Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, appeared on Face the Nation to repeat the same lies that Congressional Republicans and the White House has been using to defend the president. Yes, the meeting happened and the money was released but only after they, the 3 amigos and the rest of the plotters, were caught. Devin Nunes and other staffers spent 57,000 flying to Ukraine to dig up dirt on Biden, and that is another angle that will be investigated. It might also explain his stubborn determination to contradict the evidence. Democrats believe Trump is toxic but the Republicans in unison think he is doing what he was elected to do. Part of the Trump defense, that is plain enough for everybody to see, is to discredit the media and the Democrats who are pursuing the investigation with a special focus on Representative Adam Schiff, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Trump’s defenders should remember what happened to Richard Nixon. When he went before the nation to announce his resignation saying “I have never been a quitter,” he had finally understood that his presidency could not survive the overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing. One by one, those around him, Mitchell, Haldeman, Erlichman, had fallen like dominoes. When Ron Ziegler announced that the president would address the nation, few doubted what was about to happen.
And we mention that fact, because nobody is certain of what will happen with Donald Trump as the impeachment process moves ahead. Some comedians, like Bill Maher, say that Trump will not leave the Oval Office even if he loses the election in 2020. He will object to the results claiming that they are tainted and the election was rigged against him. He has already planted the seed of doubt with his followers, and has refused to comply with all the constitutionally mandated requests to provide documents. His irrational arguments only serve to strengthen the case against him. He endeavored to attack Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch at the very moment she was testifying before Congress. She and some of the other key witnesses are immigrants who, given the atmosphere of reprisals in the Trump administration, could have more to lose. Yovanovitch along with Fiona Hill and Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman mentioned their immigrant backgrounds as part of their testimony. They all expressed gratitude and pride for being able to serve this country. One would think that Trump and the Republicans who questioned them would be careful not to attack them for their immigrant status, but Jim Jordan for one came close to accusing Vindman of being disloyal to this country and some of the other members of the committee hinted at their immigrants status as a probable cause for their testimony against Trump. The president himself accused Yovanovitch of being a “never-trumper” who did not put up a portrait of Trump in the embassy. But Hill, Yovanovitch and Vindman served under Democratic and Republican administrations and they have distinguished records. At this point we should judge their record agains that of Donald Trump if we want to decide who is more loyal to this country.
Editorial