On September 24, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats announced the opening of an impeachment inquiry against President Donald J. Trump. The allegations claim he unduly pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the business dealings of ex-Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter. Adam Schiff, the Speaker’s handpicked impeachment prosecutor, compared the President to a crime mob boss in an elaborate quid pro quo scheme involving military aid in return for dirt on a political opponent.
Neglecting the obvious farce of the allegations and the chairman’s vitriolic and fictional utterances, the current impeachment inquiry undermines national security, deepens societal schisms, and worst of all, utterly fails constitutional muster.
For the Democrats and their ‘resistance’ friends in the media, impeachment has always been the goal. First, they attempted to undermine Trump’s legitimacy by disseminating an elaborate, unverified dossier of lies and slander compiled by ex-British intelligence officer Christopher Steele regarding concerns with foreign interference during the 2016 election. For the next two years, they fanned the flames of Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller’s investigation into an alleged Trump-Russian collusion, a claim for which the ex-FBI Director found insufficient evidence. Yet, prominent Democrats like Rep. Maxine Waters publicly called for the President’s impeachment, and Texas Rep. Al Green filed motions to launch impeachment proceedings in lieu of any evidence of wrongdoing.
This impeachment process jeopardizes critical diplomatic relationships that amount to national security. The give-and-take of diplomacy requires the absolute confidence of partners involved. Starting an impeachment process over a call with a foreign leader forever breaches that confidence between the President and his intelligence advisers. Allies and partners can no longer trust the discretion of the American presidency when considering politically risky concessions that contribute to national security. Just two weeks into this probe, Democrats are already clamoring for transcripts from the president's communications with leaders from Australia and China. What other sensitive discussion with a foreign leader will they demand next? Where does this frivolous congressional overreach stop? Democrats must not allow their dislike of this President to blind them to the diplomatic harm of their misguided impeachment probe.
In addition to diplomatic ramifications, this blatantly partisan inquisition has the potential to establish an irreparable fissure of distrust between the Commander-in-Chief and their intelligence officers. The Democrats’ impeachment inquiry legitimizes the second-hand hearsay by a “politically biased” CIA agent assigned to the White House. Even worse, recent reports further shone the spotlight on the chicanery of ‘Prosecutor’ Schiff, whose office provided guidance to the supposed whistleblower on how to file a ‘whistleblower complaint’. Apparently, this politically biased whistleblower needed some help blowing his whistle from the office of a prominent Democrat.
No person is free of prejudice. Yes, the whistleblower is entitled to his political rights to support another candidate and still disagree with the President. But coordinating with Congressman Schiff’s office, in this case the President’s political opponent, raises troubling concerns about the professionalism and neutrality expected of national security personnel. Even the vaguest appearance of a politicized intelligence community goes a long way in compromising national security. The President and other executive officials must now ask themselves whether or not their advisees are simply political hacks out to get them or just faithful patriots in service of their nation. Such undue scrutiny and the resulting skepticism hinder the ability of critical decision makers to act decisively on intelligence information and advice.
The Democrats’ facade of protecting the elections from foreign intervention disintegrates into utter hypocrisy upon keener examination, amounting to nothing more than a smokescreen for their nakedly political impeachment crusade. Speaker Pelosi and her underlings are determined to convince the American people that President Trump violated his oath of office and even committed a crime by enlisting the electoral interference of a foreign power. Somehow, this outrage conveniently ignores the fact that just last year, a group of Democratic Senators wrote the Ukrainian Prosecutor General indicating that if his office fails to assist Mueller’s investigation into their political opponent, President Trump, bipartisan aid to Ukraine would be jeopardized. Yet this isn’t quid pro quo, Democrats might retort, just regular oversight authority.
Looking back further, Politico in 2017 reported about the work of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). It linked Alexandra Chalupa, a Ukrainian-American political operatives with links to the DNC, with Ukrainian officials in undermining Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. Oh no, how dare you call these innocuous interventions the solicitation of foreign in-kind campaign contributions? Nothing to see here, just plain old legislative oversight.
The Democrats might pontificate from their pulpits of absolute devotion to the rule of law. But Americans are a fair people and recognize injustice even when the perpetrators masquerade the sacred Constitution as their call to arms. Americans see the hypocrisy in one set of norms for Trump and another for the Democrats. This double standard peels back the veil of the Democrats’ deceit, surfacing their real motivation: the removal of a constitutionally elected President without the say of the people.
Originally from Liberia, Armstrong Gbessagee is a Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering senior. He is the Secretary-General of Hopkins College Republicans.
