More simply: If we are a country with a Constitution, the rule of law, separation of powers, checks and balances, democracy. If we are that country, then how does one of two major political parties, their donors, their media cheerleaders, their voters, insist that we hold a president to no standards at all, to no obligations? I will tell you how. Because that political party, their donors, their media cheerleaders, their voters, have no interest in, no commitment to, in fact, would just as soon destroy, a country with a Constitution, the rule of law, separation of powers, checks and balances, democracy. In short, that major party, their donors, their media cheerleaders, their voters, are telling us, as plainly as they can, that the country they want is a dictatorship.
Republicans want a dictatorship. They want no Constitution, no rule of law, no separation of powers, no checks and balances, no democracy.
Not only do all paths from Trump lead to Putin. Republicans in the House and the Senate are already acting like nothing more than Putin's rubber-stamp stooges in Putin's parliament. What could be clearer than the choice before us? A choice we may not have for much longer.
35
If you want to get every Republicans to support impeachment, just change the name from Trump to Obama. There is not a single racist bone in their bodies. Every one of their bones are racist. Their despicable opposition to everything that Obama tried to do is mirrored by their despicable support for Trump no matter what harm he does.
20
Dear Nicholas,
Thanks for taking the time to write to those who write comments. I was pleasantly surprised. I think you must be the only columnist who does so.
My comments did not receive the coveted "Times Pick", but, I'll live. I want to take some courses in expository writing. My writing's not terrible, but I want to improve it.
A note about the photo selected for today's column. It made me laugh in that Trump resembles one of those very rich, con artist evangelical preachers -- which, to his base, he is. It's the pompadour blond hair.
Keep up the comments and good writing!
5
I don't honestly understand why Republicans are backing Trump so vociferously. I think they've got so caught up in their partisan loyalty that they've forgotten to look at the big picture.
If Trump goes down, Pence becomes president. Wouldn't he be more in line with what Republicans want out of a president anyway? Traditional Republican values are pretty much his mantra and he doesn't seem likely to create scandals every other day.
So, seriously, why are Republicans so hell-bent on defending the indefensible?
42
@Mr. Adams I don't think Pence inspires the same amount of turnout in battleground states in a 2020 election. The appeal of such a character at the top of the ticket is the ultimate incentive.
4
Trump is a gangster looting the USA; he deserves to be indicted and lock up!
7
Boss to secretary "I know you're looking forward to a generous yearly bonus, but could you do me a favor first, and tell the other girls in the office what a wonderful man I am, like the best you've ever known?"
5
Although I admire Mr. Kristof's ability to spin out a good analogy, the effort is wasted. Republicans know full well that what the president did is wrong. The respond with what I call Acquired Stupidity Syndrome, by which they feign inability to understand the plain meanings of his words or the import of his actions.
11
Yo Nick, I hate to tell you many examples of the type of quid pro quo you offered up are commonplace. That's why the folks going to jail for the college admissions kerfluffle even tried. They knew it was commonplace.
The answer is that he would be looking for a new job after his stint in prison
1
This article should be posted to all the right wing media outlets by not readers, (Fox, Breitbart, etc.) because the folks who read/use those ‘sources’ don’t believe trump did anything wrong and are not getting any other simple explanations of t’s crimes.
1
So sick and tired, ... literally, mentally exhausted of this hypocrisy. Whichever of these many examples the author used, a reasonable person should discern that the multiple abuses of power would not be tolerated by the GOP if it was a person in the other party. They would have conducted an impeachment, Senate conviction and be completing a criminal trial by now, while completing the final touches on a new Federal Penitentiary built specifically just for that disgraced former Democrat President. #44 wore a bicycle helmet and wore a beige suit and they thought that was critical mass. The thing that really bothers me, is that Ukraine was invaded - involved in a hot war and needed to defend themselves .... for MONTHS that almost 400 mil was held from them, why ... because this President doesn't think he could win on his own. The authoritarian told us who he is in his "carnage" nominee speech. The "Dear Leader" showed us who he is a long time ago .. believe him.
4
You know how we're always pleasantly surprised to find that a lost wallet turns up or is turned in, with money, cards and ID intatct? That's because there are so many people who wouldn't hesitate to take the contents. I'm becoming convinced that many of the people arguing that Trump did nothing wrong are the kind of people who would keep a lost wallet, so to speak. They simply have no concept of right or wrong: it's all about what they can get.
11
The Dems--the only adults in the room of legislators considering impeachment--must find a pattern to such behavior by the president to improve their case. Glory be, there's the Mueller Report, finding attempts at collusion with Russia, the beneficiary of "The Great Divider" Trump's Ukrainian extortion, and documenting 10 likely cases of the president's obstruction of justice.
When are the Dems gonna get a clue and start bringing up the mountain of lies, obstructions, et al monstrosities this national disgrace has committed? I realize it's early in the public phase of the inquiry, but the lack of public talk of this president's pattern of impeachable behavior is off-putting, to say the least.
2
If Trump were anyone else, impeachment wouldn't be necessary. He wouldn't have been elected in the first place. If some "mainstream" candidate, Democrat or Republican, had referred to Mexicans as rapists and bragged about grabbing women, the campaign would have been over immediately. It's symptomatic of how badly civility has eroded in this country that he could say stuff like that, have the media report it copiously, word for word, and get away with it.
But I'd add this, too: I'm not a Trump supporter; I loathe the man. But there should be legitimate interest in what Hunter Biden was doing on the board of a Ukrainian oil company, pulling down 40 grand a month. Also, while you lament the plight of the Ukrainians at the hands of those nasty Russians, consider that if the U.S. hadn't helped engineer an illegal coup in Kiev, none of what came later would have happened. Russia's "invasion" was a reaction, not an action. This was U.S. meddling of the highest order and whatever the Russians did during our 2016 election was chump change by comparison.
2
At some point we all have to go back to basics and make a decision as to whether we want to live in a country where laws matter. Whether we want the law to be objective and fair and cover everyone in the same way. Whether we want to accept a country where a person or a class of people are above the law and allowed to use our common resources for their own gain.
It is clear which decision the Republicans have made as they have laid down a generations long history of believing that wealth has powers and rights that are not afforded the common man. They have crafted the doctrine of the “unitary executive” to attach Republican presidents with king like powers as long as they led the faithful to the unearned riches of financial corruption. The Republicans have always allowed their wallets to lead their minds in the business of politics and they have now erected a criminal movement to take the place of their constitutional duty to the rest of Americans. Trump is simply the latest, and loudest, in a long line of criminal Republican presidents from Nixon to Cheney to Trump. They know that they can trick a trusting electorate with calculated lies because they have done it for 50 years. They are too far committed at this point to reform no matter how anti American the policy. They are going to risk everything one last time to save their ill gotten gains because the life of the honest and hard working is the hottest hell they can imagine. They worship only money.
5
Given trump's obsequious behavior towards Putin, I've always felt there is a debt owed (perhaps seeing trump's tax returns would corroborate) that puts trump squarely in Putin's pocket. After helping trump become president, what is one favor that Putin would call in as part of the re-payment? You think it might involve weakening Ukraine, for an easier Russian invasion? Just asking.
1
Thank you for your column. In all of this degenerate (and for me clearly impeachable) behavior, the picture that is etched in my mind is that of a brand-new president, unfamiliar with politics, and the country he is now called upon to govern, being held hostage for domestic political gain, while under siege by a supposedly sworn enemy of the US. Despicable doesn't quite capture the awfulness of this for me. If reports are accurate, 13,000+ Ukrainians have died since 2014, and the occupant of the white house is more concerned with investigating a political opponent than supporting a fragile pro-West democracy, and he is behaving like a common thug to achieve his ends. This has to end. Please let it end.
6
While I realize that party politics and loyalty are front and center now and our country is severely polarized, there's one thing I cannot fathom, though it's happened before in other parts of the world.
To me, Trump is the manifestation of pretty much anything that can be wrong with a human being--liar, narcissist, racist, misogynist, xenophobe...and the list goes on. We all have our moments, but this is what Trump is 24 hours a day.
Yet there seems to be something about him that not only attracts people to him like moths to a light bulb, but makes those people quite willing to do his bidding and declare their fealty to him.
For those of you who like Trump and would vote for him again--and I realize that there aren't many around the NYT comments section, maybe you could explain what you find so appetizing about him.
6
The knack to awake the worst in us (all human beings have some of it in them, it is the mix which differs not the components). My president gives me cover for it because, look, he is far worse and unrepentant.
1
@Mark R. / They love a loser when they see him?
I was watching a report this morning about the people that testified yesterday. I think it was Ambassador Taylor who mentioned that the president's actions also endanger national security. By withholding a congress approved payment to Ukraine to help them fight their battle against the Russian invasion, the president threatened our national security. There is nothing new about Russia invading other countries. They've done it for years. But for this president to try to withhold aid from a country that is a democracy trying to fight off an invader and to not call this a crime is preposterous! Republicans have always held the banner of being the "patriotic" party, protectors of the constitution, the law and order party. I don't know what this president has on the republicans making excuses for his behavior, but they certainly aren't obeying the law, the constitution or their oath of office. It's time to vote them all out!
12
@Cecilia / This comment should be picked by Times!
1
If I told one of my co-workers, even if they weren't U.S. citizens, to "go back to Mexico" or "go back to Africa," I would be immediately terminated.
46
Withholding authorized assistance until the recipient provides a political favor. The thing which keeps coming to mind is former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich holding grant money back from Children’s Memorial Hospital until a hospital executive would hold him a fundraiser.
It’s one of the reasons Blagojevich is locked up.
6
Trump wanted to set up a simple story he could tell over and over again and get the media and the campaign to focus on -- a replay of what he did with Hillary's emails. He got caught redhanded, but is still trying to rescue his strategy. He needs to show that everyone is as corrupt as he is, so that he can sell himself as the champion of the people against the corrupt system that is oppressing them.
Trump is our punishment for putting up with and supporting our moderate, moderately corrupt system and not fixing its failure to deal with the fate it was inflicting on many, the result of a steadily rising income and wealth gap. He is also our long-delayed punishment for not sticking with Reconstruction until blacks and their carpetbagger and scalawag allies were capable of surviving on their own and controlling entities like the Klan.
1
How different would the history of the United States be, if Fox News did not exist as a propaganda channel owned by a foreigner?! When independent histories are written, this will be a major turning point, probably more impactful than any other event since WW2.
6
I think exception should be taken to the implications of the Ukraine issue(s). In the first place, prior to the ousting of the Russia-supported President of Ukraine, all nuclear weapons had been removed from the whole area. Poroshenko's ascension marked a transition from relatively little corruption to widespread corruption, amidst the desire of the partisan parties to arm the new country in return, ostensibly, for various business contracts. The people who brought about the change in government were said to have fascist proclivities, nothing at all like democratic sentiments. Most of the people in Ukraine were characterized as having strong pro-Russian sentiments, and not just in the Crimea. Trump is a person who whines about not being able to use nuclear weapons so he can curry favor with the military, thereby reinforcing the power status of possessing the "football". What may be at work here is the military's desire to re-arm Ukraine with nuclear weapons, part of a noxious plan to conquer and colonize Russia. If, as has been reported in this publication, Hamilton's standard for "High Crimes and Misdemeanors" was something like actions which did harm to the social fabric, then just Trump's persona, replete with all kinds of obfuscations meets it. However it is well to remember that Hamilton lost a duel over NY state politics. Likely actions such as his over Ukraine don't meet the standard, unless one considers the insidious desires of the military to which he caters.
Suppose an executive at Fox News told an employee that he or she would be given a prominent on-air spot but first had to manufacture conspiracy theories that defend Trump and smear his opponents...
1
Here is the most important and urgent objective in front of the US Congress and it’s not Trump impeachment at all!
The most catastrophic consequence of 9/11 terrorist attacks was the shock created among the elected representatives in the House and the Senate.
The stunned lawmakers easily gave up their constitutional right to declare the war and handed it over into the hands of the executive branch, more specifically into the lap of Bush Administration.
That move created the tragic results. Instead of the matters being debated in the Congress, it was decided in the Oval Office where Dick Cheney hold all the chips and intimated everybody else.
The tragic consequences are about ten thousand dead soldiers, hundreds of thousands wounded and maimed, the millions with the PTSD and several trillion dollar loss to the federal treasury.
The constitutional right to declare the war should be immediately returned to the Congress!
Don’t leave it in Trump’s hands!
3
Though, as I commented earlier, I'm almost entirely with Mr. Kristof on this, playing devil's advocate let me pose this hypothetical:
If Hunter or Joe Biden were about to commit a terrible crime that **only** the Ukrainians knew about or could stop, with the exception that Trump uniquely knew this but in a Cassandra-like scenario could not communicate it except to the Ukrainians, would it be illegal for Trump to ask the Ukrainians to intervene, because in the course of preventing the crime Trump would also benefit in improved re-election prospects?
Should he let the crime go forward, lest he face a credible charge of self-dealing, selfish motivation?
Anticipating the response that the touchstone of selfishness is whether he uniquely singled out one potential crime to thwart, uniquely connected to his interests, & also granting that the claim of proper motivation is undermined b the charge's tenuousness. I still ask: is it, simple yes or no, illegal for Trump to take an action that will also benefit himself personally, both politically & privately?
I ask this really not knowing the answer.
But many seem to be implying it is indeed illegal for Trump to benefit personally, even from an action done in good faith, because they seem to be assuming personal benefit is proof of bad faith.
But since Machiavelli wrote The Prince, & we stopped expecting our leaders to be saints, is that still true?
It may be more honest to ask where the "modern" threshold is (fiduciary?).
1
Or imagine someone did this at work. They would be fired instantly. Charges might even be filed. Bribery is illegal.
3
I'm 73 years old and so sick of the Republicans covering for Trump. They need to find whatever remains of their conscience after approving of or acquiescing to Trump's policies for all of this time. (If watching preschoolers and babes snatched screaming from desperate parents at the border did not move them, I truly do not know what will.) They need to remove Trump from office and choose a strong candidate with a moral compass as their party leader. I cannot see why they do not see that. Surely they are not all blinded. Even if Trumps hard core supporters would not support their candidate, they would at least start to get some dignity back.
I have been so disheartened about this especially since I have small grandchildren who will have to live in this future that Trump and the Republicans are ruining. Yesterday, watching the Impeachment Hearing, I gained renewed hope listening to two brave Americans testify who at great personal and professional risk are keeping their oath to defend our US Constitution. They know they are serving under a US President who uses his office for personal gain and they know he fights back.
9
There is of course the biggest irony around this, and that is that Rudolph Giuliani, who had his rise to fame going after people under the RICO act, including people accused of all kinds of extortion rackets and the like, would be one of the prime players in this. Calling it quid pro quo is actually a mis-statement, quid pro quo assumes a kind of equality among the participants in terms of power; this is more like a Mafia goon showing up at your store and demanding payment or 'his associates will get very angry and that ain't good'. Trump and co had Ukraine over a barrel head, denying them military aid when faced with the constant threat of Russian separatists (gee, another irony, Russian separatists causing problems for the Ukraine, said people backed by...*drumroll* Putin.......) is like denying a diabetic insulin until they do what you want, it is extortion, not quid pro quo.
4
The only remaining question is will GOP Senators and House Members uphold their oath of office to "protect and defend the constitution", or continue to swear allegiance (loyalty) to trump.
3
There you go, being logical again.
This is more true, regarding Republicans and the majority of Americans.....
"The beatings will continue until morale improves."
2
The principal would not be fired if he had a suspicion that his ex-wife was actually guilty of a crime and he admitted the chief's son without a criminal investigation being opened. Perhaps the chief had read an article in the newspaper indicating that his ex-wife had been near the scene of the crime. The fact that it would aid the principal in his child custody hearing does not mean it is wrong to bring the article to the chief's attention. If all he said was: "so if you can look into it... It sounds horrible to me," the principal might be censured, but not fired.
The other analogies are not similar to Trump's situation because the United States government has a compelling interest in knowing if its private citizens are involved in corruption abroad. After reading the article that ran on the front page of the New York Times on May 2, 2019 ("For Biden, a Ukraine Matter That Won’t Go Away: New Spotlight Falls on Son’s Employer in a Revived Inquiry") Trump would want to mention it to the president of Ukraine regardless of whether Biden might someday be Trump's political opponent.
How come that the Democratic-led Congress is wasting the precious time on impeachment of president Trump as allegedly somebody incompetent to successfully lead America, while simultaneously failing to revoke the legislation authorizing the same Donald Trump to start any foreign war he likes because in the aftershock of the 9/11 terrorist attacks the stunned Congress handed over its Constitutional right to declare the war into the hands of the executive branch.
Is it possible that a miniscule extraterritorial terrorist organization of only a few thousand members at the time was enough for the Congress to give up its Constitutional duties and rights?
Is it possible that the US Congress has failed to grab this the most important constitutional right back over the last 18 years?
2
KICKBACK! That's a simple word, easy for the public to understand: the President, "thinking like a businessman, wants what's owed him before he signs the check". That's fine, Mr. Businessman, if it were your own money. IT WASN'T YOUR MONEY! He may be the most powerful one in the world, but the U.S. President is STILL A PUBLIC SERVANT. And this is about a public servant, in control of taxpayer money, demanding a KICKBACK (not in cash, but in kind) and holding back the funds for personal benefit. KICKBACK!
5
For me as an Independent, the impeachment proceedings, up to and including the first day of public hearings, show beyond any doubt that Mr. Trump is guilty of serious abuse of power. The witnesses providing evidence of Mr. Trump's attempt to coerce Ukrainian officials into a politically motivated investigation of the Bidens are very credible and well informed. In particular, Mr. Taylor, the top US official in Ukraine, was very convincing. The Republican rebuttals came across as mostly foot stomping, arm waving and table pounding, but no justification for Mr. Trump's unacceptable actions. Based on this and many other episodes of unacceptable behavior and rhetoric by Mr. Trump, Republicans need to put country above party and impeach Mr. Trump.
8
I fully support the impeachment hearings, and hope the American people pay attention as the 2020 elections come around. However, there is a big, important difference between the job of President of the United States and the other jobs mentioned.
The president is elected by the people of the United States and, baring impeachable conduct, can only be fired by them in the next election. The question of whether there should be a recall provision is interesting, but not the one being debated here. Any of the other examples involve people with superiors in their chain of command who have the power to fire.
1
Thank you for your excellent comparisons of what Trump is doing and why it is so wrong.
It is not surprising that the Republicans are telling every lie they can about this, because they know the truth is not their friend.
4
“Shouldn’t we hold the president of the United States to as high a standard as the head of a Social Security office, a principal, a hospital director and a journalist?” asks Nicholas Kristof.
No! We do not elect journalists, hospital directors, S.S. officers, and school principals to advance our national interests, defend us from all threats, foreign and domestic, and uphold our Constitution. The magnitude of the President’s number of responsibilities changes the quality of his office from any other kind of position. It also changes how he conducts his office and what are his motives from any employee of an institution. Constitutional description of qualifications for President are the same as a designated heir of an estate. They’re not a description of a job duty, like educational requirements, previous experience...the kind for a columnist, office administrator and high school principal. We elect and we impeach Presidents. We don’t hire them, and we can’t fire them.
Mr Kristof:
You said "In effect, Trump aided Russia and perhaps killed Ukrainians for political gain."
In fact you noted more than once that it was Russia that benefited from the withholding of military aid. The connection in Trump's mind behind the contention that Russian interference in the 2016 election and the legitimacy of his election might very well be the linchpin behind this whole enterprise.
Casting doubt upon the notion that Russia interfered in the 2016 election and substituting Ukraine as the bad guy (the proverbial 300 pound guy sitting on his couch) could well be the primary aim. Wouldn't it be nice for the Trump organization to gain access to and funding for the future Trump Moscow Tower? Of course soiling Joe Biden's reputation would also be of benefit in the 2020 election.
1
Thank you for relating Trump's offense hypothetically to offenses by people in positions of lesser power. Sometimes, the geopolitical details of the impeachment proceedings tend to obscure the simple morality of the thing: there was an abuse of power for personal gain..
3
I agree with you Nick that withholding the aid for political purposes was a crime in and of itself and the consequences of withholding this aid lead to weakening the Ukrainians and favored the Russian separatists. The Republican mantra that no crime was committed falls apart once it is realized that the aid was only restored after the whistle blower's complaint. I think a better analogy would be if FDR withheld land/lease aid to Great Britain unless Churchill investigated his political rivals.
1
Mr. Kristof,
Thank you for your column. The argument against your analogy (and probably the reason that ultimately will be given to acquit) is that the same person or group who hire the teacher, government worker or columnist also fire him or her -- or not. The American people hired the president. The difficult question is whether Congress should decide to fire him months before the people are scheduled to decide. Some Republicans will declare the President "perfect"; some will acknowledge they are "concerned." But likely all -- and certainly a sufficient number -- will say it is a political process and that they should defer to the waiting electorate and our ultimate political process.
Regards,
Ed MacColl
This is sensible and down-to-earth. It is the best analysis of the situation that I have seen.
Here's the thing...Trump doesn't regard Russia as a geopolitical rival, but a state that he wants to emulate.
1
Well, the old saying : "We get precisely the elected officials whom we vote for", is certainly proving to be accurate. And if any lesson remains out of this shameful period in our history, it should be that voting not only matters, but is mortally vital. -C
4
@Charlie
The serious countries are governed by the eternal principles, not by any individual. A country without those principles is doomed to be the victim of individual whims and feelings because it doesn't understand what in her best interest is...
Ukraine never lacked the javelin missiles they did not have before Trump ordered then to be shipped in the first place. Mr Kristoff and Democrats were not concerned Obama refused Ukraine such defensive weapons.. and mostly supported Obama's policies that allowed Putin to feel he could get away with invading Crimea to begin with.
1
@Lane
Aid can be in overt or covert form. We don't know what sort of lethal aid the Obama administration may have been supplying covertly, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of those Republicans who mocked the Obama administration for sending "blankets" knew that there was classified information that belied their argument.
As far as overt aid goes, when Russia invaded Ukraine, Republicans controlled the U.S. House, where all spending bills originate, and were soon to control the U.S. Senate.
In any case, who supported how much aid has nothing to do with whether Trump abused his power by withholding the aid to pressure Ukraine to smear his political rival. Even if he were concerned about general "corruption," why didn't he send the bill back to Congress with his objections as article 1 of the Constitution requires, where Congress would have the opportunity to override? He had no authority to withhold the aid on his own say so. Why didn't he ask his own Justice Department to investigate? Obviously there were no grounds for any such investigation, and it would have been yet another example of Trump abusing his power by weaponizing the Justice department, so he tried to secretly pressure Ukraine to do his dirty work so he could keep his fingerprints off it. Wake up!
2
Bloomberg for President
Bloomie, a long shot, but he’s money to burn
An “old head” like Biden – “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen,”
So says Tom Friedman – no radic left winger
Who want to pick pockets, clap on the stinger
Drain dry the wealthy, their manses and cars,
Whittle their riches until they see stars;
In their campaign they’ll rail against bigness,
No help for the poor as G-d is our witness
They’ll sing for the ages, sing songs against Trump
Revile Bloomie’s chutzpah when he’s on the stump
To win the election, foursquare we support
Bloomie for Pres – Impeachment’s no sport.
This is all well and good, but the frightening thing and unanswered question is what do you do when a huge swath of the country is too willfully ignorant or indifferent or racist or whatever for any of this matter. Anyone with half a brain and not blinded by greed, racism or a combination of the two can see the administration and Republicans in general are guilty of treason and gross incompetence, but it doesn't matter until the 40% who support this imbecile because he indulges their racist fantasies of 1955 are dead or wake up to the fact that the country and the world are never going back to the way it was in their heads and elect officials who actually will help the country.
6
As always, great article by Nicolas Kristof. One correction, though, in replying to BD: "After all, Lyndon Johnson may well have stolen the 1960 presidential election from Nixon (this is disputed, but my take is that it's likely)"
In 1960, the election was JFK versus Nixon, not LBJ.
1
@Greg Maguire, Ph.D.
Thanks! I was confused by that!
The Republican Party is no longer a party – it’s just an addendum of the Trump presidency. That’s possible because of a recipe made mainly of two ingredients: money and racism with a pinch of fawning a la Lindsey Graham.
Unfortunately your country has a president who is an evil person and surrounded by equally noxious people – people like Stephen Miller.
Trump is a disgrace (adjective that he relishes) –a real and present danger to the world. 2020 elections carry a monumental responsibility by your country.
2
Have many people read Nov 1 Politico "The 5 People Who Could Have Stopped Trump" - - the problem has become Trump's ability to DIVEST HIMSELF AS A PROBLEM onto other people, Mafia style. And the Republicans, and now the entire country (including the media), pays an incrementally higher price by the week. The Times helped create this guy during the last election, let's not forget.
It's Paul Manafort's problem, it's Michael Cohen's problem... it's Ted Cruz's problem... and the people who need to hear the plain truth are watching Fox News.
1
The problem is that many Americans have been told that everybody is a crook, so they believe it.
They believe it because it's hard to accept that they're not getting ahead because of their own faults or bad luck. They are "good," while people who are successful must be "cheaters"
They believe Trump is cheating for them against all the elites whom they think are "cheating" them out of a good living.
It is very sad. Hitler told the unfortunate German people they'd been cheated. They loved it. They wanted to be told that their poverty and misery weren't their fault. Look what that got them.
The saddest part is that, comparatively, Trump's angry supporters have it easy. The social safety net created by Roosevelt (but gutted by Reagan and the Right) is still lumbering along. But if they keep voting against their own interest, for these shamming Republican hucksters, one day we will have a revolution--and it's not going to end well.
1
On the one hand, Trump, the RINO’s and Faux News, falsely claim that the testimony on their Ukraine scheme is hearsay or secondhand while, on the other, they are blocking those with ostensibly firsthand information, for instance, Mulvaney and Bolton, from testifying. From at least ten examples of Trump’s obstructive behavior in the Mueller report to his ongoing, endless efforts to block, interfere with and cover-up any and all attempts to get to the bottom of his Putin-friendly, election-rigging grift, he continues to pile on and provide impeachable offense after impeachable offense—not to mention glaring and overwhelming consciousness of guilt. Even more troubling is the fact that Trump and his minions value lies over truth, hate over love and, most damning of all, Mother Russia and their such-as-it-is party over their own country.
2
An apparently absurd hypothetical: Trump is too ignorant and stupid to be a high school principal, not to mention venal..
.. Maybe not so absurd. After all, Jim Jordan, one of the Republican Attack Dogs at the House Impeachment Hearings, has been accused by at least two individuals of ignoring sexual abuse complaints of members of a high school wrestling team while he was coach.
