Dear Editor: Last week an opinion was published that implied it wasn’t fair to consider Trump’s suggestion to Ukraine’s president (about investigating Biden) an impeachable offense, considering what the writer felt the Bidens had done. That writer missed two crucial points: first, this isn’t about the Bidens. It’s only about Trump and what he did as president. Secondly, it wasn’t a suggestion to the Ukranian president — it was a shakedown. Trump was holding up military aid until Ukraine agreed to investigate the Bidens. And even more incredibly, Trump then took a step further by ‘suggesting” China investigate the Bidens. Joe Biden is a serious contender who is leading Trump in the polls, so Trump goes on the attack. Fine — opposition research and discrediting your opponent is fair game in politics.
But Trump crossed the line when he used the office of the president as well as U.S. foreign policy to strong-arm another country into doing opposition research for him.
To paraphrase Associate Justice Potter Stewart: I don’t know the legal definition of abuse of power, but I know it when I see it. So — to that other writer — yes, what Trump did is an impeachable offense. Up to now, we weren’t in favor of impeachment. We are now.
Mr. and Mrs. Graydon W. Giesfeldt
Cottage Grove
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