Posted on 11/06/2019 3:21:27 AM PST by Kaslin
The July 25 call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Vlodomyr Zelensky is the central piece of evidence in the Democratic drive to remove the president from office. "That call was a smoking gun," Speaker Nancy Pelosi said after House Democrats voted to formalize their impeachment inquiry.
Trump has repeatedly said the call was "perfect," or, as he described it recently, "perfecto." His defenders, or most of them, have declined to adopt that characterization. But importantly, the president, and others as well, have also pointed to the circumstances of the Trump-Zelensky conversation as evidence that Trump had no intent to commit any sort of offense, and certainly not one that the House would later deem impeachable.
"It's common sense," the president said recently in an expansive Oval Office conversation after the House vote. "I've got 20 to 25 people on the phone call. I've got stenographers and all of these people on the telephone. Am I going to make a statement that's illegal or bad? I'm an intelligent person. Who would do a thing like that?"
To that end, Trump has urged everyone to "read the transcript" of the call. That is a reference to the memorandum, which reads like a rough transcript, prepared by the National Security Council. On the morning of the House vote, Trump tweeted, simply, "READ THE TRANSCRIPT!" In his Oval Office conversation, he said his campaign has had T-shirts made with the same message.
attempt to achieve a corrupt bargain, as I see it."
No, no, no, say Democrats. Trump's behavior, according to presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, showed "clear evidence of consciousness of guilt." The call is not a "straight call," as the president said. It's a confession of a crime.
Part of the problem with that position is that Democrats have had a difficult time coming up with a law that Trump violated in the Zelensky call. Some have said it was extortion. Some have said it was a campaign finance violation. Some recent speculation has focused on an obscure statute called the Hobbs Act. But nobody has made a slam-dunk case that Trump broke the law.
Still, Democrats say, the White House move to restrict access to the rough transcript shows an awareness that something was amiss. "People involved in the preparation of this transcript had, in effect, a consciousness of guilt," CNN's Jeffrey Toobin said recently. The problem with that argument, in the context of impeachment, is that it refers to White House staff, not to the president himself.
Some of Trump's most determined adversaries say his "read the transcript" mantra is the work of a sociopath, of someone who is incapable of knowing right from wrong, or perhaps it is an in-your-face defense strategy that comes naturally to a man who almost never admits a mistake.
But the simplest explanation is that Trump really doesn't believe he did anything wrong.
"Everybody knows I did absolutely nothing wrong," the president said in the Oval Office before ticking down impeachments past. "Bill Clinton did things wrong. Richard Nixon did things wrong ... I did nothing wrong, and for [Democrats] to do this is a disgrace."
In recent days, both sides in the impeachment debate appear to be hardening their positions. House Democrats are dead-set on impeaching Trump, and Republicans seem more and more determined to resist. In the Senate, Republicans appear to be moving toward arguing not that the Trump-Zelensky call was "perfecto," but that it was inappropriate and yet still does not rise to the level of an impeachable offense.
The president has a counter to that argument, too, which he put in a recent tweet. His advice: Read the transcript.
2 wintesses both testified there is nothing wrong with the tranciprt. One of them was the Democrats LT Col Clown boy. The other was Clown Boy's boss. Absolutely false to characterize York as anything but a patetic GOPE stoode. Read the article. Rather then challenge any lie the Democrat Fascists are spewing York treats them as credible, This is a standard issue "Never Trump" DC Swamp thing trying to straddle the political fence by treating both sides equally valid and avoid defending the President on the FACTS.
Nope a “Good reporter” does not mindlessly regurgitate personal opinions and lies as equal to ON THE RECORD facts.
Stand GOPE Stooge swamp thing drivel trying to treat both sides as equally factual. They aren’t.
You are absolutely correct. Byron York supported President Trump from day one.
The Hobbs Act, named after Congressman Sam Hobbs (D-AL) and codified at 18 U.S.C. § 1951, is a U.S. federal law enacted in 1946 that provides:
(a) Whoever in any way or degree obstructs, delays, or affects commerce or the movement of any article or commodity in commerce, by robbery or extortion or attempts or conspires to do so, commits, or threatens physical violence to any person or property in furtherance of a plan or purpose to do anything in violation of this section shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.
Section 1951 also proscribes conspiracy to commit robbery or extortion without reference to the conspiracy statute at 18 U.S.C. § 371. Although the Hobbs Act was enacted as a statute to combat racketeering in labor-management disputes, the statute is frequently used in connection with cases involving public corruption, commercial disputes, and corruption directed at members of labor unions.
The Hobbs Act criminalizes both robbery and extortion, where:
"robbery" means the unlawful taking or obtaining of personal property from the person or in the presence of another, against his will, and
"extortion" means the obtaining of property from another, with his consent, induced by wrongful use of actual or threatened force, violence, or fear, or under color of official right. Contents
I read the article 3 times. I have read the transcript. So has Byron York.
You should post the supposedly negative York comments from the article if you want to make your point. The fact that he detailed the silly Dem arguments for impeachment was not to give them credibility. It was to emphasize that they are unrelated to any law that Trump could have broken and are not grounds for impeachment.
Byron York has the same opinion about Trump as the Freepers do. I have seen no evidence that would make me believe otherwise.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.