• Editor’s note: Trump’s defense is to impeach Obama, go after the Bidens, Is that it?
• Republican majorities in Congress did not go after the Bidens in 2017-2018. Why now?
• U. S. law enforcement investigates Americans, not foreigners, President America First!
• The “America First” President does not understand government to his peril.

“Trump’s impeachment trial has a lot to do with his inability to fire Marie Yovanovitch”

“There were other ways for Trump to try to get rid of his ambassador. But these stratagems required knowledge Trump didn’t have — and so he went another route.”

“The formal documents on the impeachment of President Donald Trump ring with charges of greed and betrayal. But presidents don’t get impeached only because — or even mainly because — they’re egregiously corrupt. They get impeached because they don’t know how to get what they want without violating laws, rules and norms in order to do it.

“With Trump, we have a president who regularly demonstrates he has no knowledge of the intricacies of how the government works — and didn’t think he had to learn.

“We are watching this play out now in his Senate impeachment trial. The House managers have been presenting their case of alleged corruption. But they’ve also exposed the sheer dumbness of Trump’s efforts to get the Ukrainians to produce anti-Joe Biden campaign fodder for him. Even with administration partisans, including the attorney general, in control of the Justice Department, Trump couldn’t figure out how to use the regular levers of government to get what he wanted. He had to resort to his private lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his “associates.” That was a potentially disastrous choice — and the disaster has now materialized,” by Suzanne Garment, author of “Scandal: The Culture of Mistrust in American Politics.” Read more

“Chris Hayes: ‘We do not sic foreign systems of justice on American citizens'”

“Chris Hayes says that even if Hunter Biden was suspected of wrongdoing in his relationship with Burisma, as Trump’s defense team is alleging, there’s no reason for Trump to deal with that by requiring Ukraine to investigate it in exchange for aid. ‘We do not sic foreign systems of justice on American citizens… . if there is an actual predicate for some sort of investigation, there are processes by which that is pursued,” on The Beat with Ari Melber, MSNBC. Read more

“There’s something else at stake in Trump impeachment: Control of Senate”

“President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial may not result in his removal from office, but it could help determine whether his Republicans retain control of the Senate in the November congressional elections.

“For the handful of senators who face tough re-election battles this year, their vote to acquit or convict Trump, or even to call witnesses in the trial, could loom large when voters consider whether to give them another six-year term, analysts said,” by By Richard Cowan and David Morgan, Reuters. Read more

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