You may be sick of the topic already, but it is not going away. I thought I would give you some random thoughts on what we have seen as of now to let you better understand the process.
I believe that the people testifying are earnest and committed to our country. It is also clear that for the most part these people are very supportive of a free Ukraine that is separate from Russia or Russian influence. We pretty much all support that.
On the other hand, some have an idea that they should be dictating our government’s foreign policy and they think our current President is a rube when it comes to these matters. You can believe that or not, but he is the President and he makes the policy and the witnesses work for him and should not work against him.
Then there are facts that are just swept under the rug by the Press and Democrats because they do not fill their narrative. They do it by simply avoiding topics. The Press never asks Democrats about their newfound support for Ukrainian military funding. No one is ever asked where were you five years ago when Ukraine was invaded, and Obama did little to support them.
Last week, someone was given a shot to address that issue. Not because he was asked the question directly. He was told he had the final word on a panel on Fox News Sunday by Chris Wallace. Karl Rove then made this brilliant, succinct statement, “I love the fact. I love the fact that Democrats are now decrying the President’s decision not to move aid, lethal aid rapidly to Ukraine. After all the previous Administration, a Democratic Administration, did nothing to send lethal aid to Ukraine. And the non-lethal aid they refused to fly into Ukraine on C-130s
because they did not want U.S. military presence in Ukraine, so they dropped it off in Poland and citizens had to take that non-lethal aid and put it in the back of their motor vehicles and trucks and convoy it to Ukraine. This President at least had the guts to give Ukrainians the lethal aid to stave off the Russian attempts to subvert that country.”
That is why Karl is Karl and I am the meager Bruce. I have been harping on this issue for a couple months. He perfectly defines the disingenuousness of the Democrats in that short statement.
Ambassador Taylor altered his written statement during the open hearings to state that he was very happy to see that President Trump changed the policy from the Obama Administration and provided lethal weapons to the Ukrainians and strengthened sanctions against Russia. In fact, Trump sent $41 million in small weapons to Ukraine in December 2017, his first year in office. $47 million of Javelin anti-tank missiles were sent to Ukraine in March of 2018.
This is contrary to the picture being painted that Trump was withholding much-needed military aid and the holier-than-thou attitude now of the Trump opponents.
You are home watching a cop show, your guilty pleasure of choice. Ours is Blue Bloods. The “Law” is chasing a criminal that gets off on a “technicality.” You, like the Law, are upset that this crumb bum isn’t permanently in jail. How could that be? You are reminded that our system has rules and the police and justice system must follow the rules. No illegal searches. No improper questions. Our legal system is ALL about the process. The process, the process, the process.
We all know that Impeachment is different, but you are never going to sell it to the American people if you don’t follow a fair and proper process. The Democrats are not, and they should not be arguing against Republicans questioning the process. You cannot derive a proper answer without following a fair and proper process. It will always be suspect. Democrats are the ones who are always arguing process for criminals, but not the President.
Then there are the two investigations that Trump was focused on and were brought up in the now-famous call.
There is reason to believe that there is real cause to investigate whether Ukraine was involved in some way in the 2016 American elections the way Russia was accused of doing. We now have focused on a person, Alexandra Chalupa, a name that was brought forward. She provided information to Michael Isikoff when he broke the story of the Steele dossier in 2016. She apparently was also identified by other sources and Senator Grassley asked for information about her a couple of years back. There may be a real story here. It may already be part of the Durham probe into these matters. It needs to be looked into.
To readily dismiss this as a disavowed story is just nonsense. More and more information is coming forward and the Ukrainian government should cooperate with our government in finding this out, just like Mr. Trump requested.
Next there is the Biden issue. You may believe that President Trump should never have mentioned it in the phone call. You may believe he did it for political purposes. You cannot possibly believe that Hunter Biden was not being paid a staggering amount of money for no good reason other than he was the Vice-President’s son. You cannot believe that Burisma was doing that on a magnanimous basis.
This statement by Lisa Lerer in the New York Times epitomizes the attitude of the press. “They’re right: There is no evidence that Hunter Biden made millions of dollars from his overseas work or that his father intervened inappropriately with Ukraine or China on his behalf, as President Trump has falsely claimed.” If you aren’t looking then you don’t find anything, but to say there is no evidence of Biden payments, what world are you in?
George Kent, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, stated he did not see any evidence that Vice-President Biden did anything wrong in his behavior. There are two things to think about regarding that statement. First, do we really believe that Kent would have that shown to him? If it was done, it would have been done outside his reach. Second, whatever was done may have been done in the U.S. and not in the Ukraine or with our allies to grease the wheels for Burisma in the name of the American government.
Colonel Vindman stated he was offended that Trump was asking for an investigation of a private citizen. Neither Biden nor his son were private citizens at the time of the action. His son was a direct relative to the Vice-President of the U.S. No matter how you cut it, what was done was never investigated and it should be. In addition, think about it. Biden has been asking for investigations into President Trump, a political opponent, but Trump cannot ask for one of Biden about a controversy hiding in plain sight. Strange rules we are supposed to live by.
One last thing — stop with the repetitious saying that Trump was asking Zelenskyy to dig up dirt on Biden. No, he was asking Zelenskyy to investigate what Hunter Biden was doing regarding a Ukrainian company that had undergone immense prior scrutiny and appeared to be a less than aboveboard operation. Come up with what you may. That investigation may be the dry hole that Mueller experienced.
Lastly, Mr. Schiff, no one, at least no one with half a brain, believes you don’t know the identity of the whistleblower. Please don’t insult us.