Evan Vucci/AP Photo
President Donald Trump at a section of the southern border wall in Otay Mesa, California, September 18, 2019
When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, one school of thought held that as repellent a human being as he obviously was, at bottom he was an entertainer, intentionally shocking but not as dangerous as he appeared. Despite widespread fears of what he might do, some argued that once in office he would have no choice but to become more serious, to rely on those with expertise, and to feel the weight of the job’s responsibilities. Trump himself offered reassurance, saying that at the right time, “I will be so presidential, you will be so bored.”
Besides, the institutions of America’s government were robust enough to withstand whatever buffoonery he might bring to the Oval Office. Right?
That view was of course mistaken. In fact, all our worst fears have come true. Trump has been worse than we thought. The crisis of the presidency, the Constitution, and our entire system is not a danger, not a hypothetical, not something to worry about for the future. The crisis is now.
Perhaps because this presidency has been such a non-stop horror show, the story of Trump pressuring the Ukrainian government to dig up dirt on a potential opponent’s son in order to aid his 2020 election campaign is not getting nearly the kind of attention it deserves. It’s being treated like an important story, but not one that merits screaming headlines and the setting aside of all other news to devote round-the-clock coverage. But that’s how it ought to be treated. Simply put, if this is not impeachable conduct, what in the world could be?
Here’s what we know as of this writing. Last week it was reported that an intelligence official heard something on a phone call Trump had with a foreign leader that was so profoundly disturbing the official felt he had no choice but to lodge a whistleblower complaint with the inspector general for the intelligence community. The IG, determining that it met the legal standard of an “urgent concern,” passed it the director of national intelligence, who according to the law is supposed to then pass it to the intelligence committees in Congress.
But the DNI, in what appears to be a clear and unambiguous violation of the law, has refused to do so, saying that a “higher authority” had told him not to.
With each passing hour, new reports emerged that filled in the details of the whistleblower’s account. First, we learned that the phone call took place on July 25, with newly elected President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. At the time, Congress had appropriated $250 million in aid to the country, but the Trump administration was refusing to release it.
Then we learned that in the call, Trump pressured Zelensky to open an investigation into a Ukrainian company on whose board Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son, had sat. Trump urged Zelensky to do this a mind-boggling eight times during their conversation.
While at first Trump had issued vague denials about the story, eventually he and his “lawyer” Rudy Giuliani, who had served as Trump’s emissary to Ukraine for precisely this purpose, both admitted it. Giuliani, in a train wreck of an interview on CNN Friday, first denied that he pressed the Ukrainian government to investigate Hunter Biden, then thirty seconds later, when asked again, said “Of course I did!”
Then Trump told reporters that he did indeed press the Ukainian president to investigate Biden and his son. “The conversation I had was largely congratulatory, was largely corruption, all of the corruption taking place,” he said. “It was largely the fact that we don't want our people, like Vice President Biden and his son creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine.”
Let’s pause here to take stock. The president of the United States eagerly accepted help from a hostile foreign power in order to get elected in 2016. This June, he told ABC News that if a foreign power offered him help to get reelected in 2020, he’d accept it. And now he has admitted that he pressured a foreign government to dig up dirt on the family member of a potential opponent in order to help him get reelected.
To repeat: If that isn’t impeachable, what is?
What is the thing we worried Trump would do that he hasn’t done? We worried that he would transfer his obvious corruption and self-dealing from the private sector to the White House, which he most certainly has. We worried that, as he did in business, he would gather around him a collection of grifters, scammers and crooks, which he has done as well.
We worried that he would subvert and corrupt the agencies of government, diverting them from their traditional purposes and demanding that the people who lead them pledge loyalty only to him. He has done that, too, revealing an ability not only to attract the corrupt but to reveal the latent corruption in people for whom it wasn’t previously apparent, like Attorney General William Barr.
We worried that his contempt for rules and laws would weaken the institutions of American democracy, and he is making great progress on that score, among other things simply refusing to comply with congressional subpoenas and demands for testimony from officials.
We worried that, having run a campaign built on xenophobia and racism, he would not only institute unspeakably cruel policies toward immigrants but would continue to use race-baiting as a political strategy. He has done that as well.
We worried that, having gotten elected with the help of the Kremlin, he would seek a repeat in 2020 in one form or another. And so he is.
We worried that rather than growing in office, Trump would devolve, his copious personality flaws and odious impulses only exaggerated by the power and isolation of the Oval Office.
That too has come to pass. And now he has made clear that there is no depth to which he will not sink, no power he will not abuse, no poison he will not spread through a system that looks far less resilient than we thought it was. If we treat this like anything less than the five-alarm fire it is, we’re only helping him get away with it.