True Republican Patriots. one and all.
1
Yes, certainly if Trump were anyone else, he'd be behind bars.
But if his voters were anyone else, they wouldn't support a mentally unstable man wholly incapable of doing his job at best, and a deranged tyrant at worst.
And if his voters were anyone else, they wouldn't love a man who says the KKK and neo-Nazis are very fine people.
And if his voters were anyone else, they wouldn't be thrilled at the thousands of Hispanic children Trump ordered shoved into internment camps.
And if his voters were anyone else, they'd be sickened by his jokes about sexual assault.
And if his voters were anyone else, they would be disgusted by his frank racism, bigotry and xenophobia.
And finally, if his voters were anyone else, they wouldn't have dragged this country through the nightmare of the past three years.
But Trump gets to be who he is, because of them. Every single one of them has enabled his behavior. They've had three years to peel off, but no, they're still in lockstep with him. They love every ignorant, racist screed he unleashes.
The fact is, forty percent of this nation loves everything that Trump has done. Forty percent of this nation has no problem with an ignorant felon in the White House. And forty percent of this nation will do literally anything to keep him there. And believe me, Trump voters sicken me far more than Trump does.
Because without them, yes, he'd be in prison right now.
6
Last week I took a Swedish colleague and friend, who is a preeminent scholar, to Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s community campaign office. He wanted to purchase two tee shirts because his name is Peter and he is fascinated by the Mayor’s campaign. He was told by the office director that he could not purchase the tee shirts because he wasn’t an American citizen. She explained that due to the profit the campaign would get from the sale of the tee shirts, federal campaign law considers that a contribution. Yet, the Republicans in Congress are hell-bent to protect a flagrant campaign law breaker. It’s unbelievable. We law abiding U.S. citizens have been living a nightmare of lawlessness, inhumanity, and injustices for nearly three years now yet a Ball State University poll recently released showed that a majority of the Hoosiers polled still support Trump and will vote for him again in 2020. Lord help us.
3
Were you around during watergate? The publicans fought hard for tricky until the tapes. We now have the equivalent of the tapes, but these right wing nuts won't admit defeat.
2
If this was Obama or *gasp* Hillary the republicans would be calling for a public lynching, impeachment wouldn't be enough. To this day the GOP insists that Hillary and the emails, benghazi, whitewater, Vince foster, etc should have gotten her put in jail, despite the fact that all these have been investigated and found to be baseless (and the GOP spent 10's of millions on these investigations, mind you), and the email server pales in the face of what Trump and his minions have done (they openly admit using private mail to do government business)...
Basically the GOP and its base have dug in around Trump as being the savior of the party and white america, pure and simple.
While comparisons to Nixon are apt, it is a very different environment. While many Republicans, voters and politicians, stood staunchly behind Nixon to the end, a lot of 'traditional republicans' were disgusted by what came out and the politicians involved would have voted for impeachment and removing him from office, it is why Nixon resigned. The GOP is banking its future on Trump and his method of governing, and very few of them are showing any signs of breaking ranks, they are just too scared of the GOP base (it is why criticism of Trump comes only after politicians walk away).
The sad truth is these hearings will only get those angry at Trump even angrier, Trump nation and the GOP are going to deny all this, they don't care. So much for the party of morality.
3
Follies
Respite required far from the crowd
Pushing out Trump, reviling out loud
All his misdeeds he maintains were a frame,
All were concocted, a deep Leftist game;
Know that our Lefties, our rabid Trump haters,
All Hill renegades, all second raters
Who’d juice up the regs, strangle profits and growth
Per Liz Warren’s plans – the worst of them both;
Loud their complaints to stir up the crowd,
But since the Senate will do Donald proud -
He’ll stay in office, sans guilt with a win
And be re-elected – good golly, he's in!
Treason , extortion and bribery are not high crimes and misdemeanors if you are Republican and are being funded by the Rubles flowing from Russia via NRA and McConnell.
2
On Oct. 17, I commented (awarded a "Times Pick"!) to NK's column on Schiff (verbatim):
First, let me say, as I mention in other comments, that I ardently want Trump removed... he is corrupt & unfit for the presidency, pure & simple.
But I must ask: "[Schiff] acknowledged some missteps, including misleading comments about his committee’s contact with the whistleblower." Do you not think there is at least a bit of euphemism, understatement, or whitewashing in this characterization or your reporting of it?
Would you be so mild reporting Republican "missteps" or "misleading," or would you lean toward terms like "infractions" & "lying." I say this not as a supporter of Trump, but as one deeply opposed to Trump. If you give a whiff of "double standards," then the opposition to Trump (my real motivation here) begins to lose credibility.
Please respond by averring (if you can) that you are no milder on Mr. Schiff in this matter than you would be on Republicans, & that you'd use the same terminology ("missteps" & "misleading" rather than "infractions" & "lies"), & that you actually believe "infractions" & "lies" would not be more appropriate characterization of some of Mr. Schiff's conduct. For the latter to hold, Mr. Schiff cannot have deliberately misstated, misinformed or misled. Are you really convinced of this?
Answering all of these questions would go a long way toward assuring all of your journalistic even-handedness & that you aren't resorting to double standards.
1
Sorry if that was a bit heavy handed, but I'm genuinely troubled that Mr. Kristof is writing a "double standards" accusation at Trump supporters, while Mr. Kristof himself participated in, or at least seemed to tacitly condone, whitewashing and euphemizing on Adam Schiff's envelope-pushing (even bursting -- earning several pinnochios from the Wahington Post for misstatements -or lies- concerning contact with the whistleblower) relationship to truth in his zeal to oust Trump.
Mr. Kristof lets Schiff get away with "Well, I could have been clearer" type excuses, without squarely challenging Schiff with a question whether Schiff deliberately lied, misled or deceived; as a Harvard trained lawyer, and "sloppiness" about language or communication must be presumed deliberate and strategic, rather than stemming from carelessness or faltering language skills, as Schiff clearly attempted to imply/claim, with Mr. Kristofs apparent blessing.
I don't mind Kristof's strong partisanship against Trump (truth is, I'm probably even more fiercely anti-Trump than Mr. Kristof is), but but the apparent hypocrisy of Mr. Kristof attacking the opposition's double standards deeply troubles me.
When Mr. Kristoff is gracious enough to answer other comments, why not the courtesy of telling me, and showing me, I'm wrong, by saying he's just as tough on Schiff if and when Schiff lies, misrepresents, or deceives? Mr. Kristof's silence probably says a lot.
2
Btw, I 100% agree with this article; the hypothetical extortion/bribery/quid pro quo scenarios exactly match Trump's dealings with Ukraine.
Let me say, "though," that as bad as Trump's behavior is, there is one small mitigating factor in Trump's favor. Very, very small, & ultimately it does not exculpate.
Trump is a swaggering he-man business mogul (or pseudo-mogul). That braggadocio shtick was a large part of what he was elected for. Many citizens believed a swagering he-man business mogul given to braggadocio would make a good president. That's what they decided, and now that he's doing what they elected him to, dealing with counterparts in a hardnosed, transactional style, maybe he'd have a point saying he's only fulfilling voter desires & expectations.
One of the strongest arguments against Trump, mounted by many lawyers, is this breaches a "fiduciary" duty to avoid even the appearance of selfish motivation.
That fiduciary theory is totally sound, but the response to it is that a president not only is allowed, but required, to be "realistic"-- all fiduciary people who are not independently rich saints have some "self-interest" involved, and the fiduciary game often involved pretending it's not there (like lawyers pretending to act without self-interest in a lucrative case, total fiction).
Trump is a cultural phenomenon: an experiment in substituting New York business swagger in place of (largely hypocritical) genteel "fiduciary" style. He was elected for that.
1
@anon
The Scorpion and the Frog
A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the
scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The
frog asks, "How do I know you won't sting me?" The scorpion
says, "Because if I do, I will die too."
The frog is satisfied, and they set out, but in midstream,
the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of
paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown,
but has just enough time to gasp "Why?"
Replies the scorpion: "Its my nature..."
1
What a massive waste of time they say, given the fact not Trump, not one member of the Trump administration or Republican member of Congress, or even one single Republican voter, EVEN WATCHED THE HEARING today.
"What me worry?? No, never! So move along, America, nothing to see here. Besides, we are too busy with endless criminal conspiracies, plus creating mountains of lies and perversions, to be distracted by silly 'ol sworn testimony before the US Congress. Besides, Truth is for chumps and suckers, having absolutely no place in politics ... so shut up and get over it!"
1
I'm so old, I remember when Kristof wrote a column saying we should give Trump a chance.
What would be the situation in if President Obama had gotten caught abusing his position to gain personally? He was already vilified by republicans for PWB (Presiding While Black), so keeping squeaky clean in deeds and words avoided anything they could attack him on other than policy.
Most concerning to me is the people who give Trump a pass, let alone defend him with vigor. Red state voters still poll with high satisfaction of how he is doing his job, so the relative morality is the saddest and scariest trend amongst my fellow Americans.
1
It is sadly apparent that a significant portion of the electorate never cared to learn to think for themselves, and have a warped sense of the value of truth, honor, justice, and integrity.
2
Mr. Kristof, thank you for your simple and logical article. You have made Trump's actions so comprehensible that they become totally indefensible! How anyone can excuse his constant abhorrent behavior is beyond me.
Extremely weak column Mr. Kristof. If Biden demanded the Ukrainian president to fire an Ukrainian investigator in order not to investigate his son racketiring efforts and threatened to withdraw the military aid over it, he would be the frontrunner of Democratic primary...
All this in the context of a twofer shaft of allies, Ukraine and the Kurds, the elevation of two dictators, Erdogan and Putin, and the disparagement of two civil servants of the highest repute. All at once.
Republicans do not mind Trump committing crimes as long as it suits their political interest. Bribery? No problem as long as it weakens Biden. Obstruction of justice by not letting Bolton and Mulvaney testify? No problem.... in fact a splendid idea if it helps keep Republicans in power!
2
Q. HOW AND WHY DID THE GOP GET HERE?
A. Because members of the GOP generally approve of what Trump has done (divided the nation along racial, gender, geographic, religious lines), given goodies to the rich, and soaked the poor), they were receptive to the following consequences:
1. They had to put up with his embarrassing behavior, so he could keep shoveling money into their orifices.
2. Then, they had to put up with his threats to use the deplorables to ruin them if they ever criticized him.
3. Then, having lived long in the zones of 1 and 2, the Stockholm syndrome kicked in.
4. They now do not see, hear, are speak evil of him, in fact, they truly think he is the smartest, kindest, most wonderful human being they've ever met.
1
Apparently, the American people just do not get it. Apparently, the law must be written so then there is absolutely no ambiguity. When the behavior of a sitting president includes telling people not to testify, possible promises of pardons, extortion, treason, etc., including 'killing someone on 5th Avenue', or the same is suggested, that POTUS needs to be indicted, impeached and jailed. Should that POTUS and his enablers be pardoned? I say yes, in 25 years after the last shoe has dropped upon the wrong doings of that POTUS. Yesterday's testimony merely emphasized the idiocy attached to the conclusion by the DOJ that a sitting president may not be indicted. Give me a break! And yes, editorials need to be strong and emphasize the law and why it exists.
3
Mr. Kristof:
Your premise is spot-on, I have thought the same types of things for months now concerning Mr. Trump and how the Republicans are making excuses for him, especially over the last few months. And that anyone else would have already suffered severe consequences up to and including arrest, loss of employment, etc., but Mr. Trump continues on.
It is quite disappointing, terrifying actually, to believe that the GOP is currently more interested in protecting a corrupt President than it is in maintaining and supporting law and the Constitution.
But the core question at this time is not how we see this but how the Republican base sees it. For only if some or many of them realize the danger in Trump's actions will some or many Republican Senators accept that the Trump status quo cannot remain the norm going forward. If Trump comes out of this Impeachment still standing as President, I don't think he can be reined in at all, he will do whatever he pleases and abuse every situation for personal benefit without worrying that someone will shut him down or call him on it. Much like Hitler in the 1930's where he incrementally took over countries leading up to the invasion of Poland.
I fear at this point that the Dems will make a good case for Impeachment and removal of the President but the GOP will stonewall everything. How to get through to the Fox News folks to begin to see that something is truly amiss? And that they need to help do something about it?
3
It seems totally useless to argue with republicans about the legality or not of Trump's actions. When people believe that the Messiah is occupying the White House, it becomes an obsession to keep him there, and he has no flaws whatsoever in their eyes. Did he sexually assault several women? Who cares? Did he extortion an ally? Everybody does it (so they say now); is he using his position for personal gain? Sure, so? Nothing matters because he is VERY white.
2
Unfortunately, most of us have a lingering respect for the office of the Presidency - despite who's occupied it for the last 3 years - which subconsciously affects our judgement even given Trump's egregious actions. The NYT often offers up headlines exemplifying this; headlines indicating some kind of inherent respect for a man who deserves none, outside his title - as if it were unimaginable that a President of the US could behave this way.
He does, though. Total, absolute loser and failure as a father, husband, man, businessman and president. And golfer. He's fired.
3
Even simpler, ask yourself if Obama did it would you have a problem with it.
1
Just ask Felicity Huffman about bribery and jail
So true, anyone else would be long gone and that's frightening !
Hopefully, the day after Trump leaves office, the New York attorney generals office will throw the book at him; tax fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, obstruction, witness tampering, making false statements, rape, sexual abuse, etc,etc,etc.
2
There is no reason to cry about the plight of "Ukraine". The present regime was installed in a blatant coup orchestrated by the US Government. The coup relied heavily on Ukrainian Nazis who now wield much power in the government. Neocons in the US State Department wanted a regime that would join NATO, Bush 1 promised Gorbachev that NATO would never expand closer than Germany, but this was ignored by Clinton and his successors.
In spite of what Kristof says there is now no evidence at all that Trump tried to get Ukraine to investigate Biden. Nothing but innuendo.
However there is ample evidence that Biden is a crook. When he was Veep he forced Ukraine to fire the prosecutor who was going after the company that hired his son. This is documented. Why don’t Kristof and his colleagues mention THIS?
1
@Paul Easton
The prosecutor who was fired, Shokin, was actually protecting Zlochevsky, the head of Burisma. Getting rid of Shokin made it more likely that Burisma would be looked into, not less.
As for innuendo: "I'd like you to do me a favor."
If only our Democrat Leaders could message it so simply & clearly ...
1
What is crystal clear is that all the republicans defending Trump are as un-American as you can get. Trump supporters do not care that he is a criminal. It's his white nationalist racist views that they are in love with.
1
The GOP en masse seems to be blind to the fact that Trump will eventually betray each and every one of them. This blindness prevents them from recognizing the simple fact that protecting Trump for the sake of power is a fools errand. What power will there be to have if Trump is giving enough time to corrupt the entire government?
God save of, the American people who see clearly the real "shams." They are Trump, Jordan, Nunes, and the rest of the ever more pathetic GOP.
1
Oh, no! Nick’s Dad is from Ukraine! Perhaps that inevitably leads to Nick having divided loyalties. We all know how the children of immigrants are taught to revere the Fatherland above all else. Perhaps Nick is an agent of Ukraine, stealthily inserting himself into a position of influence in a well-respected newspaper. Quick - call the Republicans. They’re good at this sort of stuff.
2
45 would sell pony rides on his mom for a quarter.
1
Look at the video and stills from Hong Kong. That is where the Republicans are taking us.
1
We are lazy here; lazy as citizens. That's why he's President. That's why Gore got more votes but lost. We're not very good at democracy.
He's the worst: braggart, bully, greedy, traitor, sexual assaulter, liar, shyster, you name it. He's our worst impulses.
So, why is he President? Well, must be something wrong with us. With US.
Too easily seduced by money, we are. Not really committed to the community. Not really caring of our brother or sister or the stranger. No, we're capitalists that want to be as rich as Trump.
I read something about the meeting with Turkey's leader, today. But, nothing mentioned about the two Trump towers in Istanbul. Huh? This guy's a businessman full of greed. Why do you really think he invited Turkey's leader here?
We've been had.
1
Obviously we have royalists in our midst that are loyal only to the monarch. The GOP ramblings at the inquiry today were completely incoherent with strange code words I assume mean something to the GOP groupies but were just nonsensical, red herrings to me. Were they secret, fake-conspiracy, code words from which Nunes was making a word salad? Clearly he wasn’t intending to speak to me. Nunes thinks no one read the Mueller report. I did.
There are some GOP members who have Trump to thank for making them household names because without their fealty to him, they would be subject to their merit and therefore largely anonymous. I’m thinking of the Paulie Walnuts style of questioner I saw today. Some GOP members sounded like idiots who can’t reason or follow facts. Does screaming something loudly and rapidly make it more believable, Jim Jordan? I doubt those GOP are idiots but instead guilty of covering an impeachable offense. Why else would they not just plainly ask questions of fact, like the Democrats did? Why violate federal law asking for whistleblower, second-hand testimony already corroborated several times by others? (other than to keep others from reporting GOP corruption)
I would like to except Will Hurd from the GOP idiot list. He asked real substantive questions of fact and I respected him; I disagree with him, but he seemed to take his role seriously.
Btw, Mr. Welch, I agree, where is the President with his evidence, witnesses and testimony to clear himself?
1
Thank you!!!
2
Here is the closing argument to republican senators. Donald Trump is a liar corrupt and a cheat who is using the powers of his office to his own personal and political benefit. His argument to his supporters is yes that is all true but all politicians are like that. Your vote to acquit him validates his argument and sullies yourself. Is keeping your office that important to you. Don’t argue that the people should decide in. 2020. Removing him and disqualifying him from holding federal office ensures that this unfit person can never serve as president again
1
Indeed, why allow this vulgar bully, and superb brutus ignoramus, to get away with 'murder'...when anybody else, however powerful, would be biting the dust already?
1
Nixon: “ I am not a crook “.
Trump: “ I’m a PERFECT Crook “. What you gonna do about it ? “.
2020. VOTE THEM ALL OUT. Cut out the Cancer on our Country.
1
You are out of your league Nick. You speak in facts and the Republicans speak in propaganda. See the difference? With propaganda, you simply repeat lies. This is what Republicans are doing and always do - I always knew they were liars and fascists, it seems most Americans have yet to realize and that part is sad.
1
Jim Jordan, Nunes, Trump: deliver another dangerous, silly Republican frat-brat act.
1
Spot on.
1
Re: '...If Trump Were Anyone Else…
The president would be fired and perhaps subject to a criminal investigation..."
...'If Trump Were Anyone Else'?
Sadly, Mr. Trump IS a citizen, and, thus, IS subject to the law, just like any/every other U.S. citizen!, as are those boot-licking minions who carry out his (failed) gangster-like demands, quid-pro-quo's, etc...
So...
If I receive a subpoena and blow it off, I'd be arrested...
Why haven't all these Trump_Hench_Persons been arrested / confined, until they do as a they / ALL U.S. citizens are REQUIRED to do?
1
What if Obama had withheld aid from Israel and in return asked that they silence Sheldon Adelson. Would that be impeachable republicans??
1
...especially if he was Obama.
1
If Joe Biden or Barack Obama were anybody else perhaps there would be a real criminal investigation of Biden’s son’s financial entanglements and, perhaps, an indictment..........
If Obama had done this, they would be screaming for his head--- forget bothering with impeachment. And they know it. If Obama had been accused by one woman, let alone 22, of sexual assault and rape, same thing--- off with his head. If Obama had insulted John McCain--- oh my God! If Obama had done even one of the 10,000 disgusting and depraved things that this guy has done, there would have been an uprising. The hypocrisy is truly unbelievable.
3
Putin has dirt
and wants his serf to remain
second term will end demonocracy
we will be lost
sad
unless the billionaire's kill the stock markets
reasoning is not working...
2
Great job Republicans, the next series of Man in the High Castle will feature Russia and China splitting up our country. With trump tower hotels replacing our vacated state capitol buildings. America, take a moment to think who trump always talks glowing of.
1) Putin
2) Xi
3) Kim
4) Duterte
5) Erdogan ( Who is at the White House presently)
6) el-Sisi
Brutal authoritarians all. The Ugly American needs to go. Vote
1
What a simple way of putting it in ways that even the dumbest Republican (Jim Jordan, I am referring to you) can understand.
Too bad they don't read the New York Times if only for the columns of Nicholas Kristoff.
1
So Trump's investigation in 2016 wasn't meddling into elections but Biden's investigation in 2019 is?!
O temora, o mores!
I practice law in Louisiana, and I recently took the deposition of a man who was, in his words, "allowed to retire" from a major petrochemical company for "going hunting with a vendor." He explained that he violated company policy by getting into a situation of perceived favoritism toward the vendor. Again in his words, the action "violated everything."
I'd love to chat with him about the impeachment inquiry: to compare his situation to the president's, to get his thoughts on why his actions were a firing offense, but the president's may not be.
But I would never in million years reach out to him to have that conversation because I feel compelled to maintain a professional distance from him, as an adverse party.
I'm with you Nick, but when Clinton was impeached I was in the HR business and most of us felt the same way about him...improper use of cigars in the CEO's office was a firing offense. That didn't work then, either. These are political proceedings and as such they depend on the reaction of the masses. On Clinton the mantra was, "everybody lies about sex." As for Trump Mr. Mulvaney said, "this is how we do foreign policy all the time. Get over it."
Sad state of affairs.
24
@Tom
And yet the Dems protected him. This is why the title of this article rings hollow.
@James To be precise, Clinton was impeached for lying under oath not for the sex act. I believe that oath was taken during a lawsuit or hearing that was about the Paula Jones affair though the lying was about Lewinsky. In any case it is a far far cry to be impeached for lying about one thing that was, essentially, a private affair and extorting a foreign government in exchange for personal help to win an election. The ramifications are enormous and profound in this case. This false equivalence is totally bogus.
10
@James To be precise, Clinton was impeached for lying under oath not for the sex act. I believe that oath was taken during a lawsuit or hearing that was about the Paula Jones affair though the lying was about Lewinsky. In any case it is a far far cry to be impeached for lying about one thing that was, essentially, a private affair and extorting a foreign government in exchange for personal help to win an election. And, dems far and wide condemned his actions but didn't think it was worthy of impeachment conviction, thought technically it was an impeachable offense. Imagine the situation if Trump was ever put under oath and the number of lies! In this current case, however, it goes way beyond that and the ramifications are enormous and profound in this case. This false equivalence is totally bogus.
1
Simple question...
If Trump was so concerned about Ukrainian corruption, why authorize aid in 2017 and 2018 then request specifically investigations into Crowdstrike and Burisma specifally AFTER Biden announced his candidacy?
What's really sad is that the Ukraine scandal isn't even the worst evidence of crime and corruption by this alleged president. Remember how long we heard, wait for Mueller, he's not worth impeaching, etc., as the evidence of Russian interference, money laundering, tax evasion, just to name a few, piled up? This is one tiny speck on the pile of corruption.
What's also really sad is that the formerly respectable Republicans have not only chosen this incompetent, amoral boob as their standard-bearer, but that they're willing to sacrifice their country, their honor, their careers, and their ability to look themselves in the eye for this person.
1
Trump claims he is a “stable genius.” But nothing about his current predicament suggests either.
First, if you are going to extort someone or bribe someone (or both), get a lacky to do it, don’t do it yourself: Dumb.
Second, at the very least, even if he was addressing legitimate general corruption concerns (by repeating the word Biden many times) doing what he did, how he did it, looks 100-times worse than anything they are suggesting what Hunter Biden did “looked.” So, dumb.
Third, we are currently in the Primaries-portion of the election run up. Joe Biden is just one of Trump’s potential opponents. Hunter Biden, the person whom Trump wanted the Ukrainians to announce an investigation into isn’t even running. Pretty Dumb. Again.
Trump’s “ask” is an announcement of an investigation. Not the investigation itself, not a conclusion of an investigation that finds Hunter Biden guilty….of….something. Dumber.
Trump himself gets himself recorded on tape extorting/bribing a foreign gov for simply an announcement of an investigation into an American citizen that he will never be running against in 2020.
That is so much dumb, I don’t think we have a word for that. Black hole of dumb? "Trump Dumb." - Hey, that could be a thing !
.
1
Trump refuses to be held to any standard. He views the laws of our Constitution as something he is entitled to abuse, ignore or reshape as he sees fit. Unlike the Social Security superintendent, the principal or the hospital administrator before trump was even elected we knew 1) He was a prolific liar, 2) he was a sexual predator and misogynist, 3) he cheated the public (trump university) and subcontractors and ex wives, 4) he respected no one but himself, 5) he was a draft dodger, 6) he had no political experience, 7) he consorted with the Russians.
Just as Nixon said " "People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook", is there any doubt? Lock him up, it is not safe to have him running around loose in our society.
1
The same reason Weinstein got away with his sexual assault for decades: those around want a little piece of his power (and money).
It's the classic "no brainer". Trump's base, perhaps 60 million voters, doesn't care about corruption a long as immigrants and the poor are persecuted.
The white grievance voter is running the country. I you let that frustrate you then you're going to e disappointed. Fighting to change the math is the only remedy for your ennui.
Trump is turning our Democracy into a Kleptocracy...Thanks Republican Party! You're letting the country die a slow and painful death...I hope all the money you're making on this deal is worth it.
1
Unfortunately, he is not "anyone else". He is republicans' Dear Leader, and his Glorious Majesty can do no wrong in their eyes.
And why is Giuliani getting away without handcuffs?
1
You are correct of course, BUT... the problem I have is that I see much of The NYT’s Opinion commentary as “preaching to the choir”. The vast majority of TNYT’s readership agrees with you, but most Republican Senate and House members either do not, or do not care. Can Opinion columnists find a way to reach them and their constituents, or is The Times simply trying to “shore up IT’S base??
1
It's unimaginable that any ethical business would hire and retain someone as corrupt, incompetent and mendacious as Trump. He would ruin the reputation of any company within minutes.
1
Trump to president of Ukraine: "Nice little country you got there. It'd be a shame if something were to happen to it."
We have a mobster occupying the White House. Impeach, Convict, Remove, Imprison -- before it is too late to save the principle that we have a government of laws and not of men.
1
Without the rule of law outlaws rule!
1
Just another 'me, too'.
Good job Ukraine President was a man...
As a thought experiment, ask yourself what the Republicans would be saying if Hillary Clinton were president right now. Imagine if she had tried extorting the Ukraine to dig up dirt on her 2020 rival.
Republicans would be baying for blood. Lindsey Graham would feign gravitas on national TV, suggesting that treason and capital punishment be considered. We all know this.
