Liberal Democratic congressman Al Green hit the nail on the head: “I’m concerned that if we don’t impeach this president, he will get re-elected.”
Exactly. What has to be understood is that the polls the media routinely feed to the public are biased towards the Democrats with the exception of the Rasmussen poll, which is the only major poll that predicted President Trump’s victory. Presently, Rasmussen has President Trump’s support in the 50% range. Given the inherent Republican advantage with the Electoral College, Congressman Green’s opinion is well-founded.
Our political class has access to much more sophisticated polls that are not disclosed to the public. For example, the weekend before the 2016 presidential election, President Obama went to Detroit, Michigan even though the polls fed to the voters had Hillary Clinton ahead by five to six points. President Obama knew that Michigan was a coin toss and thus he tried to rally his base. It was to no avail. The President won Michigan by a razor-thin margin.
Once this is understood, the Democratic push to impeach the President is perfectly rational. With the failure of the Mueller report to find significant evidence of Russian collusion, the Democrats are resurrecting a conversation the President had with the newly-elected president of the Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. The President released the actual transcript of the conversation and there is no doubt that he asked the Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, for corruption.
The Democrats pounced, announcing an impeachment investigation that accuses the President of colluding with a foreign country to weaken a political opponent and thus influence our elections. But this situation is not quite that simple.
Hunter Biden, who has little knowledge of energy issues and does not speak Ukrainian, was placed on the board of a Ukrainian energy company called, Burisma in 2014 while Biden was Vice President. For this he was paid $50,000 a month. Burisma was being investigated for corruption by a Ukrainian prosecutor named Viktor Shokin. Vice President Biden wanted this prosecutor fired and succeeded in doing so by threatening to withhold a billion dollars in loan guarantees. There is even a video of Biden braggingg about this. Furthermore, China gave $1.5 billion to BHR Equity Investment Fund, of which the younger Biden is a 10% owner.
Rather than cower in fear, President Trump doubled down by publicly asserting that not only did he act properly in exposing the Vice President and his son’s presumed corruption, but also stating that China should investigate the duo also.
At this point, none of Hunter Biden’s behavior appears to be illegal. But this is a question of optics, and how the American people view Trump’s questionable judgement versus the shady business deals that our political class engages in routinely to enrich themselves.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has initiated an impeachment inquiry, but at the time of this writing, has not taken a formal vote to do so. While the legal issues are somewhat murky, this means she cannot subpoena members of the Trump administration, which makes finding more evidence problematic.
But let us assume that the President is impeached and this goes to a Senate trial. Witnesses will be called. Both Hunter and Joe Biden will either have to “lawyer up” and try not to testify, or else explain to the American people that they did nothing illegal. But there is a strong possibility that when the average American discovers how much money Biden’s son made and that he made this money only because of the political connections of his father, they will say: “Maybe that’s legal, but it shouldn’t be.”
If President Trump’s goal was to destroy Biden as a political opponent, he appears to have succeeded. Biden is now second in the polls to Elizabeth Warren and fading fast. He is having difficulty raising money. But many of Warren’s views – open borders, free health for illegal immigrants, a 14.8% additional Social Security tax on incomes over $250,000, allowing third trimester abortions, Medicare-for-All, ending fracking and off-shore oil drilling, taking over corporate boards etc. – are out of step with most voters. This combined with the fact that this blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman claimed to be of American Indian heritage (she has apologized for doing so), is why Congressman Green is so worried.
But impeaching the President may be a good move, even if he is not removed from office. The voters may just be tired of the constant drama and want a fresh face in the White House. On the other hand, the voters may conclude that the constant attacks on the President are unwarranted and are simply a Ruling Class ruse to overturn an election – especially since he has thus far delivered three years of peace and posterity. Your guess is as good as mine. But one thing is for sure: We are about to enter the most brutal and fascinating year of politics in our lifetime.
Leave a Reply