{"id":37349,"date":"2019-12-12T19:51:19","date_gmt":"2019-12-13T02:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=375900"},"modified":"2019-12-12T19:51:19","modified_gmt":"2019-12-13T02:51:19","slug":"opinion-susan-knopf-if-this-isnt-an-impeachable-offense-nothing-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/local-news\/opinion-susan-knopf-if-this-isnt-an-impeachable-offense-nothing-is\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion | Susan Knopf: If this isn\u2019t an impeachable offense, nothing is"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Susan Knopf<\/strong>
<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cThe president has never obstructed Congress in the manner of President Trump. It\u2019s unprecedented \u2026 in the history of our country,\u201d Florida Congressman Ted Deutsch told the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The Republicans say, \u201cForget all that. Don\u2019t believe your eyes. Don\u2019t believe your ears.\u201d We saw the president in front of the cameras ask China to investigate Joe Biden. He asked Ukraine on the phone. In 2016, he asked Russia to look for emails. He flaunts the Constitution soliciting foreign assistance to win an election.<\/p>\n

The House will soon vote on articles of impeachment<\/a> accusing Trump of:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Abuse of power, for his attempt to trade Ukraine\u2019s $391 million in congressionally appropriated military aid for personal political favors.<\/li>\n
  2. Obstruction of Congress, for refusing subpoenas for documents and testimony, and stopping others from complying with House subpoenas, a breach of the division of powers outlined in the Constitution.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u201cIf what we\u2019re talking about is not impeachable<\/a>, then nothing is impeachable,\u201d University of North Carolina Law Constitutional Law Professor Michael Gerhardt<\/a> told the House Judiciary Committee. <\/p>\n

    Kudos to Colorado Congressman Joe Neguse<\/a>, who got it on the record from Republican counsel Stephen Castor that there is no dispute of facts:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Russia engaged in a prolonged, well-organized cyber attack on the U.S. that likely affected our 2016 elections.<\/li>\n
    2. Ukraine didn\u2019t.<\/li>\n
    3. Russia is advancing the Ukraine-hack story to deflect attention from its own guilt.<\/li>\n
    4. Russia benefits from prolonged U.S. investigation into the matter.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Yet U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr continues investigating<\/a> why the FBI started the probe of Trump\u2019s connection to the Russian cyber-attacks. Fox News agrees Trump put himself on the FBI\u2019s radar when he asked Russia to look for Hillary Clinton\u2019s emails<\/a>.<\/p>\n

      Stunningly, Republicans still want to dispute facts. Even their own constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley<\/a>, a law professor at George Washington University, admits, \u201cIn my view, the references to Biden and his son were highly inappropriate<\/a> and should not have been part of the (July 25) call.\u201d For the record, neither Joe Biden nor his son are suspected of any corruption<\/a> by any government agency.<\/p>\n

      Republicans argue we should just let it go, and let the voters decide.<\/p>\n

      \u201c\u2026 The framers believed that elections were not a sufficient check<\/a> on the possibility of a president who abused his power by acting in a corrupt way. They were especially worried that a president might use the power of his office to influence the electoral process in his own favor. They concluded that the Constitution must provide for the impeachment of the president to assure that no one would be above the law,\u201d Harvard Law School constitutional law professor Noah Feldman told the House Judiciary Committee.<\/p>\n

      Yale-educated Pamela Karlan, who is the director of Stanford University Law School\u2019s Supreme Court litigation clinic, told the House Judiciary Committee \u201c\u2026 when President Trump invited \u2014 indeed demanded \u2014 foreign involvement in our upcoming election \u2026 that demand constituted an abuse of power<\/a>. \u2026 Drawing a foreign government into our election process is an especially serious abuse of power because it undermines democracy itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

      \u201cThe use of military aid for a quid pro quo<\/a> to investigate one\u2019s political opponent, if proven, can be an impeachable offense,\u201d said George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley<\/a>, the Republicans\u2019 constitutional scholar.<\/p>\n

      In the now infamous July 25 phone call<\/a> between Trump and newly elected Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, Zelensky states, \u201c\u2026 we are almost ready to buy more Javelins (anti-tank missiles) from the United States for defense purposes.\u201d Trump responds, \u201cWe\u2019d like you to do us a favor though.\u201d He asks Zelensky to investigate debunked 2016 election conspiracy theories and the Bidens.<\/p>\n

      Numerous witnesses testified they understood Trump was using the appropriated aid as a bargaining chip<\/a> to get personal political favors.<\/p>\n

      It\u2019s darkly comical Republicans keep insisting the more than 70-day House investigation is not thorough enough. Particularly as Neguse established in the hearing, there is no dispute of fact. Previous hearings took longer to uncover facts.<\/p>\n

      It\u2019s ironic Republicans warn Democrats are rushing to judgment, while the president urges Congress to hurry up so he can have his say in the Senate. The president was offered an opportunity to speak to the House and declined.<\/p>\n

      North Carolina School of Law professor Michael J. Gerhardt cited Trump\u2019s dangerous misstatements, declaring the Constitution gives him \u201cthe right to do whatever I want as president\u201d<\/a> and the president\u2019s dismissal of the impeachment process as \u201cconstitutionally illegitimate.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

      Gerhardt stated, \u201cThe president\u2019s serious misconduct, including bribery, soliciting a personal favor from a foreign leader in exchange for his exercise of power and obstructing justice and Congress are worse than the misconduct of any prior president<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

      If we let this president\u2019s behavior stand, we invite any leader to involve any country to sway our elections. Trump repeatedly sought foreign interference<\/a> from Russia, China, Britain, Australia and Ukraine. This is not a partisan battle. It\u2019s a battle for the survival of the independence of the United States. It makes me sad Republicans don\u2019t see it.<\/p>\n

      Susan Knopf\u2019s column \u201cFor The Record\u201d publishes Fridays in the Summit Daily News. Knopf has worn many hats in her career, including working as an award-winning journalist and certified ski instructor. She moved to Silverthorne in 2013 after vacationing in Summit County since the 1970s. Contact her at sdnknopf@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

      via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Susan Knopf \u201cThe president has never obstructed Congress in the manner of President Trump. It\u2019s unprecedented \u2026 in the history of our country,\u201d Florida Congressman Ted Deutsch told the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday. The Republicans say, \u201cForget all that. Don\u2019t believe your eyes. Don\u2019t believe your ears.\u201d We saw the president in front of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 14:40:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIFT - The LIFT FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37349\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}