1
As a co-founder of a successful company, I ask myself, would I hire Donal Trump for any position. The answer is no; he is a liar, he is dishonest, and is a bully. Really, would anyone hire him? Indeed, ask his supporters of they would hire Trump to run or work in their company. That will get them thinking...
1
Comparing Trump to other folks in responsible positions makes little sense. He knew (bragged) a long time ago he could murder someone and get away with it, that he could scoff at even the most serious lawbreaking. This op-ed won't convince anyone especially those who literally believe Trump can do no wrong, can not be prosecuted. And trying to find historical precedents won't work either. Trump is the first president to commit actual treason.
Well Nick, you know that if Trump is impeached by the House, & the Senate trial "exonerates" him, Trump will wear that like a badge of honor. However, when the history of his administration is clearly written, 5 or 10 years from now the limited impeachement focus will look shortsighted compared to the levels of corruption & incompetence that are actually occuring with his band of fools steering the nation.
1
Trump is a single dishonest person who somehow managed to ascend to the White House. He's a liar and a cheat. That was true long before he bumbled into the presidency.
The Republicans in the House and Senate however number in the hundreds and are the enablers of this dangerous man. That they would pay fealty to this demagogue says a lot about the mentality of Republicans (elected and otherwise). A few well-meaning Republicans could change everything. Don't hold your breath.
Therein lies the problem.
"...how children of American government officials monetize their parents...."
AND how husbands and wives monetize their spouses (hello Clarence Thomas and Mitch McConnell and ...?)
1
To take your analogy further, would any of those employees be fired for lying continuously?
I believe his inability to be trusted is alone impeachable.
He is getting away with it and will. Get over it.
We have surely all lost count of the lies, insults, sexual assaults, payoffs to prostitutes, insults to honourable people, ego driven dismissals and criminal associates any one of which would have caused an honourable person to resign or be fired... But this is the President of the US who has no honour and certainly no shame...
Trump's lies and threats to cover up his fraudulent activities has always been his way of life. What is shocking and most worrisome is that the Republican Party has adopted Trump's deceptive, amoral methods. The Republican in Congress reject truth, honesty, decency and respect for the American people to protect the corrupt incompetent, and dangerous Trump. They have no shame whatsoever as they use the same propaganda techniques used by the fascists in the 1930's to pursue their agenda of hatred and deceit. History will judge these Republican sycophants very harshly.
1
It's hard to believe that Trump could be fired for anything. His criminal behavior dates back decades. He has broken so many social norms, it is impossible to keep up. Making fun of a handicapped reporter, grabbing women, racist remarks, the nicknames he gives anyone he doesn't agree with, etc. His resilience shows just how sick our society is.
2
Impeach. Convict. Remove. It really is that simple.
Blatant lies, criminal business practices, immorality, bribery, extortion and even proof beyond any shadow of a doubt that he's a traitor are all just bonding opportunities for the Trump clan, both family & voters.
But they will desert him en-masse when they learn he's poor.
Trump brings out the worst in people, especially Republicans. He is toxic
1
@Aury Naranjo
The massive rise in racist and anti-Semitic attacks in the US is proof.
1
Mr Kristof... surprisingly weak column. The false equivalence of the Social Security widow should be immediately apparent; i.e. the widow is an American citizen and protected by law; while the Ukrainian politicians are obviously not citizens, but are rather " hardball " players in the game of geopolitics.
18
@BD But the victim here is ostensibly Joe Biden, and to a lesser degree Hunter, who is a US citizen. And the beneficiary is Trump, who unfortunately is also a US citizen. (This to me is purely a COI case - if there were issues with Hunter Biden they should've Chinese walled it, not gotten Trump involved.)
27
@BD Okay, I can see (though don't agree with) your point on the Social Security example. How do you rate the other analogies that Mr. Kristof uses?
I confess that I feel your objection feels more about the potential legal angle of the article than moral angle, but perhaps I'm missing your point. The morality and legality of these actions are both called into question in this piece as I read it.
15
@BD Thanks for commenting on my column, and I'm sorry you thought it was weak. I would just note that the nationality of the recipient does not affect the illegality of the behavior. If the widow were a Ukrainian living in Ukraine whose American husband had just died, the Social Security manager's conduct would still be illegal. And it's likewise illegal for an American official, including a president, to solicit something of value from a foreigner for a campaign. I tried to use the examples in my column to lay out the misconduct in simple and straightforward terms, because I think the Ukrainian connection confuses people and makes it more murky than it needs to be. The basic issue here is a government official abusing his office for private benefit.
981
Too many people have been trained to believe that the president is our king, even our god, and not our employee as he really is. Remember that - he is our employee. Employees can be fired, and our Constitution sets out a way to do that. That's what's happening here.
75
Isn't it odd that two Governors of Illinois are in jail for trying to use their power for political advantage. Does Blagojevich ring a bell. No wonder trump wanted to give him a pardon. Laws, regulations and paying taxes is for the stupid people.
Having worked in business for many years, I assure you that Trump would have been fired long ago. The only way that Trump has survived so long, purportedly as a businessman, is that the Trump Organization is a family business and is not subject to the full range of disclosure obligations like a publicly traded firm. The TO doesn't have an independent board either.
Thus, Trump is accustomed to running like a bull.
American employees are regularly trained on business ethics and law. They are accountable for business practices with respect to law such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Violate the FCPA and you're fired.
Fire Trump.
58
Trump is very clearly a Russian asset. Actually I think every elected republican is as well. Put in probably has dirty laundry on all of them.
Jeff Sessions captures the most "Repulsive News" of the day.
After a year of humiliating very public attacks on Sessions by President Donald Trump, this pathetic Keebler elf is back to groveling for Trump's love again.
The former U.S. attorney general told Fox News he is “going to work for” Trump’s endorsement of his Senate bid, adding: “I would love to have his support.”
S.I.C.K.
Stop trying to confuse the GOP's arugments with logic.
"There was no Fox News then, and Republicans and Democrats alike were loyal primarily to the country and its institutions rather than to an individual. That may no longer be true."
I'm afraid you are more than correct here. The Republican Party, as it is now constituted, is no longer a party loyal to the Constitution or the rule of law. It is a party that owes it's allegiance to one man, Donald Trump. This is obscene, but they have effectively destroy all the possible exits out of their burning house, and they are now willing to allow themselves to be burned by this malevolent narcissus. The Dems are the only grownups left in DC at this point, and they are, as Will Rogers famously put it, hardly an "organized political party." We can only hope that with Schiff in control of the proceedings they will stay focussed and stay the course to the end. God help the country when this goes to trial in the Senate.
There are people other than Trump who’ve gotten away with criminal activity for decades: Harvey Weinstein, for one. Or the OxyContin pushers Sacklers who are responsible for 800,000 deaths and are still galavanting in “society” as philanthropists. What has changed is the value system that rewards shamelessness wrapped in suffering and layered as virtue.
Really speaks to how bloated the executive branch has become.
Trump gets away with murder for two reasons.
We are weak in the face of charisma, even the negative kind, and he has Putin in his corner, both as advisor and chief officer of dirty tricks.
As long as we remain vulnerable to kompromat and disinformation, we will not be able to resist this infektion/ affliction. Open your mind or lose your democracy.
2
Trump's inept corrupt policies are already killing people who don't need to be dead in Gaza, Yemen, Syria, and even in this country with his anti-immigration, anti-affordable healthcare, anti-environment policies. And the person they're grooming to run for president after Trump's second term claims that Trump never lies! If our country can't do better than this then it's not worth risking your life for.
Trump's extortion of Ukraine is the very model of a mafia shakedown! He honed his negotiating skills in the Manhattan real estate market.
Trump is a New York con man, through and through. Too bad he has conned so many simple, street-naive Middle Americans!
I can't get past the subhead -perhaps??? Most definitely would be subject to criminal investigation.
But that's part of the reason Republicans (as opposed to Americans) love the loser in the first place: the phrase I keep seeing is roughly "he can say things everyone else won't". Problem is (a) those things are things NO ONE should ever say, and (b) Republicans do say, and firmly believe, those bigoted and vile things in private, and (encouraged by the loser's neurotic-insecure twitblab) increasingly in public too.
That's all to say nothing of his actual lawbreaking on top.
You'd rather be a Russian than a Democrat? Then I'd rather be an American than a Republican.
An excellent set of examples demonstrating how far many Americans have fallen in accepting the actions of this corrupt 'leader.'
I continue to fear that Trump has taken on the kind of immunity among his believers that he has because of a number of factors:
The folk hero that a Times writer noted several months ago -- a near-mythic, can-do-no-wrong, above-it-all leader. People need a hero, and Trump has become a Jesse James kind of winner-take-all Wild West dude who gun-slings through the worst of it.
The anti-politician who is the slimiest politician ever. Promising to drain the swamp, he is the swamp-master who has bought and sold every piece of swamp property there is -- and his people love how he has remained on top of it all, blue-suited and proud and unapologetic for anything.
The would-be dictator, quasi-fascist autocrat and understudy of Putin and others -- his desire to live outside the law in his quest to be all-powerful, untouchable, and in charge of the world. For money and power the man will do anything -- and somehow, his followers want to be part of that ambition, charisma, and mindless quest to be on top.
If he were anyone else -- he wouldn't be Trump. And we wouldn't have the nightmare we now have. He has reveled in firing at will for years. Now, let's hope the impeachment process is a first step in the other direction -- and 2020 will seal the deal.
In summary, this article states that the GOP is laden, significantly heavier than Democratic Party, with criminals, who beyond Trump going to jail, many of these other leading, lying, Republican politicians are complicit in working against the democratic principles they are elected to uphold.
It's black and white how corrupt this group has become, Moscow Mitch and wife, and Trump family like Kirchner playing geopolitical Great Games in Eurasia and the Middle East, and beyond, for family business gains, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel...
...way over the top in blatant banana-republic politics surrounding McConnel and Trump.
1
Maybe Trump does have some strange hypnotic power that enables him to take men and women of reputation and turn them into fawning, self-immolating robots. Why else would anyone stick their necks out for such a repellent creature, if their wasn't some sort of black magic involved? Billionaire Gordon Sondland donated a million dollars to the Trump inaugural, so that he could become a laughingstock, and forever remembered as a bumbling perjurer. This is why, despite being in Trump's crosshairs, I don't see Mick Mulvaney going anywhere soon; he is the bottom of the barrel at this point, and no degree of scraping will turn up a replacement. He seems to have developed a taste for the doghouse anyway.
1
Trump didn't care if an actual investigation was launched; he only needed the President of Ukraine to say that one was launched. Trump could have milked that lie just like he milked the birther lie, the health care lie, the Hillary email lie, the Mexico pays for the wall lie, etc....etc....etc.....
"We've got people over in Ukraine! You won't believe what they're finding!"
1
Is that additional revelation reported correctly here? My recollection of Taylor’s new testimony is that he learned only last Friday from a “staffer” who overheard Trump himself, on a loud cell phone call July 26th, ask Sondland about the “investigations.” Did I miss something here?
I am asking everyone here to consider how they would handle it if THEIR husband/wife/son/daughter/ mother/ father was the one shot by Trump on Fifth Avenue.
Not so conveniently rationalized now, is it? This self-centered, egotistical, greedy, mendacious oxygen-thief in our White House does not belong there, never did. The cowardly politicians who are standing behind him need to get a clue - he would duck for cover in a heartbeat and not protect any of them it came down to him or them. Duh.
Yes, why should he be allowed to get away with this? Or all the other activity this administration has engaged in that would have brought other presidencies down. I watched the opening part of the hearings and was struck by the contrast in opening statements, demeanor and tone. Schiff clearly understands the magnitude of these hearings, was serious and respectful. Nunes on the other hand was angry, grasping for straws, anything to delay and distract. It’s as though he slapped together his oral report last night, with GOP greatest hits, and hoped no one would notice. His statement was amateurish, peppered with insults, the part about nude pics, REALLY? At one point he dismissed Kent in a very rude disrespectful manner, sorry but witnesses are not there to tell you what you want to hear. These men have truly served their country and are honoring their oath to the Constitution, they should be treated in a dignified manner.
Thank you for that personal perspective of your father having grown up in Chernivtsi, now western Ukraine. I learn from each of these columns. I pray my (?former) Christian friends will contemplate the facts.
My family saw a counselor to prepare for an intervention aimed at getting our father into rehab. During that time a new reality was revealed to me that included the discovery of the roles one assumes, without even knowing you're playing a role, in the family unit. To put it bluntly, my father had become a pain in the butt but all seven kids and our mother were petrified of my fathers withering anger. The therapist asked me if I would make friends or stay friends with someone who treated me like my father did. My answer was a quick no and her reply was "Why on earth would you let your father off the hook just because he plays the role of father. If anything, you should hold him to a higher standard. He's supposed to love you." Ever since then I've been acutely aware when bad behavior is ignored, allowed or forgiven due to the role we assign to people. This can't be one of those times when we shirk our duties because it's easier to humor and enable the powerful than it is to confront them.
90
If Trump was anyone else, he would never be hired for anything. His life has been paid for by daddy, otherwise he would be in jail.
The reasons the GOP puts up with Trump are 2: Money and Power. End of story. They don't want to lose their seats or any of the "hand" they have so even though they know he's an incompetent fool, they stand behind the curtains offstage and cheer him on.
Trump has made greed "good," in his naked abuse of his position and wannabe mafia don behaviors. Everything with this man is transactional, mega-Quid Pro Quo.
The GOP needs to be outed for their slimy, un-patriotic, un-American support of the Grifter-in-Chief.
Bad news...any company..large or small...faced with an applicant at a job interview that was as brash and obnoxious as Trump was during the Primaries...would never have hired him in the first place !! Especially when his letter of recommendation was signed by none other than Vlad Putin !! What were the GOP thinking.. endorsing what has turned out to be the Worst President in American History? His Chaotic and Dysfunctional Administration has an 80% turnover rate and after 3 years he's had no successful policies to speak of. The Promised MAGA has turned out to be a HOAX !! What were those in 2016 who Voted for this mess thinking? What's there to support? Failed Policies?
Trump is not even a pleasant, good or admirable person you could honestly wish well. He is a revolting, vile, repellant and repulsive narcissist. Yet he still gets a pass no one else would ever get. Teflon. So far.
Everyone is afraid of him and what he will do next. He gets his way from the fear and his fellow narcissistic fox and friendlies' tv yelly support.
This man intimidates his opponents, millions of them, with the threat of an uprising of "mountain men" and "bikers" and their ilk. Trump seethes violence. His anger boils under his skin. Trump gets away with it because he is at heart a terrorist warlord wannabe and will never let you forget this through his Mussolini stance and demonic face. This man is not on our side in any way. His message is that he is a strong man and he will get you in the end if you defy him, no different from all the other strong men in the world. A bully threatens. America has been threatened with violence by its own president. Hence we take care concerning him, the same way we would if we were in the same room as a grizzly bear.
The Republican's scorched-earth tactics got started with Newt Gingrich. Next, Republicans became nihilistic with Tea Party. Finally, the Party devolved into a cult.
Really like your examples here and will be sending this on to my family. I find it very disturbing that thinking people can justify this act. Can anyone really believe Trump was interested in corruption? Can anyone believe Trump could testify to anything and not tell a lie and thus commit perjury?
"Perhaps" he would be subject to criminal investigation? Perhaps! Even white men as rich as he claims to be can get away with just so much. Ask Jeffrey Epstein.
1
"Perhaps"?!? Not perhaps, without a doubt.
Its an interesting analogy - holding up the widow's social security payment to get the late husbands coin collection.
It's like mocking a muslim gold star family, or imitating someone with palsy, or denying a persons birthplace, or grabbing women's private parts....because you can, or discriminating against people of color, or just plain old habitual lying,
So far as the old white Evangelicals are concerned, these are all highly desirable character traits in a President so long as they get the judges they want.
These are all great analogies, but if Trump is the person accused, he will get a hall pass by the old white racists evangelicals who put him there. They are people of faith, not reason.
...And Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld would have been charged with war crimes, and executed; and Mnuchin, Blankfein and most other Wall Street looters and bankers would be in jail. And Bezos, Buffett and the Waltons would pay a living wage to their employees, obey OSHA laws, and even pay taxes! In a perfect world...
Republicans gave a long rope to Donald Trump. He is at the end of it. Dems won’t cut the rope. Trump himself will. He has never been successful at any thing and this is no different.
Mr. Kristoff, you write "the Social Security official (the widow’s son!) had engaged in skulduggery".
Did you mean to write "the Social Security official (the widow’s son!) had engaged in skulduggery"? Or some such change to make the appearance of the "son" less surprising?
Well said, Mr. Kristof.
When will it not be just about Trump but the entire Republican Party that supports him over rule of law or their oaths the Constitution?
A Republican Party that will attack anyone who goes against Trump's corruption even if they have been awarded the Purple Heart for Service to our Country.
A Republican Party that does not believe "though shall not lie" but instead makes it the basis for the Party Platform at all costs.
A Republican Party that is the racists posting on racist websites from the white house.
When do we ask Republicans why they won't go after crime when it is among their own? Why they line up like a white southern Jury to get off one of their own guilty or not?
When do we hold them, and their supporters, accountable. Instead of asking why the Democrats go for impeachment when Republicans won't convict? Why is this a problem for Democrats when the shirking of basic morality is the basis for what it means to be a member of the Republican Party?
When do we finally say, no these are not people for Joe Biden to work with, or Schumer to praise, but people to vote out of office because they don't deserve the support of the American people.
But then it doesn't suit the NYT bothsiderism does it? It doesn't suit rich white America (Bloomberg and Bill Gates) who want security of their billions over basic laws of decency in the US.
Mr Kristof:
I could use the same line, if Hillary were anonyone else she'd be in jail bc of her private server and the classified information on it. As for defenders throwing up dust, I remember Dems arguing that Clinton's perjury was ilrelevant bc it had to do with an affair.
1
A simpler example. Suppose a president named Barack Obama had committed the acts against Ukraine now attributed to Donald Trump. What conniptions would the Republicans be having over his behavior? How loudly would they be demanding his impeachment?
If you are a thinking person who loves America, today was a very sad day. To think that the president would be involved in this massive coverup and behaving like a street thug, makes your heart break,
Listening to the two hero's who have gave decades of their lives to America, this attack on them by the pathetic GOP is beyond belief.
A draft dodger who would deliberately do what he and Rudi have done are not Americans no matter how much the GOP want to spin the story. Corruption and breaking the law is what this administration is engaged in and for all of history everyone will know what this administration has done.
Thank you Mr. Kristof. thank you.
Nick, thank you for valently trying to shine the light of truth on our president's malfeasance in office but I'm afraid we're all wasting our time there. Heres another analogy for you.
What if my mom was working as a cashier's in a store. Our family is disfunctional, our Dad drinks and can't hold a job. If not for my mom's guts and determination all of us wind up out on the street. Only one problem. She steals from the till. Do you think I'm going to turn her in? I love her and would never turn against her. I'd try to reason with her and get her to stop. Maybe I'd try to surround her with trusted honest friends and hope their presence could somehow dissuade her.
This is more like the situation we're in today. Only the stakes are far higher. Democracy and the Constitution are at stake. The Republicans are all in for their love and they're not going to budge, with Fox doing their thinking for them, to boot.
What we should all imagine is a situation where one of your family members joined a cult and became hypnotized by the cult leader, they lost their ability to think rationally, they totally submitted themselves, mind body and soul to the control of a maniacal narcissistic con man. How would you break the spell of unbridled devotion? Everyone tries to compare Trump normalcy, what if John Doe did what Trump does? That’s not the problem, the problem is the people who are members of the cult that worships him. How do you break the spell and get them to snap out of their religious coma? Nothing will penetrate the bubble, nothing. The only hope is, there are more non cultists than the members of the cult and they are out voted at the ballot box. Take away the assume power and resources of the Presidency from the cult leader and maybe they will see him as the person he is and not see him as a deity.
Agreed. If Obama did a tenth of what Trump has done Republicans would be foaming at the mouth and screaming for his head. But when it's their own party leader; grifters gotta grift.
1
But, but, Trump isn’t anyone else . . . Not a social security drone, not a school principal, not a hospital CEO and, thankGod, not a journalist . . . He’s Trump. And he gets away with it. His crimes are worse than Nixon’s petty break-in and coverup (seriously, did he was on track to win easily anyway). And clinton, he was just a typically entitled male adulterer, just like JFK and Trump). And far too many are still distracted by lies, conspiracy nonsense, ideology and outright stupidity. Intelligent observers all know that. But what can they do about it? Really?
False analogy! Secretary of State Pompeo was witness and present as adviser to the President on the Ukranian phone call. Who's your coin collection case witness? So before you accuse Trump of corruption or seeking personal gain on the call, watch the "Godfather" film where Don Corleone prophetically advises his son and heir to beware of the henchmen who would seem too willingly to serve him against other rivals.
When Trump asked Pres. Zelinsky to investigate the Bidens in Ukrainian business, he could well have been testing the Ukraine President to learn whether Zelinsky was himself corruptible. The best way to test that hypothesis is to find other instances of Trump engaged in similar suspicious transactional requests that might or did benefit his election. if there are none, there is no case against Pres. Trump. And so far there are none.
1
Well, I'm not here to defend abuse of power, infractions of law, or trespassing on constitutional niceties, but the impeachment hearings and the upcoming election aren't really about any of that--they're really not even about Mr. Trump! They're about how the Democrats, who have plainly gotten too far to the left for most Americans can get into the White House without compromising their ideology--they now have poll results that are starting to convince them they can't, so get the voters to forget all that and try to make the contest about their opponent and how unsatisfactory he is, not about how politically out-of-step with the nation they are. In fact, what they need to do is tell their far left faction they have to compromise and tone down their demands and expectations--of course, they can't bring themselves to do that, so we get this three-ring impeachment circus instead. We'll see how this all pans out next November.
7
@ Mr. Duke -
So if a Social Security bureaucrat extorted a widow to get her husband’s coin collection, you’d let the bureaucrat off scot-free and accuse the widow’s advocates of wanting his job?
I wonder if you’ve fully internalized the main point of the article.
14
If extortion by the President of the United States is not subject to impeachment, the rule of law that has governed this country for over 200 years will not stand. Any problems the Democratic candidates have, in your opinion, is secondary and much less important than supporting the rule of law. Please do not offer this as equivalent. That is false.
17
@Ronald B. Duke
Your take bears precious little resemblance to reality. While Dems have moved to the left (which I totally support, but is beside the point), it's pretty clear that Trump has been committing impeachable offenses since he took office and Pelosi has been declining to impeach since Dems took the majority and it became her decision.
Holding promised aid hostage in order to extort a foreign power to provide political favors is exactly the kind of behavior impeachment exists to deter. If you think providing people with healthcare or addressing the climate crisis is somehow immoral or believe so hard that a fetus is more important than anything else, you can go ahead and vote for Republicans until your dying day. But you can do that and also support impeachment. If Trump's impeached and removed by the Senate (unlikely as that is), I'm sure there will be a Republican on the ballot who doesn't have a record of holding aid hostage to extract political favors from a foreign government, and you can vote for that candidate.
14
It is a travesty to live in a supposedly democratic country where the President, elected by its citizens could obviously be a criminal in his conduct and yet not be punished while he is in office.
A young black man caught smoking a joint in the wrong part of town could be sent to jail for a while.
After watching today’s testimonies, if anyone with a modicum of personal let alone civil ethics won’t vote to impeach this criminal and go on to prosecute, sentence and incarcerate him, he or she deserve to be labeled a traitor to the nation and humanity in general.
The tone of this article needs to be stronger. Outrage calls for a fiercer response by the press.
44
@Blunt
I felt the same way about Clinton.
Donald's immediate problem is that he has no respect for government -- not the one he heads, nor the one charged with oversight, and more often than not, the one that decides.
He insults the Speaker of the House that is impeaching him. He doesn't seem to understand they hold his future in their hands. He won't cooperate. He won't accept their judgment.
I suspect if Donald loses the election, he'll resign and Pence will pardon him and hid family.
If he wins the election, everyone else will resign and let him run amok.
CNN interview with white 50something rural supporter, female, smiling... 'its just Trump being Trump'. I think a large portion of his base views Trump the President as a sequel to The Apprentice. Reality show, not expecting anything but entertainment, can't wait for the episode where he presses 'launch'.
1
If Trump Were Anyone Else...
...except he's not since he also controls state run television.
1
Actually, there is an easier example that can be used. Just change "Trump" with "Obama" and see how Republicans will view this whole affair...
2
Thank you, sir, for plainly saying what needed to be said.
If Trump were anyone else. Moot point. He's not. He's the president of the United States and like it or not, the president is above the law as I would be if I were judged by a jury of my co-workers. The world needs, more than ever, the America of old, the noble, exceptional country that led the world to greatness in the years since WWII. Instead, the people allowed it to succumb to the vileness and corruption of Trump. It's not his fault. He's just a depraved human being. It's the fault of the 60,000,000 people who will vote for him. America the great is over, corruption will reign and the world will certainly become a sorrier place.
@Redd, wow. We survived Tricky Dick Nixon, and we will again. Remember trump's hard core supporters are in the minority and shrinking.
Public testimony does affect public opinion, as Watergate plainly showed.
Kudos to our constitution, and to the founding dads who truly understood that they could not afford a kingship if the fragile ideals of Democracy and individual representation were to be realized.
I agree that it's not really trump's 'fault', because he's a sad, insecure narcissist; the poster boy for how to raise an entitled rich bully. He is what he is; a wanna-be oligarch strongman who loves to see people fight each other.
America is NOT over, even though trump is a corrupt man. Our system of justice WILL win. It doesn't matter ONE WHIT what you think of political parties or their personalities.
The only thing that matters is the (silly to some) pledge we pretend to take seriously: ...AND TO THE REPUBLIC...ONE NATION, INDIVISIBLE WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL (including the president, no matter who he hates today)"
I'll stand with you, and there are so many more 'noble' Americans than you think.
America has elected itself a President of such low character that he wouldn’t hesitate to sellout or betray his own mother if it serves his personal interest. Selling out his nation and betraying the US Constitution comes easy and naturally to the current occupant of WH.
The DNC has a very special talent to pick the loosing battles with the fellow Americans.
When we signaled four years ago we want the change in Washington DC by making Trump a front runner in the GOP primaries, the Democratic leadership nominated and handpicked the most notorious establishment candidate they could find and pitched it as “the change”…
When Trump tried to withdraw the US troops from the Middle East, the DNC attacked the policy as the treason in spite of knowing perfectly well that Obama used that very platform to win the elections in 2008.
