrainians to “meddle” and “interfere” in our elections.
This is posited to be an ongoing threat. Nancy Pelosi said in her statement calling on the House to draft articles of impeachment: “Our democracy is what is at stake. The president leaves us no choice but to act because he is trying to corrupt, once again, the election for his own benefit. The president has engaged in abuse of power undermining our national security and jeopardizing the integrity of our elections.”
