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Originally Posted by Anteater
Eh?
1. I'm not talking about any kind of hacking. The DNC paid third party consultants to investigate Paul Manafort with the express purpose of digging up dirt on the Trump campaign. They also, along with some Never-Trumper Republicans, were responsible for paying Fusion GPS to compile the infamous dossier. Both of these activities constitute actual election meddling and make all this outrage at Trump's Ukrainian phone call more than a little funny. I don't recall anyone going to prison, being arrested, removed from office or getting in trouble over that, otherwise you would have already known what I was talking about.
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I'm not positive but I don't think paying a third party to dig up dirt is actually illegal in any way.
But it's an abuse of power as president to use your powers to extort a foreign govt to smear a political rival for personal gain. It's that simple. Freezing the aid in the manner which he did for leverage was also illegal.
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That's why I've said before that impeachment has to be more than a political process. Telling America "there's nothing to see here" in regards to Joe and Hunter Biden isn't a compelling message. They could have focused in on potential conflicts of interest related to his businesses, profiting from the Presidency, his taxes, countless other things....and they chose Ukraine of all things as the hill they wanted to die on.
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I agree that he's done worse. Nixon also did worse than Watergate. A lot of it is a political calculus.
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2. John Solomon already made a good case for why the Bidens should be investigated. There's a wonderful timeline going back to 2014, fully documented. Especially in regards to Burisma around 2016. Ukraine Timeline 2014-2019
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I agree Biden being on the board of that company seems like classic nepotism and even corruption. That doesn't actually justify what Trump did. That's what you're missing. If he launched an official investigation through the justice dept that would have its own sort of political implications and obstacles, but it would not have been the subject of an impeachment trial. When you send your thugs to do your dirty work covertly and then lie about it and try to cover it up every step along the way, that's something different.
As for this alternative history narrative that this whole thing was to punish the Ukraine for meddling in our elections while basically ignoring the Russians who did the actual hacking, what is the direct connection between Hunter Biden being on Burisma and this supposed interference by the Ukrainian government?
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3. At the time and date Parnas mentioned, there was no way Trump or anyone else could have known Biden was going to run. Zero. Trump's motivations for looking into the Bidens, Burisma, CrowdStrike and Ukraine itsself are based around what I've outlined in points 1 and 2. Joe Biden didn't even make it known he was going to run until late March 2019. Is he psychic?
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like I said this is beyond naive. Are you under the impression that Biden would decide to run and then announce it the next day or something? It was well known he would most likely be running. It was well known Sanders and most likely Warren would also be running. The announcement just marks the official start of the campaign. ****, i knew Hilary would be running in 2016 since she lost to Obama in 08. I should start some sort of psychic hotline I guess.