When Trump attempted to talk with Moscow and Pyongyang, the DNC portrayed it as the betrayal although those policies were Obama’s platform from the campaign trail…
Of course, after winning the elections in 2008, the DNC and Obama failed to persecute the leaders at fault for the wrong wars in Afghanistan and Iraq or the Great Recession.
However, the Democratic Party decided to fight over the criminal investigation whether a corrupt politicians used the elected office to personally enrich his son…
It’s not shocking how Trump managed to get 50% of the votes in spite of his greed and egocentricity but how the DNC managed to accomplish the same feat in spite of those chronic failures.
Between two equally bad options the voters didn’t have a good choice…
There was no racism involved. We just had no straight path forward…
We are no “deplorables” as the DNC claimed, but maybe just smarter and more moral than them…
There is really only one word needed; that ifTrump were anyone else hew would be fired (or more correctly never would have been hired!). That word is Duh!
Our president's other personal attoeney is in federal prison for following orders, one former campaign manager in federal prison for money laundering and lying under oath, has been accused by more than a dozen women of sexual misconduct, accused of adultery and paying the women hush money during his campaign......sigh. And that's just for starters, yet there he sits in the oval office chatting up dictators while we twist in the wind. What a country we have, republicans are so proud of him, makes you wonder if we're in a collective bad dream. How is this real?
In effect, Trump aided Russia and perhaps killed Ukrainians for political gain.' Trump has been aiding Russia fo 3 yaers and whn hw i gone someon will surely count up the human deaths that can be attributed o his mendacity an malfeasance.
your examples are clear enough for anyone to understand. Thank you
1
"Suppose that a low-ranking government official, the head of a branch Social Security office,"...
Nah, this is more like Roger Ailes dangling a high paying job in front of Gretchen Carlson and saying "But first I need you to find a way of showing me your loyalty."
The Republican's president, and his sycophants, firmly believe coy clever signaling provides the "perfect" plausible deniability. And the rest of us just sit back and laugh at how foolishly obvious it all is.
Fox News- a propaganda machine telling some people what they want to hear. If you haven't visited foxnews.com in awhile it's worth a peek, especially the comments section. And the commentators, how they keep a straight face as they report their version of the news is astonishing.
Too little time is spent looking at the complicity and frank criminality of the republicans. They have been lying to the American public for years before the orange clown king took office and continue to lie as they defend the man who tells more than 12 lies a day.
The Democrats did a good job of getting facts on the table. They need to be more aggressive with the lying republicans though.
A simple story line needs to be developed now and witnesses brought forth who can counter the lies of the republicans from today.
The suburban republicans who are struggling with mortgage debt, medical debt, and school debt need to be shown how the rich, elite, spoiled, lying republicans are stealing their future and their children's future.
The DNC cannot win the elections on substance so they are trying on technicalities...
As the public hearings proceed, if there is one thing Democrats ought to do, it's to make the case as clearly as this column. These examples go straight to the point, and should be used frequently to explain this president's behavior to the public. They can do this in the hearings, on social media, in front of TV cameras, and in interviews with the press. Employers nearly always require employees to agree to conflict of interest and/or business ethics policies. Trump's actions would have led to his firing without any question. But, as we know, Trump believes these things are only for the little people.
Excellent article. A surgically precise rendering of the issue at hand. Unfortunately, the blustering tactic of "loudest guy in the room wins" that is employed by Republican partisans will drown out and fatigue many Americans.
I wish that a similarly straightforward analogy had been employed at some point yesterday.
1
The facts in this case seem fairly well established. Trump himself admits to pressuring Ukrainian leaders. What's left is for members of Congress to use their judgement to decide if this warrants impeachment and removal.
And so this shifts to the court of public opinion, as House and Senate members try, or at least should try, to discern what the American public wants them to do. Hence the political theater in which both sides try to score the most dramatic points.
Mr. Kristof's view of the ethics is right. We need to see how the public and their elected servants react.
2
Thank you Mr. Kristof for your clear comparative examples. They provide me with a perspective to share with Republican friends that is arguable only if they insist on continuing blindness to Trump's total lack of ethics. However, until we have witnesses who can overcome the "second hand news" script Rep. congresspeople are sticking to, I fear there won't be any Rep. voter minds changed.
1
What would the Republicans be doing had this been Obama? Screaming bloody impeachment that's what! They are the epitome of being hypocrites and sycophants.
2
More like drawn and quartered, I’d say.
And if Hillary Clinton were a regular person she would have been charged with felonies and probably be in prison....what, she’s a Democrat...
2
Please tell me that we will get to read all the transcripts that were put on the secret server so we can finally embarrass the Republicans for backing an idiot.
1
Yes
Trump is the most spoiled brat in a nation with a single digit public mental age.
1
To understand the total fiasco of Trumpism and the chaos perpetuated by Trump and his minions, it is very educational to understand a true master of Nazi propaganda – Joseph Goebbels.
To educate yourself, read his speech on “Knowledge and Propaganda” Goebbels gave in 1928.
Knowledge and Propaganda (1928) - Calvin University
https://research.calvin.edu › german-propaganda-archive › goeb54
... of propaganda, all the more interesting because of its early date. The source: “Erkenntnis und Propaganda,” Signale der neuen Zeit. 25 ausgewählte Reden von Dr. Joseph Goebbels (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP., 1934), pp. 28-52.
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie.
It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
2
It seems evident that Trump is so narcissistic that he rarely listens to cautionary advice from anyone and just blunders on in, like the proverbial bull in a china shop, and makes his crazy phone calls and tweets, and then pulls the victim baloney.
On top of everything else, he can only be an example to young people of how not to be, and this is the President of the United States.
Simply appalling.
2
I've always felt that the most damning word in the transcript was "favor." (And odd that it wasn't redacted.)
Favors are not something that people would do anyway.
Favor: an act of kindness beyond what is due or usual.
1
What would republicans be doing if any of these high crimes and misdemeanors had been committed by a Democrat?
We know what they would do because they acted against the last two Democratic Presidents, one by impeachment and one by total obstruction, for the crime of getting elected by a majority of voters. While Democrat.
republicans seem hell bent for leather to destroy our rule of law, our sense of community, and our democracy.
The Constitution be damned.
I have become increasingly despondent over what appears to me the impossibility of establishing even the most obvious facts in the mind of the public. There is zero uncertainty about the facts in this case. Trump released the (doctored) notes of the call, and they still damned him. Demanding from the president of another country at war an investigation of your domestic political opponent is a serious abuse of power. No one sane can dispute that. Yet the Republicans' smoke screens, conspiracy theories, and Trump yelling "Witch Hunt" are given equal time with the truth by even "liberal biased" media outlets. And this, in my opinion, gets to the heart of our real problem: a profit-obsessed (therefore eyeball-obsessed) mediasphere that must preserve uncertainty and therefore anxiety in its consumers, at all costs. Our information sources see no percentage in reporting anything obvious and certain. Hence the six-column full front-page spread this paper did on the "new" (they were not new) Clinton emails allegedly found by the FBI, just days before the election. The results of our elections have to be kept in doubt right up to the end, no matter how stark the choice, no matter how terrible one side might be, because our press and media are no longer in the truth business, if they ever really were (I believe the best of them were); they have gone completely over into the Uncertainty-Maximization business.
Infuriatingly, these days, the "dust clouds of complexity," are the point.
Sir, excellent comparisons!
His firing is coming, I hope by the electoral college by a landslide.
The advent of Trump in 2016 will be the end of a national Republican party for a generation..unless the Democrats screw it up and mistaken anti-Trump among moderates of both parties as equal to pro-progressive and nominate a Warren.
The con is so blatant, the sycophancy so extreme, the lies so pervasive, that I can only wonder what the driving force could be that would motivate such behaviour. My conclusion is a lethal combination of hatred, fear and greed, on the part of the electorate and the party. Money is the main factor when it comes to the GOP. The door has been opened to buy these people and the media which serves their every need, America be damned.
1
Ask any Republican whether they condone what Trump and his kids did in the "charity" escapade reduced to "settlement" last Thursdsay.
The fine of $2 Million is a farce. It was fraud. The Trumps can easily handle it. A penalty is supposed to sting. Even if he is immune, Ivanka Kushner and Donald Trump Jr. are not.
It was theft by deception a/k/a theft by false pretenses.
He did this while in the 2016 campaign and the fraud continued into his presidency. He screwed veterans who were to be the recipients and innocent people who donated to what they thought was a charity in good faith.
Even his most adamant supporters can't handle this conduct.
1
I don't have the history to know if I'm right, but I think this mass hysteria has to at least resemble what happened in NAZI Germany with Hitler.
What scares the absolute hell out of me is the sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters of the very people that fought their way across Europe and defeated the Third Reich are the ones choosing to believe this conman's crap and defend him in his efforts to turn the supposedly greatest nation on earth into his personal door mat and ATM.
What are we capable of?
1
Compare these two sayings, which I recall from my youth:
"It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game."
"Winning isn't everything; it's the ONLY thing."
The first saying makes the character of the players its focus. It's counterpart on the battlefield is"death before dishonor." There is philosophy of life wrapped up in these maxims. They teach that we ought to prize being worthy of victory more than the victory itself.
The second saying, which was the more popular at my high school during football season, implies that only suckers concern themselves with what their conduct says about their character. At the end of the day, winning the prize excuses bad behavior and makes people forget your callous disregard for what's right or what's fair.
Republicans used to be the party that took character seriously. Or at least they professed to be. Now it appears that the GOP will do anything to win, character and respect for principle be damned.
Some might say it's reflective of the times in which we live. The idea that one's honor means more than one's worldly success is outmoded, a relic of times gone by that has no meaning in a world where "winning' is the only thing that truly matters.
But this will be true only if we make it true. And right now the Republicans in Congress are doing their best to make it true.
1
Republicans, including my senator, Lindsey Graham, have come up with all sorts of specious talking points that ignore the central fact that Trump asked Zelensky for a "favor" while withholding security assistance to Ukraine. It doesn't matter whether Zelensky knew that the assistance had been withheld at the time. It doesn't matter that the assistance was eventually restored. It doesn't matter if Zelensky says he didn't feel pressured (what else could he say if he wanted that money?). What matters is that Trump withheld assistance specifically to pressure Zelensky to investigate the Bidens for Trump's political ambitions. Period.
1
Trump was elected president. Trump is president. America elected him. They knew what they were getting. He was very transparent during the election process. The voters who elected him are thrilled. No regrets. We see the liberals did not take him or the electorate seriously. BS and HRC destroyed each other and neither could have won because the loser did not/would not have supported the other. Deja vu all over again.
1
@Robert Black
Many NYC voters knew his history of abusing of women, lying, bankruptcies, using to courts to escape paying contractors, etc., so we did not vote for him. It isn't clear from your comment that you do know him as the self-dealing, unscrupulous human being he is in plain sight.
The main reason why the republicans in congress and the senate aggressively spin their counter reality is that their constituents are behind it. I'm tired of saying it, the reason why their constituents are behind it is the right wing commercial propaganda machine that has existed for a little over 30 years. Unique to this time in the U.S., this propaganda machine was created since the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine in the late 80s. People must take responsibility but only for what they are responsible for, there is so much that is not democrats fault. History bears out that congress at the time fought tooth and nail to preserve the Fairness Doctrine. We acknowledge the corrosive aspect of the right wing media, yet we still tend to underestimate it's impact and influence.
2
If you say so. How about 'if this were any other civilized country,' people would be out on the streets, demanding that the aberration in the white house be jailed swiftly.
The right is united around race; nothing will change that.
The left is deaf and blind to the reality that America is now one large tribe of republicans with a tribal leader who has blood on his hands, and tramples puppies every morning. They love him for it' each day they pledge allegiance.
The rest of America is a mosaic of tribes, with the biggest being the leftist tribe (Bernie supporters) deeply committed to whining constantly, spoiling everything, demanding perfect solutions that can never work, and ensuring everyone is miserable until their demands are taken care of instantly; all at once, by hosing the rich.
You don't find them in soup kitchens, or doing community service. They are standing around deep wells, watching people drown slowly, so they can lecture the survivors about how drowning helps provide good jobs to EMTs and mortuaries.
I could never join the right wing tribe of supremacists. But, I know that if I were them, I would not take those to the left of me seriously. None of them are out protesting on the street right now; just glued to the TV and criticizing everything they see. They'd do it differently of course. And, just so you know, they won't vote for anyone except for the son of the carpenter (and the right has already found him).
2
@Kalidan This is a form of false equivalence. Tribe is applicable to the trump right, who dare to criticize him at their own peril. But yes, the left tends to be a bit naive. The left consists of a wide variety of groups, views, and interests, a "big tent". Why is someone part of a tribe just because they are able to see Trump's con?
Let's be clear of the facts Mr. Kristof, in July 2018 the Javelin anti-tank missile system was delivered to the Ukraine by the United States government in order for the Ukrainians to defend themselves from Russian tanks. The best that Obama ever did for the Ukraine was allocate $53 million in non offensive aid (blankets) while the Russians were knocking on the Ukrainian door. At the time even the NYT was in doubt about Obama's handling of the situation in the Ukraine.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2014/07/27/times-report-casts-shame-on-obamas-handling-of-ukraine-crisis/#4e6e85846876
So if you're talking about an administration that wouldn't defend innocent Ukrainians against the Russians it's Obama, not Trump.
2
From every cup of tea leaves I read, the Senate is going to let this crook continue to do great disservice to this country by acting as President. They will not remove him. They will not disagree with him. He is the bag man for the Koch's and numerous other billionaire corporate donors to, and corporate controllers of, the Republican cause. These Senate and House Republican office holders fear the money men more than they fear for their own reputations or their own families. American has been lowered in the esteem of the world of nations and in our historic record. It is likely we will never rise again to the power and prestige that was post World War II America. This, thanks to a man who has no moral or ethical bone in his body. He is a rotting pile of avarice and greed. He is our leader.
2
The apologists are offering the arguments that there was nothing wrong because the Ukrainian president said there was no extortion and that the aid was eventually released. Would anyone antagonize a man holding a knife at his throat? The aid was released only after the shakedown became public.
2
"Perhaps subject to a criminal investigation".
This is a parody of mainstream media trying so very hard to be fair to both sides, right?
Donald Trump is a traitor.
Is that something that should be subject to a criminal investigation?
Of course the "Justice" Department decided even before Bootlicker Barr was confirmed as Attorney General that the President is above the law. Real justice will have to wait until Trump is excised from the Oval Office.
The cries of "Lock him up" make me sick.
The penalty for treason is death.
If and when Mr. Trump is indicted, tried and convicted as a traitor, his execution will be a needed first step towards the healing of the wounds to our democracy.
Dan Kravitz
2
“If Trump Were Anyone Else … would be fired ....”
Maybe. Consider also, has there ever been an administration so tangled in its shoe laces?
Why? It’s not like he had the same level of support from his own party all the way into office - like all other presidents. Does that suggest he would be unilaterally fighting all the way through his first term? Possibly. The reporting of this paper suggested he could not rely on his own staffers. Interesting. So, who’s in charge again?
Doris Kearns Goodwin is going to have a heck of a time writing about this one.
1
To quote (and channel) Malcom X, Republicans are not looking for the truth. They are looking to bamboozle.
Watching the likes of Jim Jordan and Devin Nunes attempt to grill unimpeachable witnesses, I realized that these Republican 'stars' are not stupid (unlike the putative head of their party); they are maleficent actors - very much actors putting on a show - who are undermining our democracy with each of their demagogic utterances.
3
Everything trump does is for himself. The republican party now has a cult figure that has mesmerized a huge number of Americans who think they are actually the benefactors of trump policy. This is the farthest thing from reality as trump is a ruthless business man and a successful conman. The take away is that republicans get everything they want while taking America down a very different road than the majority of Americans want. It has been years in the making and the conclusion is far from over, but trump will take down everyone in the way, including his most ardent supporters in the republican party to get what he wants. The outcome always ends up a tragedy and the'll be lots of losers.
2
If Trump once again wins by getting away with his criminality, everyone else in our democracy loses. The millions of Americans who continue to ignore, condone or encourage this type of treasonous, dysfunctional behavior should no longer be allowed to call themselves Americans.
1
You have it wrong Mr. Kristof.
The Founding Fathers, in their wisdom, put mechanisms in place to take care of frauds like the Reality Show Con Artist.
What they did not anticipate was an entire party of traitors and cowards who would protect a grifter and a criminal.
The Vichy GOP doesn't care about quaint concepts like the "rule of law", "the Constitution" or "Democracy".
They only care about power and money and if anyone thinks that our solution doesn't involve voting for every Democrat in every election every year, they are part of the problem.
3
Trump is a problem, but we are the problem, all of us.
He didn’t divide, polarize, and antagonize us. We did it on our own BEFORE he entered the politics. We voted for the GOP and DNC candidates that put us in such a dire position for decades.
We started the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria, not Trump.
We failed to court and invite Russia to NATO.
We failed to pacify the Korean peninsula over the last 6 decade…
We exported our manufacturing base to China and created the Great Recession…
Trump has tried to cut a deal with North Korea, to withdraw our troops from the Middle East, befriend Moscow and make NATO allies contribute more into defense budget. I support those efforts.
Trump is not a devil, but just gray as all of us.
But, he is not a good businessman as he claims. Otherwise, he would brag with his “brilliant tax returns”. He lied to us that he would disclose those. He is out-of-control greedy and egocentric.
Finally, he is a billionaire. Jesus told us it’s harder for a wealthy person to enter the heaven than for a camel to go through you know what.
And you lost the Christian votes to such a person?!
Do you really want to impeach a politician for investigating another corrupt leader?
Out of all those aforementioned problems, that’s bothering you?!
1
Many if not most of Trump's voters are authoritarian and xenophobic who would be perfectly happy with a dictatorship as long as it did what they wanted.
1
OK, now those analogies were truly perfect. A great way to put Trump's wrongdoings into non-distorted, by presidential "chirps" (Are we man, or are we bird?) and the Fox clown-squad's obfuscation-fueled, perspective. Thank you for the clear Occam's razor view. Tip "feeder".
Another similar case can be found in Rod Blagojevich, still in prison for only attempting to solicit a bribe for Barack Obama's senate seat. Failing to obtain the bribe did not keep him out of prison. Trump likewise solicited a bribe from Zelenskyy, but he did not want money. He needed public relations dirt to smear Biden for 2020. And he was willing to use the Congress-approved taxpayer funded military aid as though it were his own piggy bank to pay for what he wanted. Like Blagojevich, he deserves prison.
88
Nice job Nic. But wait, watch not one Republican vote will change.
I've been a lawyer in a small town for 25 years where I mostly handle real estate closings. Every two years to keep my law license I have to pay for and take ethics classes and prove to the State of New York that I did so. I'm waiting to find out how Rudy Giuliani is able to keep his New York law license. He is a disgrace to our profession and it makes me sick to think that someone like that who is in my opinion an unethical traitor and a criminal can hold that same license that I worked so hard to get and keep.
Don't you ever play the game, "What would Repubilcans do if Obama did this instead of Trump?" He would have been impeached in his first year of office.
1
In each of your scenarios, whether the offender actually makes the exchange / deal that s/he is aiming for is completely irrelevant.
Trump was persistent in his attempts to bribe (or extort) Ukraine to do his bidding, and it's of zero importance that he failed in his attempts.
If you try half a dozen times to kill someone but fail each time, it doesn't mean you're innocent. It just means you're a failure as an assassin. You'll still do serious hard time for having attempted to do something so illegal.
2
Imagine Donald J. Trump to be a school principal, posited Nicholas Kristof in this Opinion. It is a frightening idea to put our children's education and welfare at the mercy of the manias of this man. Kristof's idea imprints the character of Trump on the readers' brain. Let it fester there for a while, and remember that he's our president. Shocking, aye?
1
Takeaway from the impeachment hearings:
The Republicans WOULD allow Trump to shoot a person on 5th Avenue and get away with it.
2
This article is worth passing on to Trump lovers everywhere.
1
Holding Mr Trump to the same standard as everyone else was abandoned long ago.
Applicants for the roles of police officers, firemen, commercial pilots would almost certainly have been rejected if the candidates had displayed Mr Trump's level of narcissism ("...in my great and unmatched wisdom..."; "I know more than..."; "I'm like a smart person").
Applicants for a firearms licence in many advanced nations would almost certainly have been rejected if the applicant had displayed Mr Trump's braggadocio ("...I too have a ... Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!").
Mr Trump, with his unfortunate and extreme narcissistic personality disorder, would have struggled to land many advertised positions out there, and certainly all that involved significant responsibility; but he somehow landed, arguably, the most responsible position on the planet without even having to submit to a company "medical".....suggests that the selection process for future candidates may be worth reviewing.
1
Really? Would he be prosecuted?
Remind me how many Wall Streeters who crashed the global economy are serving time??
1
Not a correct headline. It should read:
If Trump was anything other than a republican....
The GOP hypocrisy is breathtakingly destructive to our country.
1
There are several gobsmacking instances of stupidity in this latest Trump caper. Pres. Trump put all this motion due to his three year obsession with justifying his election. For all this time, Trump, the most insecure 70 plus year old human in public life, rather then attempting to grasp the job he’s been elected to perform, has spent most waking hours trying to prove he won fair and square. He refuses to admit that Russia intervened via media propaganda and the use of leaked DNC info procured by WikiLeaks to aid his campaign. That, plus the fact that Hillary Clinton obtained close to 3 million more votes in the election, eats at him.
Due to these two three year obsessions, Pres. Trump put this Ukrainian plot in motion. Typically, it is blowing up in his face. It has to be acknowledged that despite the transparency of this event, he retains the loyalty of his base and the GOP. The Republican Party’s clinging to him is rational due to their voters irrational affinity for Donald J. Trump. I can only conclude, the loyalty Trump keeps from the base is due to the years (years!) of media propaganda they feast on and Trump’s bombastic media driven personality, based on victimhood and self pity with more than a whiff of hatred for other Americans. What to conclude, nothing good, those millions seem largely impervious to Trump’s repetitive act.
Government coercion, and offering and accepting bribes, are illegal and punishable offenses.
When a U.S. President does these things, they are high crimes and misdemeanors, and impeachable offenses.
It defies logic that loyal Trumpists turned a serious investigation into a circus where they could grandstand, lie, insult the witnesses, and be dismissive of the process, instead of searching for facts.
Republican Rep. Jim Jordon of Ohio was the worst of the questioners. Aggressive as any pit bull on steroids, he did not so much question as harass the two witnesses. He spoke so rapidly, it was impossible to understand him.
He champions the argument, "If Ukraine got the aid, and did not investigate the Bidens or the 2016 election, then Trump did no wrong."
He leaves out the number of Ukranian soldiers who died while waiting for U.S. aid, the illegal hold up of vital aid until Zelensky publicly trashed a Trump political rival, Biden. He ignores the creation of a highly irregular diplomatic path, led by Trump's personal lawyer, Giuliani, meant to serve Trump personally, not the U.S.
Trump released the funds only after Congress hounded him , witnesses ignored his edicts not to testify, and he was publicly booed.
Trumpists will continue obfuscating. They have Fox News to help. Fortunately, the Dems have the facts on their side.
I think the simplest way to frame this for the Americans who fail to understand (or acknowledge) this is a grave offense is to posit the following: substitute Iran or North Korea for Ukraine and Hassan Rouhani or Kim Jong Il for Zelensky and the deal is to lift sanctions/normalize relations (instead of release military aid) in exchange for dirt on a political opponent. Is that perfectly normal behavior for an American president? Any Republican who answers yes is a bald-faced liar and they know it. If a Democrat even came close to doing what Trump clearly did, the government would be shut down and we'd be hearing 24/7 coverage of what a corrupt, immoral leader he/she is. Is there any shame on this nation too great to exceed Republicans obsession with power? I am beginning to think they'd basically do anything to maintain it.
Get calibrated
Andrew Jackson killed thousands of indigenous Americans.
Trump hasn't killed any - yet
Nor has he removed the Democratically elected heads of foreign governments . As previous US Presidents did Guatemala, Iran, and Chile - the latter by murder
Trump has not done anything comparable - yet
I was watching the impeachment hearings on CSPAN, and during the breaks, Mark Meadows was interviewed, that is, as he grasped at straws. It reminded me of a school board meeting where all the uneducated parents showed up mad as wet hens to rant about Common Core. They didn’t even know what Common Core was, just that their preachers and Fox News had told them that it was liberal indoctrination.
The GOP has created a terrible problem by giving the preachers control, just like Barry Goldwater predicted half a century ago. People like Mark Meadows are the result. You cannot argue with these people, you cannot change their opinions with facts because in their minds, Trump is all good and liberals are all bad.
This all-or-nothing mentality they possess, this black-and-white sports team mentality is the same thing they learn from an early age in evangelical church: you either believe the whole bible or you’re not a real christian—never ask questions or criticize. Of course they’re going to twist themselves into pretzels to defend Trump because facts don’t matter.
Anyway, when I was watching Mark Meadows, I was thinking that if this were Obama, he would be the first one carrying the torches down the drive to burn him alive.
I have been patiently waiting for somebody to finally call this what it is. Trumpism is simply the confederacy rebranded. And southern evangelicals like Meadows, in their alternate universe where American values don’t matter, will defend him to the death.
Mr. Kristof, Until you starty addressing what Mr. Trump is doing to the planet and all its animals, then everything else is moot.
It is like a cult. What has he promised the GOP in return for their support. America deserves better than this corruption. Trump is showing the world there is nothing exceptional about the USA except for the obsession with power, fame and money.
If Trump were anyone else ... If he was functioning as an employee in any other job I can think of, and behaving as he has in the last three years ... he'd be fired in a matter of weeks.
Mr. Kristof,
Excellent analogies.
As you say, this president is literally making life and death decisions ...Ukrainians and Kurds.
...and yet we can't get rid of this monster and the party enablers who birthed and sustains him. It feels like we are inside some horror movie. I want to wake up and find the nightmare over.
2
EArth to media, defending someone who is guilty
is not easy.
The GOP's trained seals did not lay a glove on Kent
or Taylor
Schiff v. Nunes was a TKO for Schiff. he shut down
Stefanik w/o missing a beat
This was a shakedown, period the end
High crimes and misdemeanors, made plain by the able Mr. Kristof. If Americans can't understand this, we may be doomed.
2
When I push aside my fear of where Trump and the Republican leaders are taking our country, I am fascinated by the brainwashing efforts of Trump’s Flying Monkeys. If you recall, the original flying monkeys did evil deeds at the bidding of the Wicked Witch of the West. Those monkeys came to their senses only after Dorothy melted her, and broke the spell the witch cast on them. We all saw how opposed to Trump were our Republican leaders at first. But they fell under his spell and came to help him accomplish his deadly goals. When Trump is gone, and as he promised never to be seen again, will the Republicans return to being human again instead of hideous flying monkeys?
