The Last Straw
AJ Robinson

Okay, here’s yet another scandal to add to almost unending parade of criminal acts by Donald J Trump. It appears that he’s tried to get the government of the Ukraine to dig up political dirt on Hunter Biden, son of potential Trump election foe Joe Biden. In 2016, Trump sought help for his election; in 2019, he seeks help for his re-election in 2020.

The game is the same for Trump.

We know how this is going to play out in 2019. In fact, we’ve already had the first round: the denial. The second phase was admission of the transgression, but denial wrongdoing. Trump admitted to talking to the president of the Ukraine, but claims they talked of many topics and, yes, in the conversation, was a suggestion that the Ukraine investigate Hunter Biden, son Joe Biden, because he was involved in a Ukrainian company.

Calling for such an investigation in and of itself is no big deal, in 2019. Yet, a criminal investigation should come through proper channels, namely, the Justice Department or maybe the FBI. When it comes from the president during a call, where military aid is on the table, too, there is only one interpret, a treasonous quid pro quo.

What’s going to happen next? Speaker Pelosi has finally shown some guts. She demanded the transcript of the call go to the proper Congressional intelligence committees for review and, finally, she said the “I” word, impeachment.

This truly is a step forward. Congress also wants to see the report from whistleblower, which, by law, it is supposed to get. Trump will respond, claiming complete cooperation and give up nothing or next to it.

Yes, he’s saying he agrees to release it, but he hasn’t actually done it and we all know how much his word is worth. He may delay and obfuscate, claim executive privilege, maybe even trot out the witch-hunt routine, have his minions say the same on every news show they can get on and into any microphone, which they can grab and expect his propaganda channel, Fox News, to support him, fully.

That’s what’s happening. In fact, they’re already moving on to step three, deflection. I must have heard a dozen people and reports of how Joe Biden did the exact same thing while he was Vice-President. Nothing happened to him.

Okay, I’ll take the bait. Let’s talk of Joe Biden. Despite the fact he’s no longer in office and is it’s valid to discuss him because he’s currently a candidate for president; if he did something shady the last time he was in office, we should know about it. Although, given the level of corruption of Trump, Joe could almost rob a bank and still be a better president.

Let’s stick to the facts. I agree we should investigate any allegations against Joe Biden regarding this incident. If he did any sort of quid pro quo with Ukraine, then that’s a game changer. At the very least, he should withdraw from the democratic primary; I can no longer support him, if it’s true.

All right, that’s step one: if Joe Biden committed, he should be gone. Now, we move on to Trump and his crime. You see, this is where Trump and his minions always stop in the evaluation process.

Many times Trump argued that Trump has a pass on a crime because Person X did the exact same crime in the past. You can insert Hillary, Obama, Bush and even Reagan in for Person X because Trump pretty much drags up anything and everything done by previous political figures, even if his charge against them is false. He offered military aid in exchange for a corruption investigation of Hunter Biden, but others did the same or worse, in the past.

That doesn’t fly with me, and it shouldn’t with the media, the voters and, most especially, Congress. When I was a kid and got caught stealing a cookie by my mom, I couldn’t use the argument that, “Well, Danny took one before me,” as a means of not only getting out of trouble, but also getting to keep the cookie. No, that dog won’t hunt.

Trump cannot point to the past and say some other officeholder committed a crime and, therefore, he can do the same. If he committed the same crime, he is as culpable as any previous president or candidate and is accountable. The question is will he held accountable.

I doubt it. The republicans are too busy kissing his ring or body part; the media won’t ask the tough questions and the democrats are weak. Pelosi calling for an official impeachment hearing is a strong first step, but merely a first step. We’re a long way from anything meaningful and we all know the republicans will continue to back him, no matter what.

Pounding another nail in the coffin of America.

It’s another nail in the coffin of our once great republic. It is so very sad, this quid pro quo situation. For a sitting president to do such a thing is pretty close to treason.