Though it attracted predictably adoring praise from the liberal media, Rep. Adam Schiff’s opening arguments in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump were awash in conspiracy theories that are unlikely to persuade anyone in the Senate that they should vote to convict. Knowing full well that the weak allegations against Trump do not rise to the level of impeachment, Schiff tried multiple times to add drama and intrigue to the proceedings with bizarre and laughable assertions that bear little resemblance to reality.
In trying to impart to the Senate the importance of sending military aid to Ukraine (which, as everyone in the chamber is aware, was done in September), Schiff painted a picture of a Russian ground invasion that would have drawn guffaws in 1985, much less 2020.
“America has an abiding interest in stemming Russian expansionism and resisting any nation’s efforts to remake the map of Europe by dent of military force, even as we have tens of thousands of troops stationed there,” he said. “Moreover, as one witness put it during our impeachment inquiry, the United States aids Ukraine and her people so that we can fight Russia over there and we don’t have to fight Russia here.”
This piece of silliness inspired journalist Max Blumenthal to note: “Liberals used to mock Bush supporters when they used this jingoistic line during the war on Iraq. Now they deploy it to justify an imperialist proxy war against a nuclear power.”
But Schiff wasn’t done polluting the air inside the Senate with his conspiratorial thinking. While he mercifully moved on from the specter of a Russian invasion, he justified the House’s rush to impeachment by saying that Trump can’t just be allowed to cheat us out of (another) election.
“We are here today to consider a much more grave matter and that is an attempt to use the powers of the presidency to cheat in an election,” Schiff said. “For precisely this reason, the president’s misconduct cannot be decided at the ballot box, for we cannot be assured that the vote will be fairly won. In corruptly using his office to gain a political advantage and abusing the powers of that office in such a way to jeopardize our national security and the integrity of our elections, in obstructing the investigation into his own wrongdoing, the president has shown that he believes that he’s above the law and scornful of constraint.”
Later, Schiff returned to this theme: “We also took this step with the knowledge that this was not the first time the president solicited foreign interference in our elections. In 2016 then candidate Trump implored Russia to hack his opponent’s email accounts, something that the Russian military agency did only hours later, only hours later. When the president said, Hey, Russia, if you’re listening, they were listening. Only hours later they hacked his opponent’s campaign. And the president has made it clear, this would also not be the last time. Asking China only recently to join Ukraine in investigating his political opponent.”
Wow. Four years later, and the Democrats are still obvious to the fact that Trump was JOKING when he made that comment about the Russians. Also, even if you were to take Trump literally (which is impossible if you have a shred of sense), he wasn’t encouraging Russia to proactively hack Hillary Clinton’s emails – he was saying he believed that Russia probably already had them from previous hacks. He was just saying, Hey, let’s see the goods!
Regardless. The idea that having Ukraine look into the corruption of the Bidens amounts to “cheating” in the 2020 election is ridiculous. Unless it is cheating to bring to light the crimes that Democrats have committed.
Which, if we recall the reaction the left had to Hillary’s email scandal, is pretty much exactly what they believe.
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