1
Anyone who cannot recognize Trump’s wrongdoing in the impeachment evidence is willingly akin to the Three Wise Monkeys who hear, see, and speak no evil, putting their partisan self-interests above those of the USA and persons of honor and integrity everywhere.
1
NICK:
The firing offenses by this president are becoming almost incalculable. What is most shocking is this GOP congress's maniacal attempts to cling to power at all costs, with #45 as a figurehead. They are shameless in their perfidy to the U.S. constitution. And they are not doing it merely for their base. Their self-survival itself is a clear sign of the moral rot at the core of the GOP.
Two thoughts: First, this president's actions demonstrate the foolishness of the DOJ memo that argues (without constitutional authority or legal precedent) that a sitting president can not be indicted. Second, i just saw Martin Scorsese's "The Irishman" at the theatre over the weekend, and thought, my god, Trump reacts and thinks just like these gangsters.
1
By any measure the Congressional Republicans should be impeached themselves for flagrant violations of their oath of office to uphold the Constitution. They are more than just political hacks. By their actions in support of tRump's violations of the Constitution, norms and laws they are traitors to this great nation and its people.
We could very well lose our precious Democracy to rule by plutocrats or worse. Their malignant actions serve to preserve a potential coup and dictatorship. These actions should have dire consequences. But will they......
1
People who are conned can't admit to themselves they were conned. In the face of overwhelming evidence of corruption and self-dealing, Trump's entire political strategy is built on this reality. He has good reason to bank on it-- it's served him well his entire life.
“Shouldn’t we hold the president of the United States to as high a standard as the head of a Social Security office, a principal, a hospital director and a journalist?”
NO! The president should be held to a HIGHER standard than everyone else. He should act and talk with dignity, thoughtfulness, and respect for individuals and the Constitution. He should always put he interests of the country ahead of his own interests. trump is a disgrace. He has abused his power, broken laws, and he should be fired and under criminal investigation.
As entrenched as the GOP is with Trump, and in all their babbling, contortions, and word salad they spew in defense, it makes me wonder...is there no line Trump could cross they wouldn't defend? Could he really shoot someone and get a pass by the party? I'm beginning to think so.
Yes. Trump should be removed. He put his kid on the board of a corrupt Ukrainian oil company. He sold 20% of American uranium to Russia, making $140MM in profits. He surreptitiously gave Iran $150 billion dollars in pallets of literal cash.
Trump used the intelligence agencies to spy on his political opponents. He weaponized the IRS to target left wing 501Cs.
Trump has used the federal bureaucracy as his de facto army. They’d do anything for him.
Yes. Trump needs to go.
2
Trump and his republican sycophants are so genuinely awful they share a mutual attraction. This decadent attraction extends outward to his beloved base. Like a movie in which the audience cheers for the villains Bonnie & Clyde and Mickey & Mallory. The more twisted the plot, the more outrageous the daily degradation of what’s normal, the more his audience screams for more. Articles of impeachment will be drawn, the Senate will acquit, and unfortunately 60M voters will cheer the outcome and ask for a sequel. I pray daily that their are still enough thoughtful, caring, decent citizens that recognize the decadence, won’t bury their heads in the sand, and vote to uphold the rule of law over blatant corruption.
Thank you Mr. Kristof for your graciousness in answering your readers.
1
We all know, too, that if Ukraine had investigated and found nothing,Trump would have said “I’m sure you can find something - keep looking.” Does anyone think he wanted the truth? He would have withheld money until they cooked something up.
Criminal wrongdoing? Perhaps take a look at state law, such as New York State Penal Law §155.05 (2)(e)(viii)(extortion--"Use or abuse his position as a public servant ...."). Or NYS Penal Law § 135 ("A person is guilty of coercion in the first degree when he … commits the crime of coercion in the third degree, and when … 2. He … thereby compels or induces the victim to (c) Violate his or her duty as a public servant.").
Or, since Mr. Trump is the Commander in Chief of the military, perhaps Uniform Code of Military Justice Article 109 ("Any person ... who willfully or recklessly wastes, spoils ... any property ... of the United States ...."). Or the attempted violation of Article 121 ("“Any person … who wrongfully … withholds, by any means, from the possession of … any … person any … article of value of any kind … (2) with intent temporarily to deprive … another person of the use … of property ….” ).
Or how about 18 United States Code §112 “(b) Whoever willfully— (2) attempts to intimidate, coerce, threaten, or harass a foreign official … or obstruct a foreign official in the performance of his duties… shall be fined under this title or imprisoned….”
Ultimately, a "high crime or misdemeanor" is whatever the US Senate decides it will be. The above may lend some guidance.
1
First I refuse to swallow the lie that someone is innocent of all crimes because they are president, that's just one of the big lies we are being told from both sides for their own benefit. If any of us did anything like our bribe taking American hating politicians do we'd all be in our for profit prisons.
Kennedy may have stolen his election from Nixon nearly 60 years ago. Nixon tried to get even by doing everything he could think of to steal his election later. But “Republicans” have been trying to steal elections ever since with voter suppression, gerrymandering, purging voter rolls, making it harder for people of color to register, putting older voting machines in minority neighborhood voting places, passing out fake pamphlets in minority neighborhoods with false information about when and where to vote, and spouting fake news and lies on Fox. Trump just tried to take it a step further trying to extort help from Ukraine. Of course “Republicans” support him.
A very good essay though I would recommend this parallel to the Social Security director’s hypothetical response: “...but first I’d like you to do me a favor. Some people have told me that another director here is dodging his taxes. I’d like to make a public statement that you think he should be investigated.” Yes, dodging taxes is illegal. Extorting someone to act on it against your adversaries is also illegal.
Trump believes that the moment he won the 2016 election was when Comey reopened the Hillary email probe shortly before voting began. Trump knew Russia was complicit. His simple, mobster mind just wanted the same sort of help from Ukraine for this election. He knew just how he would spin a Ukrainian probe into the Bidens at his rallies, on his Twitter feed, and at the shoutfests by the helicopter.
When I mull it over, I can’t imagine Trump NOT pressuring Ukraine to publicly announce a Biden investigation, especially with a desperately needed foreign aid package as a bargaining chip.
Trump wanted the Ukrainian government to do TWO “favors”.
The Biden investigation and an investigation into the 2016 interference in the American Presidential election.
That is, Trump wanted the Ukrainian government to take the blame for the interference into the 2016 election.
Take the fall.
Trump wanted to obfuscate the fact that it was the Russians that were the source of that. He wanted the Ukrainians to find themselves to blame!!
Donald Trump is safe from impeachment and removal from office because the right-wing propaganda machine has convinced a large portion of the electorate that the real enemy of this nation is those of us who may be accused of liberal political leanings. We are led by people like yourself, other NY Times journalists, Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff and any other Democrat who has the courage to challenge Mr. Trump and his Republican co-conspirators. This government of the people, by the people and for the people now belongs to Mr. Trump, Mitch McConnell, Vladimir Putin and Rupert Murdoch.
Lies that Trumps peddle without shame is amazing . He seems to be proud of it.
Just imagine "If Trump was a Democrat"
GOP couldn't get to impeachment fast enough and would have started hearings years ago...
WANTED: Candidate for the President of the United States of America: Qualifying requirements:
1. Must be able to forget things quickly.
2. Must have family available to work in the Oval Office. (Security clearance not required).
3. Must have ability to demand loyalty from his staff (legal, illegal or otherwise).
4. Must have golfing ability and be able to play golf several times a week. Accurate handicap recording not required.
5. Must have limited vocabulary and reading skills. An expanded vocabulary helpful but not required.
6. Must pass Personality and Ethics test. (To make sure there is neither).
7. Must know a fixer to be his subordinate and deputy. Essential requirement.
8. Must be bold and have ability to accomplish things irregardless of consequences. With Congress or without Congress.
9. Apply in person. Use back door entrance at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC.
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@Roger
Also:
10. Unique and/or bizarre hairstyles will not be penalized.
11. Cheating at golf, board games and on wife will be viewed in a positive light.
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I have been saying for a while now - neither Trump nor Kavanaugh would pass an entry level interview. But they are fine to hold the most powerful positions in our nation.
"Shouldn’t we hold the president of the United States to as high a standard as the head of a Social Security office, a principal, a hospital director and a journalist?"
Yes we should. That some voters do not hold this President to any standard at all is a mystery to many of us, and a clear danger to American democracy and the world.
Thanks Mr. Kristof, for your clarity and compassion.
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There is an explanation which connects much of the evidence. Mike Mulvaney was against giving the aid, as an ideological matter. Trump also was naturally inclined to forego aid to Ukraine specifically. Trump had made statements, such as Crimea would have freely elected to be part of Russia. He wants Ukraine to settle with Russia by giving up Crimea.
So Giuliani is working on behalf of clients (ultimately connected to Russian oil and gas oligarch Furwith), and connects the conspiracy theory of 2016. They manage to get the ambassador fired the day after she makes an anti-corruption speech damaging to Furwith.
So Trump is driving hard to get investigations which benefit him politically. Meanwhile Mulvaney is working to hold up aid. It looks as though it's a bribe, but could be a coincidence. While many people may have overheard Trump talking about investigations, Trump never seems to have talked about aid. Mulvaney could have easily withheld the aid on his own, and Trump didn't care. This is why Mulvaney may see a quid pro quo, and why Trump is furious at Mulvaney.
If these folks would just testify, this could be unraveled. Trump's solicitation of damaging info on a rival is bad, but not as bad as using defensive aid as leverage to get it. Trump is damaging himself with these nonsensical talking points.
I largely agree with your column. I would only add if the same standard was applied to Bill Clinton, he would have been removed from office for a sexual relationship with a subordinate.
Republicans can't have it both ways. If they're going to oppose impeachment because whether Trump should remain in office is a political question for the voters, then they can't complain that some of the facts presented at the hearing would not be admissible in a formal court. If they insist on treating the impeachment proceedings like a formal court proceeding then they can't say don't impeach him because there's an election next year That's like saying don't bring embezzlement charges against the bank employee because his mandatory retirement date is coming up in less than a year.
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Wonderful analogy.
3
Nicholas, you missed an excellent opportunity to invoke the “Peter Principle.” Perhaps DJT has attained the Presidency merely so he can finally be caught out for his massive incompetence at playing President.
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For the hypothetical social security official, I’d have likened the Ukraine debacle more along the lines of said official hoping to be moved up to a higher position and withholding the payment until the widow called the official’s supervisors and told them how helpful they’d been and how terrible some other official competing for the same position was.
Either way it’s still illegal and trump is still a low rent grifter.
Here’s the sad truth: Trump supporters don’t care if he breaks laws. They don’t care if he enriches himself, fires career public servants who are trying to observe the law, lies, steals, cheats, they just don’t care. Blame it on Fox News, or the education system, or the water, nearly half of America doesn’t care if he breaks the law. Indeed, they elected him knowing that.
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You lost me on the 'skulduggery' description, a cute word to mask the Bidens' obviously rotten behavior and the giant fly in the ointment of this 'impeachment inquiry' sham. And being president of the United States is a tad more complicated than being a high school principal, though catching boys smoking in the restroom and threatening detention does I suppose warrant high-level deep state concocted whistle-blowing intervention. This exercise over triple-level hearsay is a disaster for the Dems and as of two o'clock or so yesterday they knew it. Over the holiday season (and what a dumb time to stage the most important event since the Battle of Hastings) people will simply tune-out, that is those who've bothered in the first place to tune in. If the party had a dynamo candidate this exercise in nonsense would never have passed the smell test of committee number one. No wonder Hillary will still be dreaming, over her roast turkey and cranberry stuffing.
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A better comparison would be corrupt local politicians. The recently -resigned and convicted mayor of Scranton withheld building permits from developers until they contributed to his campaign fund. The FBI raided his home, and he pleaded guilty to corruption. How is this different from the current occupant of the WH withholding necessary assistance to Ukraine until they "contributed to his campaign" by opening a sham investigation into one of his opponents? BTW the former, disgraced mayor was a democrat.
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Vladimir Putin's infinity stones are in place: Manchu Don and Moscow Mitch. Will enough freedom loving patriotic Americans voters recognize that and take action to defend our democracy? God help us, and God bless the USA!
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This column should be mandatory reading for those with their fingers in their ears going la la la la,as to not hear the facts and form the decision from that .
Over time, both parties have engaged in nefarious acts. Over time, both parties have been on the wrong side of civil rights. Over time, both parties have stuffed ballot boxes. But also over time, the Democratic Party has become inclusive, and more open and transparent – while the Republican Party has done the opposite. It reminds me of a tar pit filled with dinosaurs, stuck up to their knees, but still snapping and roaring at anything that comes close as they slowly sink into their inevitable demise.
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Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes.
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Well thought-through and elegantly presented, but a straw man nonetheless. The president isn't anyone else, he is propelled and supported by the power of the millions of people who support him. This particular president can hold faux-Nuremberg torchlight rallies which, though it frightens us, we can't seem to do anything about. Let me heave a big ol' elephant up on the table: Trump unleashes the violence of his cretinous followers, armed to the teeth as they are, to stop the "sham" and punish the "deep state". Trump has already STATED he is prepared to do this. Should we not be preparing to meet this outrage rather than wasting time with false-equivalent sophistry?
Isn't that the whole point? Donald Trump isn't anyone else. He has spent his entire life learning how to exploit weaknesses to further his con. He has no shame to correct his agenda, which is 100% self interest, both ego driven and money accumulation. The irony of that is he's failed in almost all of it and hence, has to do business with shadier and shadier people to stay afloat.
In an alternate reality way he's perfection. Almost as if he were a robot in a futuristic thriller, programmed to be evil and fiercely driven while finding outliers desperate to believe or those selfish enough in their desires to not care about societal destruction.
Through a perfect storm of failures he is now president. As such, he's treated as some form of normal. And that is simply not true.
He may weasel out of impeachment repercussions thanks to lockstep Republicans and hundreds of books will be written on cause and effect. Some will see him as Valhalla and some as falling off a cliff. He's a one man apocalypse movie and please, some director yell, "Cut!"
Nick, Good luck to your son on his college admissions.
When my son was applying, I stepped away from my relationship with the university to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.
Oh wait, that’s what you are supposed to do.
Too bad our toddler-in-chief will never be able to comprehend the morality examples you presented.
Either the Republican partiers will take down voters or voters will take down Republican partiers. If the former, we can keep democracy and govern ourselves. If the latter, a fascist king will governing for his own ends. Every voter will become a subject, pay a ghastly price, lose the vote with no restorative power or recovery of democracy. We will miss the democracy we give up. The big boys have started and will not relinquish power in our lifetimes once they take away our right to vote. If you do not like voting and constitutional rights, find out what permanent poverty and taking orders is. Hint: avoid catastrophe and Vote.
I guess he's not someone else. He's Trump, he's President.
You'd think he'd have worked things out by now.
Even so, Ukraine got it's money - US taxpayer money, by the way. But I'm guessing it paid for US made armaments.
I'm just wondering when they'll release the transcripts of every Presidents every phone calls. Or does this happen already?
I hope they add your analogies to the impeachment speeches when they vote. They do make it easy to see the point. But of course this is even worse because Trump's plan is based on him engaging a foreign country to help him win the next election. How many other countries has he asked for help to cheat? This is why he must be removed. We cannot trust the integrity of the next election.
Republican solidarity with this criminal certainly indicates they are also in deep with Russian oligarchs and now also work for Putin. Has anyone investigated where these vociferous figures got their campaign funding in 2016? Mueller did not. NRA contributions came from Russia. Parnes and Fruman too. How many more Lev Parnas are out there? Is anyone looking? I hope someone does before I die. I will bet anyone dollars to donuts these Republicans are on the take. That is why they see nothing wrong with soliciting bribes from foreigners. "We do it all the time."
I believe Mr. Taylor is wrong in one respect. Withholding the money from Ukraine wasn't crazy, it was criminal.
Well done, Mr. Kristoff. You dumbed the ethics down to a level that voters can actually understand the obvious. These are the people who decide our elections. THAT'S SCARY--AND REAL.
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Sadly the Republicans have made a pact with the devil and we, the entire country, will pay a price. Once they have confirmed that the president can do anything he wants, that he's above the law, what will make him go away? An election? I doubt it. Now is when Congress had the opportunity, the responsibility to save us from this madman.
If Trump were Obama, the media would have ignored this episode like the IRS scandal, Fast and Furious and my personal favorite- I’ll have more flexibility after the election.
Maybe you could follow up on the fact that the money for Ukraine had a time limit--the end of Sept. After that, according to Taylor, the money could not be accessed by Ukraine.
I think it is obvious that Taylor's "nightmare" (that trump would never give them the money, even if Zemlinsky went on CNN) was the intended play here.
NYT should check that out. If true, trump could be shown to be directly working for Russian interests to destroy the balance of power in Europe.
That would finish him, although I think he is toast.
I do not agree....as long as instead of Trump, it was any other Republican, we would be seeing the same thing. Nixon was clearly a crook -- but until those tapes came out (which he fought), the Republicans even then were not willing to impeach. Anyone else would need to be any Democrat...then the Rs would be there will their tiki torches and tar and feathers.
Just last month,Trump's lawyers argued in court that he is immune from investigation and prosecution for any action, including murder.
Trump and his protectors absolutely believe that he is above the law and answerable to no one. Kristof's arguments may be true of low level bureaucrats, principals and journalists, but they are not true of Kings and absolute rulers, like Trump. The laws of man do not apply to him.
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Top, top article here, Mr. Kristof.
Loved the comparisons.
But it doesn't matter house or senate republicans do. I don't expect a conviction. The impeachment will happen.
This is for the swing voters (like me) and moderate republicans (like most of my family back in the midwest). And none of them - NONE of them - like what's happening and are disgusted with brainless trump and his band of misfits.
Removal from office of a lawless, corrupt president will likely not happen thru impeachment. But through the 2020 vote.
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The analogies were superb and drove home the egregious corruption. For immigrants like me who witnessed third-world corruption in our home countries, it feels like we've finally assimilated! I suppose we can now feel truly at home in a country where overt corruption is now routine enough to be dismissed with a metaphorical shrug! (Sigh.)
Exactly, any of us will be in jail... except Trump. Meaning? The system is so corrupted that who know if it can be redressed.
The premise of the Congressional impeachment investigation is incredibly stupid, but completely in line with the DNC character.
Four years ago Donald Trump as a complete outsider beat the entire lineup of the GDP presidential candidates, including the brother and son of the ex-US presidents, ridiculing the previous GOP presidential candidates and defeating the establishment darling of DNC elite in the swing blue-collor states, but suddenly as the incumbent president he needs a help from Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden who even lacked courage to run for the president four years ago.
No wonder that the DNC hasn’t revoked yet Trump’s congressional authorization to singlehandedly start a foreign war that was enacted in the state of shock after the 9/11.
The DNC is always wrong as well as the GOP. The mainstream establishment is useless. They still believe that the Afghan people were behind the 9/11 and creation of the Al Qaeda. The establishment sees nothing wrong with the fact that a decade–long occupation of Afghanistan and several trillion dollars wasted on the war on terror failed to prevent in 2011 the rise and spread of the ISIS.
Here is the hint. The Congress authorized the wrong wars in 2001 and 2003…
For God’s sake, revoke first the blank-check war authorization if you are incapable of making the right decisions. Let the entire country analyze the chronic problems. I guarantee you, we as the team are going to come up with the accurate conclusion…
There is only one qualifying question to ask Republicans who continue to support Donald Trump: Would you have the same response if President Obama was the one who committed these wrongs?
The hypocrisy, deception and lack of patriotism of Republicans has been taken to the next level.
2
The point that if it were anyone else but Trump has been well-established. The real question is why do Republicans continue to support this corrupt, incompetent, grifter especially those who correctly identified him for who he is at the start of his campaign but now fully support him such as Graham, Rubio, and, more recently, Haley. Something else is going on but I don’t see anyone investigating. Afraid of tweets seems a bit weak.
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The idea that anyone other than Trump in any other job, would be fired for engaging in similar conduct begs a similar concept. Any other person who so engaged in lying, abusive behavior, disregard of laws, rules, policies, and norms in any position as has Trump as President would surely have been fired. It is hard to imagine hiring someone like Trump after a 20 minute interview for that matter.
Sooner or later, Trump will be in the rear view mirror as the outlier of American Presidential history. Eventually we will come to our senses and, much as did Germany after WWII, be shocked and embarrassed by the Trump era. But for many years, historians, political scientists, sociologists and psychologists will write about Trump, and I cannot help but wonder how they will answer not only how he persuaded the electorate but how he took control of the Republican Party and how he stole the will of nearly every GOP elected official of his time.
There’s an old curse: May you live in interesting times. Trump is the embodiment of that curse.
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Good writing. Clear, concise, convincing.
"Suppose that a low-ranking government official,......" or a State Department employee, who used a personal email server set up in the basement, sent classified emails.
Enough already. Republicans can not complain about second hand accounts when witnesses are defying requests to testify.
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Thank you for putting the clear-cut case of impeachable conduct by Trump into plain and simple terms so that everybody (even a blind Trump-adorer!) could understand the gist of what Trump did.
Today's witness testimony was professional, dignified and compelling. The Republican efforts of detracting and throwing dust in the air were ineffective and disgraceful. Representative Jordan's clownish acts of high-speed ranting stood out as nearly funny, especially when he repeated Sondland's convoluted attempt to extricate himself from potential perjury at least three times (!) at warp-speed instead of speaking clearly and slowly once. But then clarity was not the goal for Republicans.
All I know is one thing. Attempted obstruction of justice (Mueller report), attempted extortion, attempted murder, attempted abuse of power, attempted robbery, attempted blackmail ARE ALL CRIMINAL OFFENSES. And should be treated as such. Whether it is the President or Joe Blow down the road.
Everybody is harping on the wrong thing. Castro nailed it. Plain and simple. "Attempted bribery" is simple language enough that most of the populace understands. Most people don't know what quid pro quo means let alone spell it. Get this message across and you will have a lot more people on your side.
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I listened to some of the hearing today and I am even more frightened that Trump will be re-elected. While the Republicans harangued and bullied those that they questioned, the Democrats played nice and rightly polite, back. The Democrats must stop cowering before these cut throats who would rather have strangled them, then question them. If the Democrats do not get anywhere with this impeachment inquiry, they will look even weaker and people will be angry at the waste of time and money. Trump's base doesn't care if he commits murder, as long as he builds a wall and outlaws abortion. If they really cared about a just society, he would have been impeached long ago. Stop cowering to Trump's henchmen and fight fire with fire. It may be disgraceful but the Democrats haven't a prayer in 2020 if they play nice.
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What seems to get somewhat lost in all this is how Trump’s actions with Ukraine not only helped himself but also greatly helped Russia. It’s a pattern involving his actions with respect to Ukraine, Syria and the Kurds, NATO, Brexit, etc. He is destroying traditional American alliances to Russia’s benefit, and the hacks in the GOP either don’t care or are too gutless to speak up forcefully and resist. There was a time when the GOP had principles and many Republican Senators, and even some Republican Congressmen, were patriots who put country first. No more. John McCain must be rolling in his grave.
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Mr. Kristof,
As logical as your column is pertaining to Mr. Trump, for reasons that defy logic, he seems to be made of Teflon, where everything seems to just slide off. It is beyond baffling how Mr. Trump can sleep at night. I guess being narcissistic could be one explanation.
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“Shouldn’t we hold the president of the United States to as high a standard as the head of a Social Security office, a principal, a hospital director and a journalist?” Alas, the Trump presidency is all about not only not having to meet any standard, but about destroying all standards. Trump feasts on decency and decent people. And his ability to do so is all based on his freedom to lie without cease and without consequence. Behind his smoke screen of lies, he uses the presidency to line his own and his children’s pockets, and at the same time he attacks Hunter Biden, who unlike Jervanka, was never a White House policy maker with power to advance his private interests on the public dime. Trump of course is aided by the obligation felt by the media—not only Fox—to make a story out of every smear that comes out of his mouth. It’s time to take the office of the presidency seriously, which means running daily in-depth stories on every major lie Trump has told, and on every effort his children (and son in law) have made to use his power to advance their private interests. If you’ve already run stories on some of these, run updates.
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there is far too much emphasis on quid pro quo and whether or not there was a transaction. Federal law says the solicitation, acceptance, or receiving, of anything of value from a foreign national in connection with an election is a crime. Merely asking the Ukrainian president or a Ukrainian prosecutor for a favor associated in any way with a political rival is a crime. so all this nonsense about how they got the weapons anyway and whether there was a quid pro quo is secondary to the basic crime.
"Everybody would see that as an outrageous abuse of power." Not true. The underbelly of Americans would think the social security head is a brilliant businessman for leveraging his power to get something valuable. That's what Trump would do.
What's wrong with that?
Trump knows he's safe from prosecution because he is rigging the Federal courts and of course has already rigged the Supreme Court. He's done what dictators do, silence the Media (no totally yet) but placed doubt and changed the courts and justice dept. Sadly the Democrats will split apart again so America will have Trump or another Trumplike person for another 4 years. Why is the Russian interference so forgotten? It's happening all over the world again.
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This column should be mandatory reading by every American. Trump is using gangland rules in an attempt to destroy the rule of law.
The demand to expose the whistleblower is but another criminal attempt to stop people from notifying law enforcement. This former upstate and Scranton cop has not seen this level of corruption since the Nixon era.
Now, this gross corruption appears to have now metastasized throughout the Republican Party and the conservative movement.
If Trump Were Anyone Else we wouldn't be going through any of this harassment.
Earlier this year my husband traveled to Ukraine for the first time with a group of Holocaust survivors to visit the villages where their families had perished. He was shocked by the poverty in that country and recounted that in some of the villages people were still drawing water from wells.
When I think of the corrupt leaders of that country enriching themselves while neglecting their own people I feel like screaming. But when I think about greedy Americans who lack nothing in comfort, and a corrupt American president who lacks everything that's decent, exploiting those countries for their own personal gain, I feel like crying in shame. What has become of us? How have we allowed ourselves to get to this point?
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In 2014, Representative Peter King (Republican, New York) accused President Obama of not taking matters of national security serious because he wore a tan suit to a security press briefing. Lou Dobbs said the tan suit was "un presidential", and other GOP lawmakers offered similarly blistering criticisms of Obama's putative unfitness for office - because of his tan suit.
