A short diary:
Raise your hand if you’re following the impeachment inquiry. Keep it up if you have a decent understanding of the basic sequence of events — Congress approves money to help vulnerable Ukraine, but before funds are sent over, Trump seizes on debunked (yet tantalizing) conspiracy theory impugning prime political ally, instead placing a hold on those funds and working behind the scenes to get Ukraine to announce an investigation into that rival in order to get those funds (and a White House meeting).
Ok, fine.
So you’ve read about this and seen some news coverage, maybe watched the hearings.
But now keep your hands up if you’ve heard anyone make this fairly obvious point: that along with being illegal and immoral for Trump to shakedown a nation trying to defend itself for political gain, it is also the case that only the President of the United States is in a position to take this kind of action.
That is, one of the biggest reasons this action was unfair — and, I’d argue, the easiest for a low-info voter to grasp — is that no one but Trump could do this. There are a lot of people who’d like really really really bad to be President in 2020. Maybe so much they’d be willing to spend months on the road, or invest tens of millions of dollars. But only one candidate — just one! — is capable of denying a foreign nation some defense funding in order to help his prospects.
I haven’t heard this point made.
Does it make sense? I want to hear a commentator make the observation that, hey, everyone does opposition research today. Every serious candidate is investigating rivals. Every serious candidate is looking for dirt. They’re free to do that! You can even look for dirt overseas, if you want to. And Hunter Biden’s setup was pretty sweet, sure — suspicious, and off-putting. So Trump’s campaign arm was free to investigate it! He’s free to set his campaign on the task, send Rudy over, ask questions, poke around, etc. He’s free to make appalling statements about Hunter Biden. He’s free to tweet about him, insinuate things that are not true, yell about him at rallies, etc.
But he’s not free to coerce a foreign nation to help him do that by using the government’s cash as a lure.
Elizabeth Warren is free to bring up Ivanka Trump on the campaign trail. She’s free to say she’s unqualified to be serving in the White House, and her campaign staff is perfectly able to research her work in China, her trademark income, etc. Bernie Sanders if welcome to mention that Jared Kushner has no business having security clearance, and using any dirt he might find out about him to hurt Trump in a general election. And so on.
But those folks — even if they wanted to! — literally could not do the sorts of things the President can do in pressuring foreign governments.
So — for low-info voters/relatives/neighbors/friends appearing to have trouble understanding the issue, try out this argument. Maybe they agree what Trump did was “bad,” but just don’t know what the big deal is. Maybe politics is a rough business, and “everyone does it.” Easy retort — nope, everyone doesn’t do this — they literally can’t! No one but the President can deny aid to another country on his own, to pressure them to do or say things that will help him politically. Joe Biden can’t do that to hurt Trump (or anyone in the primary). Elizabeth Warren can’t do that, now or later. Bernie Sanders can’t do that. Mayor Pete can’t do that. In six months, if the Democratic nominee decides he or she wants to play just as dirty as Trump and finds some scandal that some foreign nation could help give credence to — he/she still can’t do this — can’t somehow magically withhold money in order to strong-arm them into trying to hurt Trump.
Not one other candidate in any party can do that — only the President can. And for that reason (along with many others), it’s totally unfair of him to do it.