Today we will answer the question: Can a president ask a foreign country to investigate corruption if it serves his “personal, political” interests?
The “personal, political” angle is the final gasp of impeachment hysteria. (I’m looking at you, Senators Robin Portman (Ohio), Susan Collins (Maine), Mitt Romney (Utah) and Ben Sasse (Nebraska).)
Yes, Donald Trump is technically the “president,” and former Vice President Joe Biden used his position in the government to withhold foreign aid until the Ukrainian president fired a prosecutor investigating a company that paid Biden’s drug-addicted son millions of dollars for mysterious reasons.
But, as impeachment zealots claim, by asking a foreign leader to support with a legitimate corruption investigation, Trump committed a heinous crime—because he was pursuing a “personal political interest.” Namely, Trump was trying to harm his political opponent, Joe Biden.
Aside from the blindingly obvious fact that you can’t commit crimes and then escape justice by simply running for president, Democrats take official government action for “personal, political” reasons all the time. Often, they do so with the sole purpose of harming their political opponents.
President Barack Obama’s IRS spent years investigating and harassing conservative groups, using the most feared arm of government to punish political enemies—for personal, political reasons. Then his Justice Department refused to prosecute corrupt officials, which I think was again—yes, it was personal, political reasons.
What about the Obama administration’s endless investigations into Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson? As was obvious from the start, Officer Wilson did absolutely nothing wrong when he fatally shot Mike Brown—something even Obama’s corrupt, subpoena-busting attorney general, Eric Holder, had to admit after reviewing all the evidence.
The purpose of the Justice Department’s sweeping investigation was to mobilize Democratic voters and support Hillary, who paid tribute to Mike Brown’s mother onstage at the Democratic National Convention.
The most perfect example of a president demanding an investigation to advance his “personal, political” interests came in 1999, when Hillary was preparing to run for the Senate in New York against Mayor Rudy Giuliani. President Bill Clinton (her husband) launched investigation after investigation into the crown jewel of the Giuliani administration, the New York Police Department.
If President Clinton actually cared about police brutality, he would have had dozens of police officers investigated before he even got to New York.
For example, the town where Bill and Hillary lived.
In 1999, when the NYPD was virtually eliminating crime in New York City, there were 11 fatal shootings involving officers. That’s 0.28 fatal shootings per 1,000 officers.
In Washington, D.C., there were four times as many fatal police shootings this year, at 1.14 per 1,000 officers. In Houston, the figure was 1.68. In San Diego, it was 4.36.
Ultimately, Giuliani dropped out of the race to cure prostate cancer, but when President Clinton demanded that research be done, Rudy crushed Hillary in both the polls and in political contributions.
For that matter, Hillary used her position as Secretary of State to overthrow Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, which led to the murder of the U.S. ambassador and several other Americans in Benghazi, and to the refugee crisis that is now gripping Western Europe—all for her own personal, political reasons.
As an email exchange between Hillary and her unofficial adviser, Sidney Blumenthal, dramatically revealed, her motive for overthrowing Gaddafi was to show off her foreign policy skills while bypassing that dimwitted Obama who, Blumenthal sneered, “was determined to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.”
Blumenthal urged Hillary to keep the pressure on Gaddafi, promising her a major political victory. When Gaddafi was removed from power, Blumenthal exulted: “First of all, brava! You have to go on camera. You have to go down in history at this point. … You’re vindicated.”
Shortly after, Gaddafi was beaten to death in the desert by rebels, who posted a graphic video of the murder online. Laughing with delight at the initial reports, Hillary stood next to Julius Caesar: “We came. We saw. He died.”
The most obvious is that all of the illegal FBI surveillance of the Trump campaign by the Obama administration was done for personal, political purposes. We’ve waited three years to hear a legitimate reason for the FBI surveillance of the Trump campaign. At this point, I think it’s fair to say we’re not getting it.
The Obama administration spent millions of dollars and millions of man-hours on a purely political investigation designed to damage Trump and support elect Hillary.
Now that you mention it, the House Democrats’ investigation into Trump’s call to the Ukrainian president was also undertaken for personal political reasons. As was Biden’s withholding of a $1 billion check from the Ukrainian president to protect his son’s shady business deal.
We can play the “personal political motives” game all day long!
At least when Republicans do it, the Middle East doesn’t erupt in jihadist fury, crime doesn’t skyrocket, people don’t die or lose their livelihoods – and there’s real corruption.