A tan suit. And the same GOP lawmakers, and their sycophant mouthpieces on Fox News, are apologizing for President Trump's criminal behaviour. The hypocrisy beggars description.
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I love the analogies provided, but would also suggest these additional ones:
A mob boss, charged with extortion, says they can’t be charged because they never got paid the extortion. And there was no quid pro quo either!!
A disgruntled spouse schemes to kill their spouse. They end up talking to a FBI informant acting as a hired gun but get cold feet and never pay the informant. They should not be arrested because no one got hurt. That’s insane!!
A terrorist is detected and captured before they could accomplish their plot. Since there was never an attack and no one got hurt, there is nothing criminal and this person should be released. Now at outrageous!
A President of the United States attempts to extort the president of another nation by withholding lawfully appropriated funds. Eventually the funds get released. Did the President do anything wrong? Is this scenario any different then the ones above? Can we all agree that we would want all the other scenarios investigated and, if appropriate, prosecuted?
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Nick, Its a shame you weren't there when the Constitution was written. They considered including removal by Congress for "maladministration" but chose not to, as they felt it should be specified what reasons, (from the context- not running a terrible administration, or using his power in ways that they felt were inappropriate)
The problem with articles such as this one, which is a restatement of all of what a majority of Times readers agree about him, is they won't acknowledge that he did warn the American people exactly what kind of a person he was: Could kill an innocent and not lose a vote, Promise to both build up our military AND get them out of overseas conflicts, Confirm that he would take advantage of women who let him grab their private area.
Trump will not be removed by NY Times readers, but must be by elected Republican Senators, who there is no chance will vote for such an action. Ironically, this caught Trump by surprise, as when the Ukraine conversation broke, Trump said he was about to call Pelosi with a proposed agreement on gun control - or maybe another issue. And then his response which was "For This!!!"
He knows how he is wrong for the Job that this country voted him into, but in the words of Popeye, "I yam what I yam" The chance of his being removed by the Senate is nil. He will cop to making a mistake, and sadly, be stronger because of this meaningless waste of legislative time. POTUS is not employment at will, but a 4 yr contract.
Nicholas, you have hit the nail on the head, as usual. It absolutely mystifies me that in general the Republicans are twisting themselves in knots trying to excuse this behavior, which as you correctly point out would be so simple if it were someone else, in another role. The intoxication of power for the Republicans must be a worse epidemic than the opioid crisis.
Republicans believe they are the only ones who should be allowed to govern. Once you believe that, nothing else matters— not the Constitution, not the truth, not the law, not democracy.
The GOP has effectively declared a state of emergency in the face of the demographic shifts in this country and they have suspended all of those things, because they believe the country is better off with them in power than with a genuinely functioning democracy.
Cute little analogies about “what if it were the other side” don’t matter, because they just don’t accept the premise of the question. The answer is either “He didn’t do it,” or “It doesn’t matter” or “Its not illegal,” because their primary motivation is not truth or the rule of law, but “saving the country” by keeping Republicans in power. The “truth” is whatever gives them the outcome they desire.
Three years and you still have no idea what you’re up against.
The main charge so far is that the President with the help of a few people applied pressure on Ukrainian officials to make an announcement by their President that they would be investigating the company that Joe Biden’s son was working for by withholding about 400 million dollars in military aid that Congress had already approved.
A simple question to ask Republican senators is if this is true, do they consider it to be an impeachable offense. If not, then why not? If not, then what if the country had been Israel and the company that Joe Biden’s son worked for was an Israeli company?
Would that have been an impeachable offense?
“ If Trump Were Anyone Else …
The president would be fired and perhaps subject to a criminal investigation”
Yet then again, guys like Adam Neumann of WeWork cost investors billions of dollars .... and walk away with $2 billion plus tens of millions a year in consulting fees.
What a strange country we live in.
More than 400 comments! Did anyone post that at this point the House is investigating? It still has to vote on whether to impeach. I'll wait for the vote.
"Get the facts first and then you can distort them as much as you wish." - Mark Twain
Trump wants to eliminate all the facts and anybody that can produce them. He will probably fire the IG that allowed the whistle blower to file a report. We elected a Monarch. "Get over it" is the popular phrase now. Time will tell, but I place my bet on Abraham Lincoln.
"The people of these United States are the rightful masters of both congresses and courts, not to over-throw the Constitution, but to over-throw the men who pervert that Constitution." – A. Lincoln.
A well-written and informative op-ed, Mr. Kristof. Thank you.
Richard Nixon was the only American president to be forced from office in disgrace. However, a fair and concise listing of Dick Nixon’s impeachable offenses would only contain a handful of charges.
The congressional Democrat’s current dilemma is that a complete listing of Trump’s misdeeds would take pages of copier paper. More importantly, it’s going to take years of investigative work and the “truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” from hundreds of witnesses and accomplices to reveal all of the crimes, corruption and treason that the president has orchestrated over the past three years.
Fourteen thousand lies and misleading statements in less than three years. It boggles the mind.
So. The Democrats are going with the obvious. The attempted criminal blackmail of President Zelensky.
To the Articles of Impeachment the GOP senators will likely admit, “Questionable, but not impeachable.”
Although the current process might not rid us of the worst POTUS ever, if it is handled well, every American voter with any regard for ethics, truth, dignity and morality will go to the polls on Nov. 3, 2020 having made the following decision — “Anybody but that ignorant arrogant criminal.”
And the senators who acquit Trump will be in a world of trouble, too.
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We knew Trump was a liar when he was running for office. We are New Yorkers and very familiar with Trump. The people did not vote him in. The Electoral College did. The people were smarter. He has demeaned our standing in the world. I hear from friends in England, Italy and Japan and they now consider us to be a joke. How did we disintegrate to this level? We went from No Drama Obama to Daily Drama Trump. I don't like Pence but at this point I would even elect my ex-husband. Why do the Republicans stand by him when they were so holy when Clinton was President? I will never understand it. Yes, I do. Holding onto power is more important than integrity. So disturbing.
Pene
Shamelessly trying to discredit Ambassador Taylor, who has served presidents from Ronald Reagan through Trump as a "Never Trumper" is a fine example of how low the republicans are willing to go to prop up this morally corrupt president.
What about Clinton? If a lesser person did what he did to Monica Lewinsky, he would be fired. But Clinton got away with it. So much for clever arguments.
Very wellp written. At age 84, I can remember a Republican Party of considerable integrity, when the Party was divided into those who were more conservative on fiscal matters, who were known as the Taft group,and those known as the Rockefeller Republicans, who were more inclined to vote for needed social programs in our country. Divisive and hateful relations of each wing with the other and with Democrats were rare, and indeed Congress people actually lived in Washington and their children attended the same schools, unlike the situation today, when many go home after a 4 day workweek in D.C. Today we have a Republican Party whose representatives in the House and Senate appear to be willing to go to the mat to defend a president who is a conspiracy theorist and spews divisive and hateful material with his abundant tweets and seems willing to do anything to remain in office and to form relationships with autocrats in many countries, while ignoring our longtime democratic allies. Where are those in the Republican Party who are willing to put the common good of our people over that of a mean-spirited. narcissistic, incompetent president?
So, seems like the Republican Party is saying that if I’d tried to rob a bank, but got no money, there’d be no crime.
Today's witnesses painted a clear picture of the Trump administration willing to throw Ukraine to the wolves (Russia) for the sake of political gain. I'm filled with horror and sadness. This administration must be shown the door. Enough is enough.
Such excellent analogies, Mr Kristof. Thank you, as always for telling it like it is. I hope someone can take the blinders off of the GOP and that somewhere one of them has a beating heart under a functioning brain and will lead them to the end of this abuse of our country and our people...toward a brighter future for all.
It is absolutely true he would've been removed from any other position he ever had – he's always worked for a sketchy family business so he doesn't know how to behave. Working for a corporation, you take many many hours of courses in ethics in every conceivable situation. If the Senate Republicans were to act honorably, admit the wrongdoing and remove him from office, they may do very well in the next election. Get credit for doing the right thing. Nominate someone that will free us from this exhausting nightmare of this presidency. Someone reasonable who will act in the best interests of the country. They have their judges and their tax cuts. The Republicans in the Senate view Trump as he does - some sort of an unbeatable, powerful figure. This adds to the lore surrounding him - "winning" (Charlie Sheen-wise). I have never seen so many people in high positions willing to be viewed as so stupid for another person.
The fanatical, unswerving loyalty, call it almostt religious devotion, we see in Trump supporters, deserves to be labeled. "Cultist" will do very well. If I were a Dem strategist, I would tell my people to go heavy on the word. Donald Trump is a cult leader and he is surrounded by cult followers. Nothing would anger Trump fanatics more, or is more likely to help them come to see how blinkered is they belief system.
The real question is: what is the quid pro quo between the GOP...
and Donald Trump?
....or if President Obama had done any of the things trump has.
Trump is a mirror and a mimic. He can't be anybody other than the Oligarchs, Politicians, Business Leaders, Media Moguls and voters who depend on him to realize their fears and fantasies. Trump will only lose when he's disappointed any of these groups beyond their tolerance level. He can't be fired or subject to criminal investigation any more than disloyalty, corruption and failed citizenship of those that enable him.
I have a question with respect to the actual recording of the July 25th call between trump and the Ukrainian President Zelensky vs the rough transcript that was released. If there is a trial by the Senate, can this recording be requested or can trump still stonewall as he has been doing?
Horribly, Trump's history is filled with his ability to "get away with" his malfeasance--maybe, just maybe until now. His is a classic case of an abuser, with the power differential "perfect" in its involvement. And who likes or even defends an abuser? Many if not all Republicans, I gather. There Social Darwinist philosophy is laid bare--winning and defeating are the only thing, not the truth or honoring an oath of office.
Welcome to New America, where all that matters is power and money, and everything and everyone is for sale--championed by McConnell and Graham.
If Trump were anyone else, he’d be . . . . A human being with a conscience and a rudimentary sense of right and wrong?
1
Trump is not the president of a nation of laws and democracy. He’s the president of a nation of greed, bigotry and corruption. When this nation was formed, our written constitution talked about protecting freedom and democracy (for some), but greed, bigotry and reverence for money and power were forces as prevalent, or perhaps more prevalent in determining our country’s policies and the structure of our society.
Rather than just being appalled at how anti-democratic and anti-rational thinking Trump and his disgusting, often criminal conduct is,
we need to face that he and Fox News and Trump Republicans are our own creation. There is disease at the core of our nation.
Totally agree Mr. Kristof. But imagine in any of the analogies you used that the principal, journalist, bureaucrat or hospital head had a brother who spoke directly to millions of viewers every night on an opinion program and he advocated on behalf of his brother even though he knew he was guilty. Then he contacted his friends in the police force and local government to create a conspiracy theory that focused accusations at the complainant. They say she beats her dog. They say she is a stalker, etc. My bet is that the low level official is not punished.
Getting back to the hearings, reality and truth impeaches in the House, alternative reality and delusion acquits in the Senate.
1
“I’d like you to do me a favor, though,” the director might respond. He would suggest that her Social Security payments could resume, but he’d like the widow to give him her late husband’s collection of rare coins.
To take this analogy a step further, suppose the local newspaper printed an article about this abuse and the director relented. Social Security payments resumed and there was no gift of the coin collection. Would this exonerate the director from any wrong doing?
1
It seems that as the impeachment plays out, by far the most probable outcome is that Trump is impeached in the House, is not convicted in the Senate, and then Trump claims full exoneration. Unless something really changes that influences Republicans to uphold their oaths of office, Trump will be on the ballot in November 2020.
The only other intervening activity that could change opinions and actions is if a mass of people started and sustained a full-scale protest either on the Mall or near the White House. There would need to be tens, if not hundreds of thousands of protesters, and it would need to be sustained for weeks. This is unlikely, but seems to be the only option for the people to get heard and actions to remove Trump get done.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for a clear and concise comparison to the crime that has been committed against our Democracy. Others may view it as a Ukrainian issue, just like they view the problems with Trump's treatment of immigrants from Latin America, or black Americans, but it is so much more. Fascism has come to America and Americans better wake up and recognize what is at stake, when they allow their representatives to be loyal to a person and not to our country and our Constitution and Our Democracy and Our People.
1
Of course, what Trump did is a firing offense. What he did was borderline treason for an American president.
But he also represents the core of the Republican right, a core so indoctrinated in it's beliefs—all this country's wrongs are caused by immigrants and the poor, we must do everything to keep brown people from rising in society even if that includes denying everyone government-based health care, white men are losing their rights)—that they will do anything to prop up their poster child and back him no matter what he does.
It's all about keeping rich, white men in power, at the expense of everyone else. Even the poor, uneducated white voters, who are completely delusional if they think that 1) Donald Trump cares anything about them at all and 2) that they will someday become a millionaire like he is. He doesn't and they won't. In fact, a big part of the plan of the super wealthy is that, to stay rich, they have to prevent other people from becoming rich. There is only so much pie that can be cut up.
It's also the main cause of our society's rapidly growing chasm of polarization.
The breaking point is coming and soon. It will probably be a a massive global economic breakdown, as that is the only thing that will get the attention of the wealthy and those who support them.
1
Focusing on the implications of what President Trump tried to do to the people of Ukraine, apparently to fulfill his personal political aspirations, sends chills down my spine.
Though we have yet to see what consequences such corrupt “asks” might have on Ukraine, one can assume Russia is paying close attention and will take advantage of the weaknesses displayed by President Trump.
Some in this country appear to take their Freedoms, Rights, and Liberties for granted or they think such gifts are reserved just for them and no one else.
Having lived in western Europe when the Berlin Wall went up, when threats of Soviet-backed invasion were constant, when so many in the East were trying to flee to the free West, when so many died trying, what it meant to live under tyranny and what it meant to live in a democracy were quite clear.
It does not take close proximity or personal experience to understand these things, that the biggest threats to tyranny are free, independent people, and the biggest threat to a free and independent people is corruption, the life’s blood of the tyrant.
President Trump threatened our national security, the national security of Ukraine, the security of a free Europe with a corrupt ask for personal gain. President Trump’s willingness to corrupt demonstrates his willingness to be corrupted. The tyrant, Russia, will take advantage. The question is whether Americans will fight against tyranny and corruption or succumb to it.
Thank you Nicholas. It is simple, understandable; and we've all experienced this activity in some way in our own lives. But I've worked for folks who got away with it, even after I blew the whistle. It took years for folks to "catch on"...perhaps they were being bribed? I am surprised that every newspaper in the world's headlines do not today say: "Trump Got Caught Using Taxpayer Assistance to Ukraine for Dirt on Biden". Keep up the good work. I absolutely love your sense of humanity and am sorry you are suffering along with the people in Ukraine.
1
No, not "if Trump were anyone else" but, if the Republicans in the Congress were who they once were. As low grade as Trump's behavior has been, the Republicans in the Congress are racing to the bottom with him. This process is not only a trial of Trump but all the Congressional Republicans who are derelict in their duties.
2
I’m willing to say “there was no quid pro quo,” it was worse than that. It was “if you do not do as I ask, I will see to it you don’t get the support you need,” a threat as opposed to a mutually beneficial deal. I can see how that, taken in the abstract, might be good, bad, or neutral, if not for the “ask,” the person asking, and that person’s motive. In this Ukraine matter our President is asking a foreign leader for something useful primarily to his political future, a personal favor, and using the power of his office to get it. The “ask” is prima facie evidence of corrupt intent in the use of, abuse of, his office. Unlike, hopefully, other nations, this country does not empower our leaders by law or by a “wink and a nod” to seek private gain from public office. Trump has violated the trusteeship granted him and deserves removal.
Mr. Kristof, thank you for this clear and cogent article; if only the Republican's elected to Congress and their "base" would read it. Even absent that, this article clearly spells out why the House must vote to impeach Trump even if McConnell's Senate will not convict. These hearings demonstrate why we need non-partisan professionals in Congress and why we need a non-partisan, free Press to help inform the American public. Saying "transparency" (one of Trump's favorite words) is not enough, there must be people in gov't and in the media who actually believe in transparency to raise country over personal or party needs. Thank you, and thank you Ambassador Taylor and Mr. Kent.
For comparison: Israeli police investigations have resulted in recommendations for the indictment of Prime Minister Netanyahu in at least two cases classified as bribery. These cases did not involve favors in exchange for gifts or money (though such charges do arise in at least one other case). The quid pro in the two cases involved Netanyahu receiving favorable media coverage in exchange for his using his official powers to help these media moguls with competitive or regulatory issues. There is a good chance that Netanyahu’s own attorney general may go ahead with the indictments.
The similarity with the Ukraine related issues is obvious. There’s little reasonable doubt that Trump’s actions are impeachable within the historical constitution understanding of high crimes and misdemeanors as abuses of the public trust and his fiduciary duties. But those actions also satisfy any reasonable definition of bribery, both criminally and in the constitutional sense of “bribery” per Article 2, Section 4.
"What if the wrongdoing simply involved the head of a Social Security office, a principal, a hospital director or a journalist? Why allow a president to get away with what would be a firing offense for anyone else?"
Nicholas, the answer is in your question, because he is the President. Trump's lawyers are right now arguing in court that a President not only cannot be charged with a crime (wrongdoing), but also cannot even be investigated. Trump along with ATG Barr along with many in the GOP are in the process of turning the Presidency, or at least this Presidency into a kingship.
1
Trump's protection from Senate and other Republicans is near complete. Fox News, Limbaugh, Brietbart and others even more untruthful and fringe continue to feed a distortion curve that has so unshaped then reshaped tangible and quantifiable facts into a fantasy-reality that the aforementioned politicians only have to ask and they receive appropriate results from their Base. Thus achieving this criminal enterprise now residing in the White House.
It was just a matter of time before they coaxed someone as bad as Trump into the position they needed him.
8
An overlooked fact in superb essays like this one is that the Javelin missiles sought by Zelensky in the aid package Trump sequestered are the main DETERRENT against assault by TANK forces. The best defense of a country and the greatest safety for its soldiers is deterrence. This is the heart of the Russian hope for their Ukrainian campaign, to deprive the victim of the kind of support that can oppose them. Trumpski.
2
Anyone who argues in Trump's defense (about anything that he is doing) should ask themselves whether they would argue the same if it were Obama. I doubt that anyone would say they would.
3
This gravity of the current situation is (when cleaved from the odour of partisanship) is not just about President Trump; it is about the presidents that will come after--and the rules that will--or, won't apply to running a functioning Democracy. Or not doing so at all.
How anyone can defend Trump, in any way, is incomprehensible. Loyal Trumpists are allegedly so afraid of getting on his bad side, they believe they will lose power and their seat in office if they go against him.
This shows a remarkable lack of faith in their constituents, and the American public, who, in general are in support of democracy, the Constitution and honesty.
One has to wonder why these Republicans are so ardent in their empty defense of Trump. Perhaps they literally have not delivered anything positive to their constituents--like more Medicare, education funding, voting rights laws, some form of gun control, clean air and water laws--and have left themselves open to losing.
The Republicans could turn this investigation around by actually searching for and exposing the truth behind Trump's "irregular channel" in the Ukraine, his seeking of foreign aid to win the 2020 campaign.
They could ask about knowledge of other ongoing foreign-supported election schemes, like pro-Trump Russian propaganda on Facebook.
They could be heroes, not desperate dissemblers.
2
Why does Trump continue to think that he is above the law as President? I guess he never read our constitution. Also, it seems apparent to me that most Republicans care more about keeping their jobs than they do about the country they have been elected to serve.
4
Nicholas Kristof is correct that most officials or executives could not get away with Trump's conduct and would be fired.
However....
When a big business (like the GOP) has a high profile public image and needs customer support, weird things happen when there are scandals.
Major League sports, for example, pretend they're concerned about players accused of abuse.
TV news looks the other way when a star anchor harasses women for years.
Politics is more like those businesses. Popularity and money win.
2
Your column made a very good point by putting Trump and his actions in the context of other positions of leadership. If Trump was the manager of a local Dairy Queen, the same people who are now are his fervent supporters would be demanding that he be fired over his lackadaisical moral and ethical behavior.
4
Actually, if Trump were anyone else, if by anyone else you mean Presidents, or politicians, there never would have been any controversy. Everything would have stayed behind the screen of media deference and Washington toadyism. But he is not an insider and his views and plans differ from the disastrous policies that have been employed over the last 75 years so he has to go. You should know better.
1
@Daphne Fale equivalence defense..nothing stayed behind media defense when Clinton was caught nor when Nixon was.. so this bloviating against news media citing them as Fake is how people in power now normalize there behavior for you
1
@Saby
Trump has been "caught" doing anything.
Excellent article. But, I doubt it means what Nicholas Kristof thinks it means.
The president of Ukraine is not like an American widow, military assistance is not like an entitlement, and the POTUS is not like a government official, especially in foreign policy.
Ultimately, military assistance, like all foreign policy, is for the interests of the U.S. While not alone in judging what is in the best interests of the U.S., the POTUS is much more than "primus inter pares". And, if a senator does not agree with the president's judgment, that is a policy difference not a criminal issue.
Quid pro quo in military assistance? There had better be, or I would want to know what is going on.
1
Or more simply, as George Conway asked, what would the Republicans do if a Democratic President acted that way?
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To add to this I would make one simple analog, which I wish the Democrats would make at the hearing, although they are doing just fine. The argument is whether Republicans would have the US legal system spare a terrorist who was arrested prior to committing a crime, by vigilant FBI agents, based on conversations they monitored. Would they suggest that the crime was not committed or the i for,action collected by informants who became worried about a potential action be viewed as hearsay or would they choose to throw the book at the potential perpetrator?
1
Many who still defend Trump are really defending themselves , in my opinion . Some are just uninformed but the others must feel conned , played for dupes , deceived and foolish . It’s not easy to admit total blindness and ignorance to even mundane issues but being so far off the mark with issues that they profess to hold so dearly , like patriotism and nationalism , must be devastating to admit and realize .
5
Good analogies, Mr. Kristof. But not nearly serious enough.
Trump's game-playing had, among other effects, direct complicity in the deaths of Ukranians.
It's more as if a high school principal expelled the chief's son but offered to readmit him if the chief released the principal's brother, who was being held on charges of serial rape.
5
Nick, you ask: Why allow a president to get away with what would be a firing offense for anyone else? I say: What he did does not rise to the politically charged penalty of impeachment, let the voters, not partisan Democrats, decide if our president went too far. As a Republican and retired military, I fear for my country if any of the Democrat candidates are elected president. Even with all the questionable and possibly illegal things Trump has done, I’m sticking with him until he shoots someone on 5th Ave without a good reason.
2
@Markano Did you ever hear of the Constitution? Trump and every single person in our government swore an oath to uphold the Constitution. Trump has violated this oath over and over again, and MUST be impeached and removed from office.
Fear for our country if a Democrat is elected? Really? Worse that the criminal Trump literally taking orders from Putin?
6
@Markano
So if Trump shoots someone on 5th Avenue and Fox News and enough Republican Congressmen make the case that he had “a good reason” you’d be okay with that?
Good luck sticking with candidates who do questionable and illegal things.
2
@Markano -
It is clear that ideology has "trumped" your belief in the Constitution and the rule of law. You forget you oath, sir.
One that I took too.
US Army
1984-88
2
Nicholas, Trump has done this his entire life, meaning extortion. This Ukraine thing is a perfect example of how Trump has always operated. And, he has always gotten away with it.
For example, Trump in the 1980s borrowed excessive amounts of money from banks that he knew he could not repay, and then, he would threaten those banks with default unless they renegotiated the terms of those loans like writing down some of the loan (haircut). In effect, Trump was stealing money from the banks by knowingly and probably corruptly obtaining large sums of money (loans), and then forcing banks through the threat of default to reduce the principal on those loan. Remember, Trump in 2016 on the campaign trail said he could solve America's debt problem by forcing bondholders to take a haircut with the threat that if they didn't take less that he would give them nothing back.
This also explains why Trump loves trade tariffs, or putting children in cages or departing children from parents, etc.
Create pain or threat of pain in order to take something from others for ones own gain personal gain. Do this favor for me or suffer. This is Trump in a nutshell.
7
Attempted bribery, attempted extortion and attempted robbery are all criminal offenses. End of story. The prosecution rests.
7
The Republicans counterintuitively lucked into something when they settled on one of the worst persons in the world as their candidate for president. That is if someone has decided that they are ok with something that’s been scraped off the bottom of the barrel it may be very difficult to alter their opinion. A politician of relatively high standards, be it John Kerry or John McCain (not talking about either’s positions here, just their professionalism, integrity and dedication to the country), can suffer greatly from any perceived smudge on their reputation, even if the rumors are baseless lies. Like what’s happening to Joe Biden at the moment. An analogy might be a five star restaurant that is threatened by a bad review, whereas a fast food chain doesn’t have to worry about that. Its customers know the food is bad (and bad for them) going in and they don’t care. They just want what’s fast, cheap and familiar.
6
Trump is a smart man with an idea that's never been tried. Just be open about government corruption and say, "Hey, you knew what I was when you elected me". When he lies, it's with a wink-- it's part of deal. If he really tried to lie, Republicans would have to call it corruption like they finally did with Nixon. Our end of the deal is to accept the outrage as long as he's open and it's with a wink. Trump makes the truth easy, like watching television. We just need to follow along and let everyone make a little money. Those of us who don't accept the deal only seem to make him mad. But we're part of the deal too. He needs someone to be outraged. We make his deal work. That's entertainment.
25
Great article, as usual, Nicholas!
I have to disagree with you on one point. The president is fully capable of convincing his loyalists that what he's done is not an outrageous abuse of power.
I think the president firmly believes what he did was normal. He often speaks of the US and our political institutions with such cynicism - putting us on a moral equivalence with the likes of Putin "You think our country's so innocent" he once said. Deriding the concept that we have a fair judicial system "Obama Judges" "So-called Judge". Believing Putin over his own intelligence services about election interference.
I also think he can convince his loyalists, whatever percentage of the country they are, that his actions are, therefore, acceptable. The argument might be that the Democrats and "never Trump" Republicans behave similarly when they hold office and they're just jealous losers.
It's a deeply cynical narrative you might see endorsed by the news outlet RT. Maybe that's not coincidental.
I believe America was, is, and will be better than Trump assumes. I pray that more people will see it this way too. But unfortunately, I disagree that everyone can see that his actions regarding Ukraine were an outrageous abuse of power.
30
@ML May I ask what is the basis for the belief that America will be better than Trump assumes?
If 40% approve his actions as president, how does one discount the possibility that he could add sufficient loyalists to have a majority (or whatever number it would take for him to retain power) and go forward as he has for almost 3 years - deplorably a euphemism imo - possibly even having removed the 2 term presidential limit (see F NYC Mayor Bloomberg).
