<\/p>\n
By Tom Elliott
\ngrabien news<\/p>\n
On Wednesday Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) offered a\u00a0compelling case for impeaching President Trump. Describing his actions as a \u201cclassic mafia shakedown of a foreign leader,\u201d Schiff said Trump in a phone call with the Ukrainian president\u00a0threatened\u00a0to withhold aid if he didn\u2019t produce comprising intelligence on his 2020 political rival, Joe Biden.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe president communicates to his Ukrainian counterpart that the United States has done a lot for Ukraine; we\u2019ve done an awful lot for Ukraine, more than the Europeans or anyone else has done for Ukraine, but there\u2019s not much reciprocity here. This is how a mafia boss talks. What have you done for us? We\u2019ve done so much for you. But there\u2019s not much reciprocity. I have a favor I want to ask you. And what is that favor? Of course the favor is to investigate his political rival, to investigate the Bidens.\u201d<\/p>\n
It sounds bad.<\/p>\n
Schiff\u2019s\u00a0painting a picture \u2014 using invented dialogue, a trick he tried again in a subsequent congressional hearing \u2014\u00a0of a president manipulating U.S. foreign policy to wrest personal favors from foreign leaders. But as more evidence comes to surface,\u00a0that picture is quickly fading.<\/p>\n
Here are 10 ways Democrats\u2019 original impeachment argument is coming apart:<\/p>\n
1. No\u00a0quid pro quo<\/em>.<\/strong>\u00a0Despite Democrats\u2019 initial claim, there was no\u00a0quid pro quo<\/em>. The call transcript shows the topic of aid only came up in reference to how well the U.S. treats Ukraine, particularly as compared to Euro nations, most specifically Germany. At no point does Trump threaten to withhold anything, as even some of Trump\u2019s media critics conceded.<\/p>\n 2. Ukrainians weren\u2019t pressured.\u00a0<\/strong>Democrats and the media have repeatedly insisted President Trump \u201cacted like a mob boss\u201d in applying pressure on President Volodymyr Zelensky. He, however, defended Trump, saying he felt no pressure.\u00a0\u201c I think you read everything,\u201d he told reporters in New York this week.\u00a0\u201cSo I think you read text. I\u2019m … I am sorry but I don\u2019t want to be involved to democratic open, uh, hum… \u0432\u0438\u0431\u043e\u0440\u0438e… elections of U.S.A. You\u2019ve heard we had, um, I think good phone call. It was normal. We spoke about many things and I thought so. And I think and you read it that nobody push it, pushed me.\u201d<\/p>\n 3. Timeline.\u00a0<\/strong>Politico\u2019s Ken Vogel reported that the Ukrainian delegation hadn\u2019t even been made aware aid was held up until a month\u00a0after<\/em>\u00a0the Trump call. It\u2019s hard to see they could feel they\u2019re being \u201cextorted,\u201d as Democrats keep saying, if they weren\u2019t even aware of the pressure supposedly being applied.<\/p>\n 4. No Illicit Favors.<\/strong>\u00a0When the White House released the call transcript, readers noticed that after some initial mutual flattery, Zeleznsky\u00a0brings up buying more Javelin missiles; President Trump then asks for a favor and requests additional information into 2016 election meddling. Rep. Adam Schiff suggested Trump\u2019s request for a \u201cfavor\u201d actually referenced wanting dirt on Joe Biden, but Biden only comes up later in the conversation, and in a separate context. Nonetheless, the major media almost uniformly reported the \u201cfavor\u201d line from Trump\u2019s call in the same inaccurate fashion.<\/p>\n 5. Whistleblower Complaint Lacks Credibility.<\/strong>\u00a0This complaint, which Democrats for some reason insisted was more important than the call transcript itself, was basically a version of that original\u00a0call that had been run through a game of telephone. The report had the basic story reasonably accurate, but then supplemented that synopsis\u00a0with additional accumulated gossip. At least three key details in the complaint have since been shown to be false. As the document is itself a product of hearsay \u2014 the self-described whistleblower admits at the beginning of his report that he never witnessed anything \u2014 and the fact it contains demonstrable inaccuracies, its importance should certainly be subjugated to the call transcript itself.<\/p>\n 6. Fake News, Bad Polls.<\/strong>\u00a0The media outlets driving the story have thrown into question their credibility after a series of major mistakes. The Washington Post\u00a0reported the director of National Intelligence, Joseph Maguire, threatened to resign if he weren\u2019t allowed to speak publicly about the whistleblower report. Maguire responded and emphatically called the Post\u2019s report untrue, repeating that insistence while under oath during subsequent congressional testimony. ABC News and Axios both reported that an adviser to the Ukraine president said their delegation was aware in advance that aid money was being used as leverage; unfortunately for these media outlets, their source wasn\u2019t actually an adviser to the president and the outlets had to issue updates.<\/p>\n Democrats are pointing to a growing number of Americans supporting impeachment to buttress their argument, but it\u2019s a safe bet these numbers will shift after the dust on this story starts to settle.<\/p>\n 7. Adam Schiff.\u00a0<\/strong>Two weeks before Congress was notified of an intelligence community whistleblower report, Adam Schiff\u00a0was already tweeting out the thrust of the accusation:<\/p>\n Trump is withholding vital military aid to Ukraine, while his personal lawyer seeks help from the Ukraine government to investigate his political opponent.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t take a stable genius to see the magnitude of this conflict.<\/p>\n Or how destructive it is to our national security. https:\/\/t.co\/X4yhTS2q1Z<\/a><\/p>\n — Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) August 29, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n