“HOAX” and “witch hunt” — that’s how President Donald Trump has always called any investigation into him. He has gone further by instructing officials and staff in his administration NOT to cooperate with and ignore subpoenas from the Constitution-mandated congressional impeachment inquiry/investigation.
He has been attacking and accusing Democrats and the media of being behind this so-called plot to remove the power from the people by trying to oust him from office and to abort his so-called “sure victory” in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. He contends that the American people do NOT want him impeached and are so happy with his performance as president that they want him re-elected.
Unfortunately, Trump’s actions, decisions, and words in public have already betrayed him, and have given Congress the probable cause to launch an impeachment inquiry, pursuant to the provisions of the Constitution.
As Newsweek reported, the Democrat-led Congress finally launched an impeachment inquiry after a whistleblower formally submitted a complaint in accordance with the rule of law. It alleged “that Trump asked a foreign leader to investigate a potential political rival. In a July phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Trump mentioned Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden, and his son Hunter, according to a summary transcript of the call released by the White House.”
The report added that “despite Biden being mentioned in the call, the president insisted there was no pressure put on Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, and no ‘quid pro quo’ discussion, despite aid to the country being held up around the time of the conversation.”
Seventeen of the former special prosecutors who investigated the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post to declare that they believe “Trump should be impeached”.
“We, former members of the Watergate special prosecutor force, believe there exists compelling prima facie evidence that President Trump has committed impeachable offenses. This evidence can be accepted as sufficient for impeachment, unless disproved by any contrary evidence that the president may choose to offer,” they wrote.
They continued, “The ultimate judgment on whether to impeach the president is for members of the House of Representatives to make. The Constitution establishes impeachment as the proper mechanism for addressing these abuses; therefore, the House should proceed with the impeachment process, fairly, openly and promptly. The president’s refusal to cooperate in confirming (or disputing) the facts already on the public record should not delay or frustrate the House’s performance of its constitutional duty.”
“In reaching these conclusions, we take note of 1) the public statements by Trump himself; 2) the findings of former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation; 3) the readout that the president released of his phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky; 4) the president’s continuing refusal to produce documents or allow testimony by current and former government employees for pending investigations, as well as for oversight matters; and 5) other information now publicly available, including State Department text messages indicating that the release of essential military aid to Ukraine was conditioned on Ukraine’s willingness to commence a criminal investigation designed to further the president’s political interests,” the former prosecutors argued.
Following news about the Ukraine scandal, recent polls reveal growing support for the impeachment inquiry, compared to previous polls involving other Trump scandals, including the Mueller probe.
The Washington Post poll: 58 percent of respondents supported the impeachment inquiry;
Quinnipiac poll: 53 percent of people supported the impeachment inquiry itself, and 45 percent also felt that the president should be impeached and removed from office;
NBC/Wall Street Journal poll: 55% of people back the inquiry;
Politico/Morning Consult poll: half of registered voters would back removing Trump from office;
NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll: 52% say they approve of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump.
BUT the poll that really made Trump furious was at the recent poll taken by Fox News, the cable news channel perceived by most Americans as a propaganda machine for Trump.
Trump’s statements and tweets suggested he was not happy with polling results from Fox commenting to reporters at the weekend: “Fox has changed. My worst polls have always been from Fox.”
The Fox News poll conducted on October 6-8 revealed the following, among others:
Q: Do you approve or disapprove of the job Donald Trump is doing as president?
A: Approved 43%; Disapproved 55%
Q: Do you have a generally favorable or unfavorable opinion of each one?
A: Favorable 43%; Unfavorable 56%
Q: Do you think the Trump administration is more corrupt than previous administrations, less corrupt, or is the Trump administration about as corrupt as previous administrations?
A: More corrupt 51%; Less corrupt 27%; About as corrupt 18%; Don’t know 3%
Q: Please tell me how much confidence you have in Trump (among others):
A: Confidence 43%; No confidence 56%
Q: How troubling do you find the situation surrounding President Trump’s dealings with the Ukrainian president — extremely, very, somewhat, or not at all?
A: Extremely 38%; Very 13%; Somewhat 18%; Not at all 26%; Don’t know 5%
Q: President Trump has made allegations about Joe Biden and his son’s business dealings in Ukraine and China. How troubling do you find those allegations — extremely, very, somewhat, or not at all?
A: Extremely 19%; Very 17%; Somewhat 26%; Not at all 32%; Don’t know 6%
Q: Do you think President Trump should be impeached and removed from office, or not?
A: YES 51%; NO 43%
THESE POLLS do not even cover the latest Trump decision to abandon our Kurds allies in Northern Syria that cleared the way for the attack of the Turks forces. At least 104 Kurdish fighters and 60 civilians have been killed since Turkey’s attack on Wednesday, putting hundreds of thousands of families at risk and benefitting the interests of the Russian and Syrian dictators.
ABANGAN ANG SUSUNOD NA KABANATA.
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