If one's faith in the 50+% who disapprove, to right the American ship, is the basis for the belief that America will be better, that's one thing. If not, this observer is eager to learn of the other bases.
1
Good analogy up-top, Nicholas. I think systematic analogizing is key to fighting Trump corruption. The media and Democrats have to know that a fair majority don't relate to legalisms, so need a decoding campaign. The Trump propagandists are already doing that for Trump.
Incidentally, an even better analogy is Donald the low-ranking official phoning a _young_ widow about her claim and requesting _a bit more_ than just money as a favor.
1
Wow, Mr. Kristof, those are pretty perfect examples you cite of "what if" and "who, if".
How this man has remained out of jail these last 35 or so years is anyone's wonder. Maybe the gods of Karma wanted it to be in front of the world and in front of cameras to hold his downfall? Fitting place for it, I say.
2
Sorry, Kristof, as you've noted in the majority of the article, this alone adds up to worse than a "firing offense." It is corruption to the core. I still can't see how anyone who voted for Trump thought that he would do anything but enrich himself.
4
I've similarly mused that Trump & Co's fixation on the identity of the whistleblower is a little bit like someone, upon arrest for murder, immediately asking "Who tattled?"
3
But many folks don't understand that all of Trump's behaviors and words stem from his profound personality system of Narcissism - which doesn't allow him to be wrong. They are canny and smart about how to get people to believe hem and follow - like a cult. He knows 'more than the generals'; he doesn't need a security report' ; he knows what is happening in the world - NOT. He cares about nothing or nobody but himself. The Republicans have bought into this charade for their own gain - they think. But they will go down with the Trump Titanic when the iceberg finally hits.
2
If he is not fired (either via impeachment or losing reelection) and not eventually criminally prosecuted, the message to millions of Americans will once again be that rules and laws do not apply if you are rich, powerful, and once again, a white male.
4
Similarly, I've always felt that most people would never hire someone like Trump even as an employee. They'd never approve of him as a son-in-law. They'd be embarrassed by him if he were their uncle. Having such a person as president is an unimaginably painful chapter in American history. It literally hurts every day he's in the White House.
3
I hope we will have a Democratic presidency and Congress, as well as most state legislatures. Given that opportunity, Democrats (such as they are) should all race to amend the Constitution to set in stone the power of Congress to balance the power of the president, maybe even lessen that power, and get the money/bribery out of politics. If they fail to do this, we will go right back to the criminals like tRump and his plundering gang. Let's not got back to 2008. That is just not good enough for this day and age. Exert your power over the billionaires, through voting.
2
Mr. Trump is not the anomaly that Mr. Kristof imagines. When Reagan was caught selling arms to an enemy in order to fund terrorism in Central America, he escaped justice by stonewalling & obfuscating. When GW Bush constructed a (rather flimsy) false case to launch an illegal war that sacrificed the national's security to private profits, no one even bothered to conduct a serious investigation.
3
You state the obvious but ignore the important question. Why? Why is Trump able to violate the constitution, abandon allies, court relationship with tyrants, openly lie, demean opponents and otherwise destroy the republic? I have suspicions, but i wish Times' writers would present their opinions more frequently. Trump, particularly if re-elected, is on a course that will irreparably damage American democracy. We must determine, and then attack, the values, or lack thereof, that drives so many voters to pledge blind and irrational support for this madman.
4
Get over it, trumpy isn't like anyone else. Rehashing the same old observations isn't going to get him out, or us free.To his base, he's simply sticking it in the eye of the 'establishment'. Focus on what you can tell the few in MI, PA and WI about the folly of supporting him. And the wisdom of supporting the Democrats.
1
If trump is not a Manchurian candidate, Russia could not have hoped for better. They, with trump's assistance, are removing the blame of election interference while weakening the Ukraine. Syria has gained control with an endless civil war and the Kurds have been neutralized, although trump keeps the oil! Iran has been embolden by sheer incompetence. White Nationalism has found a home in America. Finally, the icing on the cake, NATO has been weakened possibly fatally. Congratulations, Putin, the cost of a hotel and those tapes were worth the effort.
3
I agree 100%. Having worked for both public and private companies during my 42 years of work, Trump would be fired for many of the comments, tweets, bad behavior and many other things he has done and said during his presidency. He is the Teflon Don. He has never worked for another person or company a day in his life. The saddest outcome of all of this is that the clown still gets a stamp and an official portrait. I wonder wear that will hang.
3
The bitterness of defeat still stings to the bone. The conman that’s Trump never should have been elected in the first place, not when he received three million fewer votes than Clinton. Rehashing the results of the 2016 election serves no purpose, except that, if the tables had been turned and Hillary won the presidency, the Republicans would have been at the doors of the Oval Office, pitchforks in hand, demanding her resignation, never mind her impeachment at the moment she took the oath of office.
Trump's presidency has been has been one marked by scandal after scandal since day one. Why he still enjoys the support of voters and congressional Republicans is the biggest mystery of all, its simply incomprehensible to me.
1
"Shouldn’t we hold the president of the United States to as high a standard...?"
No: we should hold the president to a much, much higher standard, because a president's abuse of power is so much more consequential than that of anyone further down. To do the situation justice, if Trump is indeed guilty of extortion, he should be looking at spending the next 307 years in some nice supermax facility.
Indeed, I'd say that this should apply to all persons with elevated power and authority. If you want the power and prestige and goodies that come from a high position, great; but at the same time you acquire enhanced responsibility, too. The higher up you are, the more draconian the penalties for abuse should be.
For better or worse, we're stuck with this "all men are equal before the law" thing. Obviously, in practice we often don't even manage that much---the little people get crushed while the the big guys tend to get away with it. But every so often I start thinking about what I want in Constitution 2.0, and making responsibility commensurate with power is way up on my list.
2
I have a question: If I were to receive a subpoena to testify in court and I refused to appear, what are my consequences?
2
A quiet neighborhood is infiltrated by a drug dealer and his gang. The drug dealer wants this neighborhood to expand his territory. He burns homes, kills a few dozen people and chases out a number of families to sets up shop.
The city council votes to spend $50,000 on protecting this neighborhood knowing that if they don’t help this neighborhood the gang could eventually take over the whole city.
The mayor however, doesn’t release the money. Through back channels he sends his own strong men and tells the neighborhood that they need to make a public statement saying that the neighbors actually believe the person behind this drug gang is the mayor’s political opponent. The neighborhood knows this to be false and yet if they don’t comply with his demands they will eventually lose their homes and neighborhood. A whistleblower inside the mayor’s office exposes the scheme. Phone transcripts, testimony of the strongmen, and even the mayor’s own administration complete the picture of this ugly graft.
The mayor gets wind of the whistleblower and releases the money and the neighborhood doesn’t have to make an announcement about the mayor’s political opponent. But the scheme is uncovered, the mayor is exposed as corrupt and the city is sick that their own mayor would put his citizens at risk for his own gain.
Would you trust this mayor to have the city's best interest at heart and allow him to stay in office or would you demand he step down?
56
@My Country Tis of Thee
But Ukrainians (the townspeople in your analogy) are not the president's (the mayor's in your analogy) constituents.
The question is how much we would care if our mayor was imposing these conditions on a community states away. What if most of us couldn't find that community on a map? (I would venture to guess most Americans can't locate Ukraine on a map) Would we still care if our mayor did that?
1
@ML The reason we care is because Ukraine is on the front lines of OUR national security. We are the neighbors across town. If Russia is allowed to take Ukraine, who or what is next? How much will this cost us in the end? Not only will we have lost the confidence of Europe but ultimately we will have to take on Russia with a lot more tax dollars and a lot less clout.
7
@ML
The "how much would WE care if OUR mayor was imposing these conditions" in your hypothetical seems to mean "how much would "the people in my political party" care if "the mayor, who was in our party" was imposing these sanctions.
Regardless, that is not the entire question, because even supposing no one cared at all about Ukraine, or foreign policy, or what withholding the aid might mean to them, Trump was still asking for foreign help to cheat in the upcoming election. Even the most staunch isolationist should care about that.
6
The problem is that there are currently 2 different universes in (political) perception in America that could hardly be more different. One half of the population, the supporters of Trump, see and believe only what Fox-News, Breitbart and the other arch-conservative media try to sell them every day as so-called facts. For this half of the population, Trump could probably actually shoot someone on the public street, and this half would continue to believe that Trump is the God-sent savior of all their evils. The other half of the population watches CNN, MSNBC and reads WaPo and NYT and thinks Trump himself is the evil. Whether the impeachment procedure fundamentally changes this different perception, I dare to doubt. In addition, the GOP has degenerated into a backbone loose party of Trumpists, which is now only geared towards maintaining power at all costs. It is probably up to the voters to decide next year on the path the country will take in the coming years.
2
"If Trump Were Anyone Else", you say,
then he would have been fired.
But he’s the Prez, so he will stay,
until his base gets tired.
If I were you and you were me,
which sadly is not the case
this a different thing would be.
Meanwhile, Trump stays in place.
Thank you so much.
Your article really made it clear. Trump IS guilty.
2
The impeachment hearings are the proof that the DNC belives it cannot win the next elections on substance.
What would be their substance?
The status quo in Washington DC over the last quarter of century?!
Imagine another scenario: It’s 2040 and the new editions of high school history books have arrived on desks in classrooms. As your class begins the chapter on the Trump impeachment, you and your classmates read with disbelief about Trump’s actions and cannot understand how anyone could have voted against impeachment in the House and removal in the Senate. Duh! It’s like, SO obvious! And then you see a list of Congressmen who voted exactly that way, and to your silent horror, there’s your grandpa’s name. As you slink further down into your chair, your classmates begin to turn around and look at you, because they know, from your bragging, that your grandpa was a Congressman way back in 2019. He never spoke about the hearings, but your parents had told you that he served on an investigative committee. As the full horror of his unpatriotic behavior is realized, you know that you will never have respect for your grandpa again. Even worse, when you later check clips from the hearings online, there’s your grandpa, surrounded by his fellow Republicans, making all kinds of excuses in front of the cameras for Trump’s behavior.
1
The Trump phenomenon transcends logic, rationality or common sense.
The theory, "What you expect, is what you get," explains it. Trump so intensely, so indomitably expects unquestioned adoration, this is what he receives. His will is so strong, his belief in his perfection so impenetrable, it is taking every ounce of a concerted effort from the House (Including NY prosecutors and the state's AG) to bring him down.
The Svengali-like hold he has on his base goes beyond normal to the realm of metaphysics. Some GOP members of Congress have fallen under his spell. The rest are going along because they're cowards.
Fortunately, there are enough of us still with one foot firmly planted on terra firma who believe in the rule of law. It's going to be a mighty fall when it happens.
His minions will not go quietly but I have faith in our law enforcement agencies and our jurists that the former will quell the violence and the latter will make appropriate decisions when Trump sues over the decision to impeach.
1
"But that July 26 phone call suggests that Trump was directly pushing for the investigations as his top priority with Ukraine."
"Suggests", as used in this sentence should be replaced with "clearly shows."
1
I've presented the same argument to Trump supporters I've encountered and their answers lack any objective reasoning. They default to the talking points they've heard on Fox News and are in denial that there's anything wrong with Trump's actions.
Everybody does it, it's not illegal, it's just sour grapes over the election, it's just another witch hunt are the typical responses.
I've personally given up the idea that Trump supporters even fully understand what he's been accused of, or that they don't care, or both. Like participants in a Pavlov experiment Trump or Fox News rings a bell and they salivate.
During Watergate, there wasn't a Fox News, but there were the Chicago Tribune, and the St. Louis Globe-Democrat (one of their editorial writers, Patrick Buchanan, became a Nixon speechwriter), and the New York Daily News, which all gave Nixon's crimes a pass as long as they could. And, on the radio, there were commentators like Paul Harvey, who thought Nixon (and, in his time, Joe McCarthy) could do no wrong. Don't sentimentalize the past.
35
@Paul Stamler
None of those papers had a national audience the size of Fox's audience.
And none of those papers had convinced a third of the population they were "fair and balanced" while literally any other source of news was part of a Communist Plot to Destroy America and Take Your Cheeseburgers. I suspect none of them fed instructions directly to the president via the leggy blondes on their morning shows.
3
@Paul Stamler
Operative word in your post: "as long as they could."
There came a point when even many of the staunchest Nixon supporters had to admit he was a crook and had to go. Fortunately, he had enough sense and, dare I say, political savvy, to leave on his own. Trump has none of that.
Though I'm sure you could still find a few people who still think Nixon was railroaded, it's probably not even enough to field a punt return team. So, maybe, in 20 years, when Trump is dead and 20/20 hindsight takes over, the view of Trump will be the same as Nixon as more people come to their senses and filter out the propaganda and lies.
2
If Trump were anyone else, he wouldn't have been able to reach the Oval Office. It's precisely why he was elected and his support has remained solid.
1
To put Mr. Kristof’s thought experiment another way: If they’re being honest with themselves, how many of Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters would tolerate, let alone shrug off, his outrageous yet habitual behavior in a friend, a family member, a neighbor or a co-worker? The lying, the swindling, the self-dealing, the repeated and flagrant infidelities?
2
there is far too much emphasis on quid pro quo and whether or not there was a transaction. Federal law says the solicitation, acceptance, or receiving, of anything of value in connection with an election is a crime. Merely asking for a favor associated in any way with a political rival is a crime. so all this nonsense about how they got the weapons anyway and whether there was a quid pro quo is secondary to the basic crime.
1
Although I describe myself as an "Independent", I have voted primarily for Democratic Candidates during the past four decades. I have also voted and supported and worked for Republican Candidates like Senator Dave Durenberger during this time period.
Observing the Impeachment Hearings today, I find myself pondering where the responsible Republican legislators have gone. I am sickened and saddened by the state of affairs that has evolved since Donald Trump became POTUS. Where are the responsible Republicans? How can Republican Senators and Congressional Representative avoid the disaster that is unfolding and threatening to destroy the foundation of our American Democracy? Donald Trump's behavior is irresponsible, dishonest, manipulative and disgusting. He needs to be held accountable for his actions. I want to see responsible Republican Leaders step up to the plate and demand that Trump is held accountable for his actions. Every single Senator and Congressional Leader of ALL Political Parties has an obligation to read and review the transcripts of the admirable and courageous people who have testified. This is not a time for ANYONE to stick their head in the sand. The very survival of the American Democracy is at stake. WAKE UP AMERICA and demand justice. Simply put, Mr. Trump's behavior and his actions make him unfit for office. WE THE PEOPLE owe it to coming generations to restore justice to our government. WAKE UP AMERICA!
1
After listening to the opening statements of both Mr. Kent and Mr. Taylor, I thought two things; one, Trump is cooked. And two, Rudy Giuliani will be chucked under the bus within 24 hrs in an attempt to reverse number one.
I had failed to account for the ‘waving of the shiny objects’ defense. The Bidens, The “hearsay”. The eventual release of funds. The statements by Zelensky. The comment by Obama to Medvedev! I’m sure Jim Jordan’s staccato attack had them swooning in the Fox world, although it was clearly meant not to clarify, but muddy the waters. A college professor giving a delivery like that would be considered a joke.
I too miss the Republican Party I used to know, but there seem to be few vestiges left. They seem to be concentrated in the world of Latter Day Saints and journalism. Sadly, I don’t think they can resurrect the Party from the ash heap that will remain when Trump’s reign is done.
The republicans enabling and protecting Trump should stand up during these impeachment hearings and rip up the constitution. "Get over it!" Why beat around the bush.
1
Your examples are excellent, and the ongoing defense of this corrupt man by Congressional figures and right wing media is shameful and basically unpatriotic. Trump's handling of the Ukraine plays into the hands of Putin, who has already invaded the Eastern section - Donbass - and would like to seize even more territory. Trump's flirtation with Putin and his undermining of NATO seriously weakens the USA's security and the Western Alliance. Putin could not ask for a better "handmaiden." It is as if Trump were a Russian agent, not an American at all. We need a house cleaning — a White House cleaning — and a return to leadership that is honest and honorable.
Thank you Mr. Kristof. You have very clearly modeled trumps offense in ways his thick headed loyal followers cannot claim to misunderstand. Or at least I hope not...
1
As usual, a find column by Mr. Kristof.
It reminds us that common sense prevails until...
...it doesn't.
I fear we are in for a long, rough ride.
1
Good analogies and right on-point, but this is nothing new for Donald J. Trump. Because he's wealthy, unscrupulous, and has a cadre of vicious lawyers, he's been getting away with 'shooting somebody on 5th Ave.' his entire life.
Just one example: how in the world was he granted a gaming license in New Jersey? Trump's lavish "gifts" to NJ officials and known ties to New York mobsters would have immediately disqualified anyone else. Hmmm, he was refused a gaming license in Nevada for some of the same reasons.
1
I thought it was Joseph Kennedy senior who stole it for his son.
Whatever.
Even Richard Nixon stood down rather than risk destroying the union back then.
That was then.
So please Mr. Kristof, call this what it is, attempted extortion. Attempted extortion is most definitely a crime.
2
This case is like the examples given in this article except national security has been compromised for personal gain. This describes treason.
1
The beginning of the end of Trump's political career as he plans to go back to being a tv entertainer apprentice white house as low brow entertainment will keep his base happy.
Republicans:
Used to care about deficits...until Trump raised them 60% vs. Obama policy continuation.
Used to consider an endorsement from Russia a death sentence for a politician...until Trump cozied up to Putin, encouraged him to interfere in our elections, failed to report said interference, delayed any response to protecting our elections, and hurt Ukraine’s ability to defend itself.
Used to pretend character was important in a leader, until forced to ignore serial sexual assault allegations and mistress payoffs.
All this is overlooked, and why? It has to be about Making America White Again; no other shoe fits.
If Fox news was around in Watergate, the burglars were really democrats dressed up like burglars and the police that caught them were secret deep state actors, the tapes were a plant and Nixon's voice was dubbed in by deep state people and never Nixon people and the courts were all Kennedy appointees and this was a plot to frame Nixon to get him impeached. If Fox news was around 40 percent would have believed this nonsense and Nixon would have not been impeached and been a hero for standing up to the insane liberals.
1
Absolutely. Anyone who did this would be in the hot seat, fired, jailed, shunned... take your pick... This is why this man has to be held accountable, impeached, not reelected and maybe even jailed. If he wins this round, that means the end of America. We are better than this. We are better than him. The GOP through their actions or inactions are becoming increasingly complicit of a criminal. It's that simple. Today they made fools of themselves, criticized all they could but would not actually come to his defense, which is interesting. We, the People will vote them out. In other countries they go down on the streets ( Hong Kong, case in point). Here we have to wait for hearings, and trials and elections. This is a crisis and we need to take care of it. Are We, the People, going to get on top of this and finally win over the criminal acts of this illegitimate, corrupt and inept president? I should hope so.
When Trump was campaigning in 2015 and praising Putin as a strong exemplary leader compared to President Obama, he suggested that it might be a good idea if Ukraine reunited with Russia. It seems that his policies and his conduct in this scandal were favoring that objective. But Trump, the corrupt demagogue, couldn’t resist seeking some political dirt on a political rival since he campaigns on smearing opponents and reveling in conspiracies.
It is amazing how the Republican Party and their propaganda organ Fox News use brazenly the same tactics. Nunez’s incoherent opening statement calling Russian interference in the 2016 election a hoax could have been written for him by Putin’s agents.
It is all so deplorable. How can anybody still support the Republican Party that is so disinterested in the truth and our country’s laws?
1
This is an existential moment for the GOP. They have to back Trump, or they risk losing everything.
The GOP has become the party of the Big Lie - that cutting taxes will reduce the deficit, that destroying the ACA will improve the medical system, that there is a Deep State determined to thwart our democracy. Trump has proven to be the biggest and most successful liar of them all, and without him the sham of their policies is even more clear.
The GOP will fight to the end and never concede because they have no other choice. Conventions like morality and the rule of law are off the table. They only care about their own survival.
Trump's surrogates are flailing about from defense to defense:
1) )It's hearsay. (The hearsay has been corroborated).
2) No quid pro quo (Really? Listen to Trump's conversation with Zelensky, what about the written agreement envoys were trying to get Ukrainians to sign)
3) The envoys were rogue actors. (Really? I guess Trump never asked Zelensky to work with Rudy.)
4) Whistle blower is a biased, politically motivated hack whose identity hasn't been revealed. (There is a reason whistle blowers are granted anonymity. The truth of his allegations, not his bias, is what matters.)
5) These are sham secret proceedings.(Really? Transcripts have been released and the hearings are now public.)
6) Joe and Hunter Biden really were corrupt and President was right to demand they be investigated. (Really? That has been debunked and the President had no right to subvert the will of Congress and withhold aid as a cudgel. The Ukrainians needed and had been promised the aid.)
7) Right to confront one's accuser, the whistleblower. (Uh, I think we've handled this already and this is not a criminal trial. Again, his allegations have been corroborated.
8) Bias. (We've handled that already.) Well, let's try it again.
Money, Mr Kristof. That 2010 Citizens United decision ensures that unlimited amounts of money can be quickly funneled to fuel the Primary opponents of any incumbant that bucks The Party.
Donald Trump is The Party; and he brags about the prospects of anyone who fudges on their loyalty. A goon squad was bred from the Koch Brothers-financed, right-wing fanaticism. The Freedom Caucus was using the same racially charged nativism; and so, they embraced him (legitimizing their crackpot excesses). The Celebrity Billionaire President now holds total sway with the bourgeoning grassroots' character of The Party (a lá MAGA rally cap).
Not one Republican leader grabbed Candidate Trump in the only kind of very public, professional wrestling hold that would keep them both in a mortal lock-up, too dirty to survive the 2016 Convention. And, still, not one Republican leader sacrifices himself / herself for the single objective of a continuous light upon this President's myriad corruptions and lies.
Unopposed and unchallenged in any aspect of Party leadership, Donald Trump flaunts the mantle of a king.
Smoke screens of obfuscation are not needed. Ask yourself what is going on here. Sullying the president's good reputation? What good reputation? Sullying his good name? Embarrassing him?
This is Donald Trump. He was Donald Trump before the election and the office of president has done nothing to elevate any aspect of him. This impeachment is a serious mistake for the Democrats since it will accomplish nothing except for the Senate exoneration and Trump's hitting the stump with "complete exoneration" added to his bawling "no collusion" and "no obstruction". I am no expert but I suspect this impeachment will gain something for Trump at the expense of the Democrats who failed in the job everybody hoped they would conquer.
W committed far more impeachable offenses. Invading Iraq without a Congressional declaration of war for one.
But Kristof was okay with that war as long as it was going to be cheap.
Then there's W's torture program, and warrantless wire, and computer, taps.
But W never actually won the electoral college, so that's unlike Trump. I guess one could argue W was never formally president, so again unlike Trump.
The facts are plain to see. We really need go no further; we know Trump has crossed a line, and there's no going back or forgiving it.
Yet many Republicans refuse to admit what is obvious. Statesmen are they? I hope my children and grandchildren never succumb to such vomitous behavior.
These American leaders have a real problem acting honestly, wisely, and ethically. Why fight and perhaps die for such a nation if its corruption and perfidy in high places are so common?
Schiff, to his eternal credit, is a brave, hard-working, and good man in a snake pit. He deserves our profound gratitude.
But what can you say or do about Nunes, Jordan, et al.? They are among the too many rotten apples in our barrel.
If a chain and a nation are only as strong as its weakest links, we have a dangerous and endemic problem.
1
Fired - hah! Trump would have never ever even gotten the job. With what we know about his history and behavior, he would never even seen the inside of an interview room, much less passed with HR.
When a U.S. military officer tells a lie or refuses to follow a superior's lawful order, he or she is subject to being court-martialed. But when Trump tells a lie -- which he does every day of his life -- then his allies and apologists clam up, preferring instead to slander or libel the nearest Democrat. I am 67 and served in uniform (Air Force) for 26 years. I sacrificed a great deal as did my fellow veterans. Trump, meanwhile, is more than a mere embarrassment. He is a lawbreaker who ignores the very oath he took.
2
Your writing is extremely thoughtful and I might say wise. But we are on the edge of another universe. Today at a congressional hearing I heard a republican congressman somebody on the governments payroll, belonging to a branch of government that is supposed to guard against administrative abuse, support the words of the president of Ukraine and basically yelling at the witness (an American who came to testify) that if what the witness said was true that both our president and the president of Ukraine were liars.
Our president is into the thousands of lies already and I think the Ukrainian President was just scared
But we continue to pay this congressman
What’s up?
1
I would have been happy to share this piece on my social media, but I don't want a photograph of the creep's face in my feed!
2
I agree with you. This may be simplistic, and there are a myriad of reasons why Trump gets away with his behavior, but I believe FOX News shares part of the blame. Their commentators defend him mercilessly. FOX doesn’t report anything bad about Trump. They have poisoned the minds of their viewers.
1
Sorta like the Fire Dept arriving at a raging house fire and proclaiming they can't put out the fire unless they interview the person who called 911.
Exactly !
If Pence become the President, or Nikki Haley ( that`s why she suddenly ababdoned her career achievements) the ambitious lady, it will be so easy to beat any one of them.
But let`s hope trump is still the one time President for the sake of America the Country we Love.
1
As hard as it is to believe, the reason Republicans stick to him is because it is not about him personally—many detest the man—but about what he represents.
There was an article in the New Yorker last week with Newt Gingrich that openly revealed the underlying cause for the loyalty. Many Republicans, per Gingrich, diagnose the current political divisiveness as a culture war for the soul of America, an existential crisis. He, as I suspect many Republicans do as well, believes that the Democrats and the left are trying to eradicate Christianity, "western values," and their perceived cultural/American norms (think "keep Christ in Christmas" and "stand for the flag but kneel at the cross"). Things like gay marriage, abortion, rising distrust of organized religion, and the perceived threat of immigrants, who are almost always characterized as dangerous whether they come from South America or the East, convince them that unless they fight with everything they have (which includes guns), their way of life and identity will be lost. There's been reporting about Republican members of Congress who frequently ruminate and spread conspiracy theories amongst one another about a coming civil war—not a culture war, but an actual war with guns and blood.
For these Republicans, this situation is deadly serious because they are loyal to the ideology and mission, not the man. Trump is a symbol, not a person, so impeaching him is going to be as easy as impeaching the cross.
2
@Edward Spot on. This is an existential crisis for GOP who recognize their diminishing relevant ideology. Hence their fixation on loading up the Supreme Court with conservative judges knowing that their legacy will at least last for a decade or two long after their influence has waned. In their desperation to maintain the status quo they are clutching at every and any straw in sight.
