This is America...And Here, Right Matters
An anniversary of sorts
Welcome to my many new subscribers. I’m glad you found me! We’re traveling for the holiday but I wanted to make sure I published a newsletter today because my phone showed me the above picture this morning and reminded me today is an anniversary of sorts for me.
Four years ago today I testified publicly in the first impeachment hearing of President Trump.
During my testimony I explained why I reported Trump’s corruption describing the dire effects the scheme to extort an investigation from Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy would have on U.S. national security. My report put an end to the corrupt scheme, but Trump’s conspiracies continued. While Trump was impeached, the Senate acquitted him and sent the signal that he could continue his relentless effort to end our democracy in order to hold onto power. But even in ending that part of the scheme, the damage to our relations with Ukraine, with the U.S. seen as willing to cast aside a strategic partner for corrupt politics, sent the message to Putin that Ukraine was vulnerable and primed for attack. The complete MAGA hijacking of the Republican party sent the message that the conquest of Ukraine, if seized in a lighting war, would be low-cost venture. Much of that proved false for Putin, but Trump’s politicizing Ukraine contributed to Putin’s appetite to wage war.
“I was concerned by the call, what I heard was improper, and I reported my concerns to Mr. Eisenberg. It is improper for the President of the United States to demand a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen and political opponent. It was also clear that if Ukraine pursued an investigation into the 2016 election, the Bidens, and Burisma, it would be interpreted as a partisan play. This would undoubtedly result in Ukraine losing bipartisan support, undermine U.S. national security, and advance Russia’s strategic objectives in the region.” November 19, 2019.
My worst fears, however, were realized inside the United States when Trump nearly stole the presidency after losing to Joe Biden. I reported Trump’s call because I thought he was committing a crime; his efforts to get the Ukrainians to launch an investigation was a scheme to tarnish Joe Biden’s candidacy, knockout Biden as a candidate, and tip the re-election scales in his favor. The scheme was an obscene perversion of the principle of free and fair elections. Reporting him didn’t stop the plot, it only precipitated the next phases of false accusations of a election fraud and ultimately an attempted insurrection. We are now face with the possibility of another Trump candidacy in the 2024 election.
Why It Matters: Both The New York Times and The Economist have reported extensively on what a second Trump presidency would look like. Trump and his team are developing plans to:
Run the entirety of the federal government from the White House. They would achieve this centralization of power in part by seeding the government and the professional civil service with Trump loyalists who pass one essential ideological test — not an oath of office to protect and defend the constitutional against all enemies both foreign and domestic — but an absolute loyalty to Trump and his whims and desires. It is the very thing our Founders wanted to leave behind when they sought to bring forth a new nation.
Execute mass raids to locate undocumented immigrants, revoke visas for those in the U.S. for humanitarian reasons, end birthright citizenship for babies born to undocumented parents, and reinstate a ban on immigrants from some Muslim-majority nations. In order to fund this, they will redirect money from the defense budget. National Guard soldiers would be used to run massive detention camps and active-duty personnel could also be used if he invokes the Insurrection Act.
These plans bely an even more troubling prospect. That of Trump and his cronies using law enforcement, the Department of Justice, and the Judiciary to target political opponents and those looking to constrain Trump’s power as well as a vindictive score-settling against anyone that has slighted Trump in the past. I imagine I’m on that target list.
These things should not be possible in the United States of America, but we would be fools not to take these threats seriously.
References:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/11/us/politics/trump-2025-immigration-agenda.html
Next year's election isn't Trump vs Biden, it's Trump vs America.
I'm so proud of you, and grateful for your willingness to stand up to corruption.