Just before the House Judiciary Committee approved the articles of impeachment on a party-line vote, an exasperated President Donald Trump asked the pertinent question: “How do you get Impeached when you have done NOTHING wrong?”
Trump also noted many of his accomplishments as president.
“How do you get Impeached when you have done NOTHING wrong (a perfect call), have created the best economy in the history of our Country, rebuilt our Military, fixed the V.A. (Choice!), cut Taxes & Regs, protected your 2nd A, created Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, and soooo much more? Crazy!” he said in a blockbuster tweet.
How do you get Impeached when you have done NOTHING wrong (a perfect call), have created the best economy in the history of our Country, rebuilt our Military, fixed the V.A. (Choice!), cut Taxes & Regs, protected your 2nd A, created Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, and soooo much more? Crazy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2019
To be clear, President Trump has certainly done something wrong. The Democrats will find it if it’s the last thing they do.
Furthermore, the call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was not “perfect” as Trump insists — but it also was nowhere near as damning as Democrats claim, either.
There is indeed an American national interest for an investigation into whether or not Hunter Biden was engaged in corruption in Ukraine. Vice President Joe Biden — his father — was the Obama administration’s point person on Ukraine, and Hunter got a cushy job at a notoriously corrupt Ukrainian gas company despite lacking any experience in the industry. Joe Biden later pressured Ukraine to fire the prosecutor looking into this corrupt company, threatening to revoke U.S. aid to Ukraine.
Democrats also note that Trump temporarily withheld the military funding to Ukraine while asking for the investigations. Ukrainian officials did not know he had held up the funding, however, and Zelensky and other Ukrainians have insisted that there was “no pressure” during the events in question. It is plausible, as Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has suggested, that Trump intended to more fully vet Zelensky before releasing the funds. In any case, the funds were released and Trump never made the clear quid pro quo demand that Joe Biden did.
As for the president’s record, his tweet is exaggerated but mostly accurate. While he did not “create the best economy in the history of our Country,” the economy is indeed booming under Trump and his policies have likely contributed to that (even as tariffs may have a less visible negative impact).
Trump has indeed strengthened America’s military, enacted reform at the Department of Veterans Affairs, cut taxes and regulations, and stood up for the Second Amendment. He is delivering on many of the key promises of his campaign, especially when it comes to the judiciary and the Supreme Court. He is also enacting pro-life policies like the Mexico City Policy and defunding Planned Parenthood. He even achieved historic diplomatic strides with North Korea — although the hermit kingdom still picks a fight occasionally. He also officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moved the embassy there.
Like any president, he has had a few missteps. The federal deficit and debt are still high and increasing. Obamacare is still the law of the land. Trump still has work to do.
However, the sentiment behind the tweet is well-founded. The president has achieved a great deal and the phone call is a paltry thing over which to impeach him. Trump is right to be exasperated — but impeachment may end up helping his re-election. That would be extremely ironic because Democrats seem to be weaponizing impeachment in order to weaken him for 2020, in direct contradiction of the Founders’ intentions.
Follow Tyler O’Neil, the author of this article, on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
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