I would say micromanaging still. It’s not a hobby because it is actually his underlings’ jobs to investigate. I see what you are saying though - it would be like me doing my employee’s work even though I am not certified to do that work. Whether I have time to cover for my employee is a separate issue. I’m probably not going to concede this point as applied to the President, at least not wholeheartedly.
But I still want to see the rest of your argument. Pretend that I agree with you that it is wrong for the president to perform investigations on his own. That would be the Bill Barr’s job. Leave the time factor out because evidently the President has plenty of time on his hands, his involvement in Ukraine notwithstanding. Can you circle back to the impeachment trial? How does this tie in?
I think I see two separate arguments that don’t fit the situation, but I don’t want to attack a straw man.
Born in Tennessee, yessirree. You tell me what the chain of command you have in mind is and either I’ll tell you why Trump’s actions are still appropriate, or I’ll concede the argument.
Could you explain the defense theory of the whistleblower more fully? How is he going to be advancing the defense case? I have been watching the defense and I’m pretty sure that notwithstanding their law degrees they don’t know what a whistleblower is or does. How is it a part of their defense?
You should be able to find good cites on this. It’s a tale typical of the gaslighting and corruption endemic in Ukraine.
Shokin, a Ukrainian prosecutor, was tasked with investigating, not Burisma, but the owner of Burisma, an oligarch named Zlochevsky. He was accused of stealing 23 million dollars from the Ukrainian people. This money was in a British bank account and British authorities had frozen the account.
Shokin was tasked with investigating Zlochevsky and his corruption. But Zlochevsky was his buddy, so he slow-walked the investigation and failed to take certain actions. Great Britain was forced to release the 23 million back to Zlochevsky.
This outraged both the British and the US prosecutors, who embarked on a campaign spearheaded by Biden, to get Shokin fired. It worked.
So the “spin” on this tale is “Biden fired the prosecutor investigating the owner of his son’s company”. But the reality is he was fired for NOT investigating.
Here’s a good article from USA Today, a reasonably non-partisan source. There were other reasons for firing the dude and the story I paraphrased is only a small part of the article.
Notable, too: Trump had all of 2017, all of 2018, and the beginning of 2019 to express his concern about ‘corruption in Ukraine’ and/or ‘problems with Joe Biden’s conduct with regard to Ukraine’ and/or ‘problems with Hunter Biden’s time in Ukraine.’
And for a big chunk of that Jan 2017-to-April-2019 time period, Trump had a GOP Senate and House at his disposal, ready to support efforts to Work on Corruption in Ukraine! Not to mention Trump’s ability to ask CIA and other US intelligence agencies for help in rooting out Corruption in Ukraine, and/or Problems with the Bidens.
Yet—by yet another of those amazing coincidences—Trump did nothing whatsoever along these lines* until, you guessed it, Joe Biden became a candidate for the Presidency.
*If Trump had anything to show that he’d taken Anti-Corruption Action On Ukraine and/or Bidens before Joe announced his candidacy, it would be massively exculpatory. And Trump wouldn’t have to violate any security concerns—he could employ as many redactions as his people thought necessary to keep the nation safe, in releasing such documentation; he could release it only to committees of Congress in which members have high security clearance (for example).
Given these facts: if Trump did anything about Ukraine or ‘problems with Bidens in Ukraine’ prior to Joe’s announcement…why isn’t he producing that evidence? Wouldn’t you think he’d want to clear his name?
(I continue to be amazed that Trump defenders apparently believe the 'Trump the Ardent Corruption-Fighter’ story is even remotely credible.)
In some ways, I wish he was. That would make him subject to the UCMJ, particularly Article 133.
Also articles:
77
78
80
81
82
88
92
98
104
107
123a
127
131
132
134-2
134-6
134-11
134-12
134-19
134-28
134-35
134-37
134-40
134-43
134-48
134-51
134-53
Basically, if Trump was a military officer, he would be fucked.
Fortunately, he had bone spurs and does not need to hold himself to the standard by which he (as the Executive) holds millions of others, who he sometimes sends to their deaths in service to our flag.
In addition to this fine summary, hereis a nice compilation of the Ukraine timeline. The Prosecutor General that Joe Biden helped to oust, Shorkin, was removed partly for not investigating Burisma.
As I recall, several countries, not just Biden and the US, were pushing for ousting that prosecutor for failing to go after corruption. But in the Bizarro world that is the Republican Party, Biden alone arranged for the ouster in order to stop investigation of him and his son.
It’s not a misreading when you have access to the same classified information and clearly misrepresent that information. This happened with Schiff’s memo countering Nunes’s memo that exposed the wrongdoing that the IG documented in his report.
I’m not backing anyone let alone liars. Don’t confuse me with other posters or make assumptions about what I think. Ask questions and get answers.
…but I may as well bury it at the end of a sinking thread for all my opinion matters.
There is no way in hell the senate will convict, let alone remove this guy. And I really can’t explain why that would be without making outrageous assertions with zero evidence apart from past performance. The situation is not simply a matter of different opinions, it is a partisan thing where the Republicans aren’t even willing to give an honest hearing of what the Democrats feel are relevant facts. It looks, quacks, and walks like the Republican party legit wants the USA to crumble into a disorganized third world mess. If they even whispered so much as a fact in defense of President Trump I might have hope, but this is not happening.
This impeachment is not a fight to save the nation at this point. It is the physician holding the mirror under the nose of a suspected corpse and hoping against hope for even a tiny bit of fog.