1
Mr. Kristoff,
Does in your opinion running for the elected office protect any candidate from investigation into the criminal activities previously commited?
The question is whether the presidential candidates are above the law.
Current Ethics Training for G.O.P. Office Holders
1) If Trump says it, it is true, if not perfect.
2) If Trump does it, it is good, if not perfect, and it is legal.
3) If you feel Trump has said anything untruthful, see point number 1.
4) If you feel Trump had done something wrong or illegal, see point number 2.
You all may now go back to your jobs and continue to defend Trump, no matter what.
2
Isn’t Trump’s action just like a bribe to get what he wants? Isn’t comparable to wealthy families paying exorbitant amounts of money to get their son or daughter into a highly recognized university? Several wealthy families recently have been found guilty of such schemes. Trump is willing to pay anybody whatever it takes to get his way and avoid legal consequences. Sounds like a bribe to me.
5
I have been saying something similar to this for quite a while. In what world could any leader such as a principal, police chief, CEO, or any other head of an organization get away with this? It is sad what our society has been reduced to in the face of this person, especially one that really knows very little of our country's history let alone the Constitution. I continue to conclude that the excuse for these actions,(and not just this act, but a host of other issues) taking a backseat to the Constitution, has more to do with cultural divisions than anything else.
4
My son, who works for a local government, wonders why he had to undergo a background check in order to be approved for his job and Trump didn't
9
Theoretically, going forward, every future President could be the same. The bar has been lowered. So what can be done to insure abuse of power is properly dealt with? Apparently we need new laws and controls in the future. Hoping that another Trump is never again elected is just not going to be enough.
10
There are many culpable entities in the Trump travesty, but the one that needs attention first is the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice. Through some incredible rationale, that office has declared that a sitting president cannot be charged with a Federal crime. Clear and simple, this makes a sitting president above the law. Trump somehow stumbled on this concept when he boasted in his 2016 campaign that he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose a vote. The concept was later ratified by the Mueller investigation, which identified multiple occasions when Trump had obstructed justice, but simply wrung its collective hands by falling back on that same faulty legal principle. This has probably further emboldened Trump, who now is aware that he clearly is above the law, and is conducting himself and his office in that manner.
As a coda, does anyone believe that Trump will willingly abdicate his legal shield, even in an overwhelming defeat at the ballot boxes, and expose himself to all the legal responsibility he's been able to dodge while in office?
11
Republicans could answer all their concerns by having Trump allow Mulvaney and Bolton testify, but they already know the answers. They already know that Trump is guilty. They dishonor themselves, they dishonor their oaths of office, they dishonor the country.
15
The analogies are apt, but Bill Clinton got away with an activity that would have gotten any federal employee fired immediately. I was a section chief in a VA Medical Center when Clinton was caught out regarding his conduct with Monica Lewinsky. I thought at the time that any VA employee conducting him/herself that way would have been shown the door immediately. Personally, I do not think that Presidents should get any special treatment, when it comes to bad behavior, illegal or not. (I do realize that Clinton's impeachable deed was lying)
4
I do find it bizarre that Trump seems to think he has a constitutional right to maintain the office without any oversight at all. As do his followers. The presidency is a job, the worlds most powerful one at that. Just as the other branches of government have no right to throw him out of that job without cause; if oversight believe there IS cause, he has no right to continue employment in that job.
Particularly when the evidence thus far indicates he tried to deny citizens of their right to a free and fair election. These particular misdeeds (attempting to deny a free and fair election) leave the house no choice but to impeach because his misdeeds provide the citizenry no other peaceful option to remove him if they so desire. Not to mention his misdeeds have compromised him & therefore national security by leaving himself vulnerable to blackmail. Something that would be cause to dismiss anyone else in state, finance, law enforcement, security, defense or any federal position. Trump himself has forced impeachment by his actions whilst simultaneously endangering national (& international) security.
2
Every awful thing one can think of and worse has been done and someone has gotten away with it. That said, I view the impeachment hearings (Trump will not be voted out of office) as a necessary "interlude" to give us all a chance to breathe before the two year old beings throwing things all over the place again.
I frankly doubt that the Democrats can won; OYOH I was just as surprised as Trump to learn the he had won, so been wrong before. Would love to see E. Warren be the first female prez of the USA because she is IMO the best candidate.
2
As a part of ethics training in any large organization, an essential component is that the employees are required to report any unethical behavior or corrupt acts they may see. Many employees that take this seriously and report wrong doing to their superiors soon discover that their superiors really did not want employees to take this part of the training too seriously. Especially when the organization is compromised at the top.
10
Column was spot on.
The examples that you described are exactly what the President has done. The wrongdoing is obvious. The Republicans are blowing smoke .
The tipping point has arrived. It is time to remove the President from office.
8
Forget about the scenario about “if Trump was a Democrat”...what would happen to him? If Trump was selling cars, he would have been fired by now for ethical violations. No real company would keep this guy on its payroll.
13
@Bascom Hill
Hate to say this but I have dealt with at least one car dealer who ran their business unethically and built this into his employee base. Trump could have been a king among these unscrupulous car dealers. He would have attracted a similar caste of ethically compromised employees as he did in his real estate business and in his administration.
My guess is that the Trump organizations (and administration) either has no substantial ethics training or the last message during the course is try not to get caught. Then, there is part 2 of the Trump ethics training. When one is caught doing something unethical, bring out all the legal and illegal defenses as one reframes the headlines claiming victimhood.
Trump works for us, and he needs the punishment. The country needs justice. Trump's bribery is not minor nor hypothetical. Impeach him already.
Corporations that I worked for had annual ethics training. Many minor hypotheticals about gifts and bribes were discussed. We were threatened by consequences.
4
Great column. I've been thinking throughout all of this that, for those who don't follow the news or don't grasp the problem, a simply analogy would be most effective. I am hoping that Democratic counsel Goldman, or Schiff, or some other committee member clearly and forcefully makes a similar analogy. The Republican "nothing to see here" smoke and mirrors could be largely dispelled if viewers could feel the outrage that would be clear if it were anyone but Trump.
6
I often think this when I consider the Congressional Republicans:
I would implore those who were not born sociopaths to ask themselves two questions:
1. When I was young, is this really the kind of person I wanted to become?
2. How will I feel about my life and career when I'm on my death bed?
Perhaps I'm just clinging to the idea that people are mostly good but I'd like to think there would be at least two or three who wouldn't like the answers.
4
What I want to know is this: Isn't it against the law for people not to answer subpoenas from Congress? The fact that this president is preventing the testimony of first hand witnesses is obstruction of justice, isn't it?
5
That's right, the president can get away with travesties because they are considered trivialities compared to running our huge country. For lower level officials, such "minor" offenses are a big deal.
2
I don't know what the ultimate cause is, but there's a lot of people in a lot of states, red or blue, who would answer your question, "so what, people do that stuff all the time". Trump has normalized the worst instincts in people, where everyone is constantly hearing debates about what's right, wrong, ethical and moral. It's a constant assault on social and legal norms that have had a numbing effect that has allowed the outrageous behavior. It's an advertising machine. In the middle of this we are shouted at to "Get over it", that's where we are.
4
Exasperation over hypocrisy and double standards is enervating and leads us nowhere. But in the rationality, logic, and science-based universe we once lived in--and which NK is a bright champion of --we are no longer alone.
We feel compelled to knock down magical thinking, conspiracy theories and ”alternate facts” and gaslighting counter-narratives
(”No, it was Ukraine interfering in 2016 on Hillary Clinton’s behalf!”).
We’ve been trained in our jobs to apply rational arguments and science to obtain successful outcomes by overcoming illogical missteps. We can't help but look at the world this way.
That's why it is so disconcerting and frustrating to encounter people (MAGA hat-wearers ), organizations (Fox News), and environments (Twitter & FB) that thrive emotionally and financially from the comfort they provide /receive and the profits they make defying reality.
Our only hope is to persuade people to apply the same standards and practices they use every day to create successful outcomes for their employees, customers, patients and businesses to our leaders.
3
No smart, social, honest and hardworking person can make billions of dollars.
That’s theoretically and practically impossible. If a million people cannot do it, not a single one can to it either. Those billioners either overcharge their customers, use their monopolistic market position, underpay their workers, promise something they cannot deliver, or make their money by stupefying the customers and persuading that something irrelevant is extremely important and valuable.
How could any single individual be more productive than a thousand other humans?
To make ten thousand times more money that an average human being, the prerequisite is to corrupt the government and write the laws enabling such travesty in front of God and people...
4
I am at a loss for words about the drama that is happening in our country. I'm not surprised about Trump' s actions. He has always been a spoiled rich kid who can't be trusted in personal or professional dealings. Why a good enough portion of the U.S. population would vote for him is beyond me. I am most dismayed by the Republican party. They could care less about the country, and care only about party and getting the support of Trump's base constituents. They have everything to gain by denouncing and impeaching Trump: supporting a worthy candidate in the 2020 election who can win. Nixon is coming off as a hero for recognizing his fate and resigning for the good of the country.
6
My, my. It is all so clear to the left. Except it is all based on hearsay evidence. Trump is completely correct to ask for an investigation in to corruption in Ukraine. It just so happens Biden and his son are central figures in that corruption. In the end, no monies were withheld and no investigation occurred. So now we have the intent to commit a crime based on the speculation that the sole purpose of delaying the release of the $400m was for political gain and not related to a legitimate concern about corruption in the Ukraine. It may not look good, but what happened here could reasonably lead to censure but not impeachment. And where were you when Biden was withholding money for the removal of the Ukrainian prosecutor and his son was sitting on the board of Burimsa? Where were you when the Obama administration withheld military aid from Ukraine for years? The impeachment and the people supporting it are disingenuous to say the least.
Compelled myself to watch some of yesterday's testimony on a FOX Channel, and the take was different; watch how the camera plays over some testimony as if to discredit it.
I could only tolerate 10 minutes of it and went to the gym to work off my angst.
3
Autocrats have more flexibility than the low-ranking people posited here, and more flexibility than the leaders of functioning democracies. It remains to be seen whether Congress will let Mr. Trump continue on in his autocratic ways.
So far Mr. Trump seems to get along with other autocrats — they all have national assets at their disposal for their international personal deals, and there is probably honor among them for a time at least. But he seems to run into resistance and furor when dealing with democracies. It may be the new Ukraine that, by putting up some resistance to Mr. Trump, helps save our American republic for us.
4
It's true. The President is inappropriate to say the least. I can't imagine the CEO of the company where I work to behave like the President and expect to say in his position.
Because the President smashes norms multiple times in a single day, the citizens have sadly become immune to it. They now expect it. The behavior is no longer shocking.
Every American, regardless of their political point of view needs to let the President know how unacceptable is his behavior, and that's not even taking into consideration his criminal behavior for which he should be prosecuted.
I manage a team of several people. If I treated anyone on my team the way the President treats his staff, I would be fired immediately. It's just not possible to behave like him and still have a normal life, and that's the way it should be.
4
Mr. Kristof:
Thank you again for an excellent article! And thank you for making the comparisons which should enlighten "ANYONE" and "EVERYONE" who believes that what President Trump did on his phone call to the President of the Ukraine, was "no big deal". I hate to think that America has come to this - that there would be supporters for a man so utterly unfit for the Oval Office, and yet . . . because they feel they must support their political party . . . they back him, no matter what. I, for one, am tired of the tweets, the insults, the lack of wisdom or humility . . . must I go on?!? I miss the late Senator John McCain - he knew when to put country first, over his party. And he knew how important it was for Republicans and Democrats to come together for the 'greater good'. Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the late Senator McCain's friends, obviously has forgotten that lesson, along with a multitude of others who support this president. Listening to Senator Graham back in 2015 on YouTube, he had an entirely different set of views about Donald J. Trump when speaking of the possibility of him becoming P.O.T.U.S. What happened?!? As far as I can discern, President Donald J. Trump is one and the same man as he was back then. I see no "Damascus Road" experience in his life that would lead me to believe any differently than I do now. The leopard has not changed his spots - if anything, the spots have grown LARGER.
4
Also, if these employees had repeatedly flouted the company rules, it would compound the seriousness and make it that much more imperative to remove them from their position. This is the case with the president as well. At this point the White House is looking like Animal House.
4
What's horrifying is that Trump and half of his appointees would not be able to pass the normal basic background check required for the lowliest federal civil service position. Those require full financial disclosures, and things like bankruptcy, unpaid debts, and extensive foreign entanglements are considered red flags.
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"If Trump were anyone else..." he wouldn't have paraded with Erdogan the first day of impeachment public hearings looking like the president of Erdogan's fan club and being scolded for not extraditing his political enemies back to Ankara.
Anybody else would not be hinting new "quid pro quos". Via Kushner et al.
3
A society can easily fall into corruption. We all know or know of poor countries unable to pull out of grinding poverty because of corruption. Less commonly known, except by some academics, is that corruption is nearly impossible to shed once it has taken hold in a society. The truly frightening aspect of a continuing Trump presidency is the example set by the often blatant corruption of people in his administration. People follow the example of success, and a President sets the highest example. What we ought to be most alarmed about is that every low level politician or bureaucrat with a need for a favor or two will follow the Trumpian example. One that weed takes root, systemic corruption will be nearly impossible to eliminate. At the extreme, the USA becomes a subsistence economy.
9
There have been many remarks and deeds over the course of these 1027 days (and counting) that would have resulted in an employee being reprimanded or summarily dismissed. Any school kid in the US would certainly have been suspended for any number of his misbehaviors and lies.
New rules for djt....or maybe it’s no rules.
4
Or Biden is elected President but the House remains in Democratic hands and the Senate remains in Republican hands - a realistic scenario. A whistleblower goes to the Senate and says there really was a quid pro quo - Ukraine wouldn't go along with quashing an investigation of Hunter. That's why Obama wouldn't give military aid to the country. Just how will Senate Repubs react?
And, let's carry it further, what would their reaction be if Pres. Biden withheld important witnesses and advised people to ignore subpoenas. If present behavior is any predictor, they would challenge every detail of the the testimony, insist that nothing's been proven, and eventually vote to acquit. Senator Graham, would simply roll his eyes and say he's just weary of the whole thing; let's let the people decide in the next election.*
I'm sure that's exactly what would happen.
*(For the record, Senator, the people decided in 2016: They did not want Trump to be President, in large part, because they were afraid of him doing the sorts of things he's doing now.)
8
You left out the most important part in regard to one of the sham defenses Republicans are trying. It would not matter if a whistleblower at the Social Security Office exposed the misbehavior resulting in the widow eventually getting her back checks; the very act of trying to hold back the checks in exchange for something would have been a firing offense.
That fact that 48 hours after the whistleblower complaint was reported to Congress, after weeks of attempted silencing by the administration, the Ukraine aid was finally released, does not change the misdeed, or its obvious intent.
11
According to Trump and that of many supporters he got caught doing what happens often in the murky world of international politics. The rule of law that would apply in your examples are going to be different in this case so “get over it”is their true response. Even in your imaginary cases if it was a Trump interest involved he would likely as not rationalize that as hardball business practices but no big crime
2
What complexity? Go back and read or listen to Sam Ervin and even other Republicans--at that time, in the 70's,it was understood that Nixon, able to refuse ,to allow anyone to testify could undo the COnstitution. This is what will occur if the GOP are allowed the excuse that blackmail is OK as long as there was no evidence of an exchange of goods, or "consideration". For those not interested in Ervin and our forbearers, go to read the Hobbs act-. The acts and noises made by Trump and his cohort of conspirators are exactly what the Hobbs act covers. "Instilling of fear", corruption and extortion "under color,(not cover!), of law"
All of what the White House, including Pence have been doing is a silent coup-an undermining of any legal preventions or ability of government to prevent the President from taking over and running the nation as a king-funded from Moscow or China , Arabia or Iran.
3
If the problem were just the Zelensky phone call the comparisons with local extortion attempts might be sufficient. But the problem is deeper. If the focus is just the call Trump with his decades of experience under the tutelage of Roy Cohn is likely to exploit ambiguities to retain his base and his Senate support.
The Mueller probe was initiated because U.S. intelligence services had determined that Trump was potentially vulnerable to Russian influence and could become an asset to a hostile foreign power. The probe ignored this threat and focused on Russia's meddling in the 2016 election and the possibility of collusion between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign. Mueller was not permitted to investigate Trump's finances where answers could be revealed. The impeachment process must address Trump's finances and the question whether Trump could be a Kremlin asset. Focus on just the Zelensky call may not reveal evidence compelling to most Americans.
Other issues including Trump's personal entanglements in Turkey as a factor in his decision to greenlight Erdogan's invasion of Kurdish areas of Syria may be more impeachable. In this case it was not only a coming election. Atrocities have been committed and U.S. interests have been damaged possibly for personal gain. Turkey violated sanctions and transferred over $10 billion to Iran. Trump pressured Tillerson early in 2017 to release Zarrab from jail at the request of Erdogan. What was the benefit to Trump?
6
You are one hundred percent correct. We should expect at least as much, and probably more, from our president than other public servants and members of the general public. One tragedy of the Trump era is the way he has "defined deviancy down" and made behaviors that in previous generations wouldn't have been tolerated acceptable to millions.
11
Everything you say is true, but it strikes me that all of us are just pointing out the obvious. There was no mystery about Trump's character while he was running for office. Indeed, if one could wind the clock back to 2015, it would be a challenge to come up with any public figure more manifestly unqualified and unfit for the office than Mr. Trump. Pick some celebrities at random - President Madonna? President Tom Cruise? President Bruce Springsteen? President Bill Murray? (I'm by no means making any statement about these four, only that they are household names who have never held office). It sounds outlandish, but having Donald Trump as president is still more outlandish than any of them. We really are living in that world.
Following Trump's hostile takeover, we've simply seen extreme partisanship in the sharpest relief I can remember (I'm 58). Most Republican leaders privately detest Trump, but they don't detest him as much as they adore the idea of staying in power, and in today's climate that means there is no depth to which they will not stoop to keep the support of Trump's base voters. I really do believe they would support Trump even if he murdered someone on 5th Avenue.
16
Trump does not have the character, credentials or resume to find employment anywhere. Ironically, he was elected president, the most important job in the universe.
15
@michael sullivan
Selected president-- individual votes do not all count equally. And from what I can ascertain, recent court rulings have empowered the electors even more. Who is in the electoral college -- we need to ask. What about all the gerrymandering. Back to the basics.
4
The republicans yesterday argued that the Dems witnesses were delivering 2nd and 3rd hand information and didn’t have any contact with Trump and so were not credible. Trump has of course forbidden the people around him from testifying before the impeachment committee and they have ignored the congressional subpoenas. When Nixon was impeached he tried the same thing and the house threatened to have the witnesses arrested for contempt of congress.
I don’t understand why the Committee is not taking steps to have these people arrested now, but I don’t know who to ask. Getting Mulvaney, Giulaini, etc. in front of the committee for questioning seems imperative.
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@Jim
And of course this key fact receives scant attention from trump-leaning media.
Yesterday I saw a clip on youtube from the daily caller or something similar that showed Rep Jordan asking pointed questions about Taylor's access to the president and then saying "you're their star witness?"
Maybe he is, maybe he isn't, but he definitely wouldn't be if those with first hand-access were brave enough to testify.
5
The phone transcript is pretty clear. I am not sure why we need this formality at all. If Republicans don't put country before party on this one - where is the line for the president?
Can he shoot someone in the street as he has suggested before? Can he run for a third term?
I am really worried because history suggests Republicans don't put country before party. I am also not sure the democrats are going to be able to field a candidate strong enough to defeat Trump.
Check out how Fox News is covering this one. Innocent by obfuscation.
10
You put the case for the removal and prosecution of Donald Trump succinctly and elegantly, Mr. Kristof -- and in terms that even the most rabid Trump supporter should be able to follow and comprehend.
What infuriates me about this entire process is the degree of intentional obfuscation being practiced by Republican politicians. They know perfectly well that Mr. Trump has done all the things he is accused of doing; they are merely petrified that telling the truth about those facts will lose them their jobs -- as may well happen. But, beyond their personal anxieties, they are making a political argument that has never before reached the level of serious consideration on our national stage: that the president of the United States is, in fact, an imperial figure and is therefore absolutely immune from having his actions or words questioned or of being held to account for them. There is NOTHING in the Constitution that supports that contention.
And to pretend otherwise not only elevates the executive branch above the legislative and judicial branches, but gravely imperils "equality before the law" -- a foundational legal principle of our nation.
20
I take exception to the line if this was someone other than Trump.We should not elevate Trump to the status of Teflon Don. In Trump's mind he is Mister Untouchable and to foster that to the public is wrong.Trump's obsession with Hunter Biden making 50k a month while his kids are raking in millions should tell us all we need to know about Trump.History books will not be kind to an entire party that lets Trump rule them as though they were a crime family.Trump's total obliviousness to realize his name will live in infamy until the end of time is beyond comprehension.
13
The simple examples here are ones we all can identify and agree upon.
It is our hope that by the end of these proceedings the Democrats, with the help of their very exemplary witnesses, will have told a similarly compelling story.
If they have done so, then all but the most obdurate ideologues should be able to easily understand why this impeachment was brought forward, and agree that if ever a president deserves to be impeached, it is this one.
10
If the phone call in question was "perfect" as Mr Trump asserts, surely releasing the genuine full transcript / recording would resolve this immediately. Keeping it tucked away on a "secret" server makes it look very suspicious.
11
Have we come to a time when no-holds-barred, bare-knuckles political bravado overrides personal veracity, marital fidelity, reasonably transparent and consistent national—and international--leadership? Don't such character flaws clash directly with the teachings of most—if not all—religions? What message does this convey to young people about what they are taught in their churches, synagogues and mosques if the "Leader of the Free World" is repeatedly accused of them and more?
10
"If the Republicans want to oversee an investigation of how children of American government officials monetize their parents, that’s a worthwhile effort."
Forget the children, Trump is pioneering the model for how politicians can monetize themselves before they even leave office. Republicans these days have little use for gov't - they don't seem to believe in it.
You know they don't care about Hunter Biden one bit. He's just a macguffin used to turn the accusation back on the Obama/Biden administration.
9
It doesn't seem to matter which head of state is running roughshod over the law and getting away with it - this is now the era in which we live. Trump's brethren live and rule in Hungary, Turkey, China, Russia, North Korea, the Philippines, Brazil, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia. There are probably more countries missing from the list, but we must recognize that we are living in dangerous times, when we are ruled by lawless men.
12
Thank you, Mr Kristof. It is good to see the argument taken out of the toxic political divisions and put simply, in clear moral terms.
At heart, impeachment is not about politics. It's about moral and legal certainties. And one of them is that no elected official should use their power for personal gain. It's also about the good of our country being more important than the personal gain of those who should be serving it.
To those who would argue that there was no harm done as Ukraine eventually got its money - after the whistleblower's report - friends, are you saying there is no harm done to the US, or to the wider world, in everyone's knowing that the President of the United States is prepared to break codes of moral conduct that Americans have held for centuries, and to run an alternative foreign policy because he sees it as being in his own personal interest?
At a moral level, do you really think that a decline in moral standards in the presidency will have no impact on our society?
And at a practical one, do you really think that the people who fed the President a discredited conspiracy theory that suited their political goals, because they hoped he might act in ways that favoured his personal interests rather than US policy, will be the last to do so? Or that if he gets away with this, he will never again abuse his power?
16
MSN: I remember a time when Republicans howled about the moral decline of American youth due to Bill Clinton's waffling on the definition of the word "is." This relativistic slip became the launch of a thousand right wing ships. The current impeachment is a display of the Republican Party's moral rot on the world stage.
2
I cannot dispute anything said in this column but I think Mr. Nicholas has overlooked a simple fact.
Had Putin's trump been elected by the American people, even through the Electoral College, it would be right for the House to impeach him. But he was "selected" to sleep or watch TV - in particular, Fox and Friends - in the White House. So he cannot be impeached by the House of Representatives. He is responsible and accountable and answerable to Putin only. That is why he is immune from any and all US laws or the Constitution - as long as he sleeps and watches TV there.
By the way I think this is the best defense the GOP can do for Putin's Hump.
5
It’s pretty ironic that Republicans and their supporters will believe in any absurd conspiracy theory — but not plain facts that could not be more clear to the rest of the world.
20
The Bill of Indictment that the House eventually sends to the Senate should contain a section under the heading of "everything else".
The president stands creditably accused of obstruction of justice.
The president personally called on Russia to hack his opponents emails during the 2016 campaign.
The president has used his office to attack private citizens, demean the heroism of a POW and accused the United States of "killing plenty of people, too" when asked about the crimes of the Russian president
The president vowed to destroy a law duly passed by Congress known as Obamacare, violating his oath to see that the laws are faithfully executed.
The president attacked the truthfulness and general integrity of America's law enforcement and intelligence gathering agencies, specifically the FBI and CIA, men and women who take on great risk and whose members have died repeatedly in the line of duty.
The president attacked the free press as an "enemy of the people" undermining the First Amendment of the Constitution and public faith in honest news reporting.
The president praised dictators around the world while attacking our long time friends and partners, even calling one his "favorite dictator".
The president has repeatedly lied to the American public so many times that it is difficult to obtain an accurate count of lies told.
The president withdrew forces from Syria and virtually gave an invitation to Turkey to attack and destroy our allies, the Kurds.
13
The problem in all of your scenarios is that none of those perpetrators possess the almost unlimited power of the Presidency, not just endowed in the President, but in his party.
When F. Scott Fitzgerald said "The rich are different than you and me", this is understating by orders of magnitude the difference between a President and the rest of us...at least in Trump's mind. Though the Founders took great pains to ensure that "no one is above the law", that intent has been eroded over the years to where we now have a President and his supporters who believe that he IS in fact above the law - that HE is the law! This is the biggest "high crime" that Trump has committed: he has endowed himself with tyrannical power, immune from any democratic remedy or sanction. And what's even more dangerous to our nation is that he is beholden to our enemies.
Of course he would be fired if he were anyone else, but because he holds the reins of power, the Republicans won't do their duty to hold him accountable. They've fully accepted his contention that he is above the law, and therefore cannot be prosecuted for breaking it. He is different than you and me.
11
From the beginning this has always been my take on Trump. If I walked into a management team meeting and presented made up or exaggerated numbers I would be disciplined and if I kept it up I would be fired for cause- if I appealed I would lose. If I mocked a disabled person in the office, If I referred to woman as dogs, if I did any of a number of things Trump has done I would be out of a job. So why am I, a middle class department head, held to a higher standard of professional conduct than the POTUS??
22