ear, outlined Russian interference in the 2016 election along with 10 instances in which Trump may have sought to obstruct the special counsel’s investigation.
Now, the president has apparently become bolder than ever.
Despite White House officials’ alleged efforts to cover up a July conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ― in which the U.S. leader asked his Ukrainian counterpart to dig up dirt on Biden ― Trump solicited help from another foreign country before news cameras on Thursday.
He did so even as the House is conducting an impeachment inquiry centered on Trump’s conversation with Zelensky, which came to light in a whistleblower complaint.
“China should start an investigation into the Bidens because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine,” Trump said.
The president is thought to view Biden as his chief rival in the 2020 election.
Contradictions and the Cult of Personality
Jonah Goldberg (Daily Star) explains how Trump’s defenders have adopted a doctrine of infallibility.
… where Trump’s cult of personality comes in. For several years there’s been a kind of competition on the right to come up with a coherent intellectual or ideological framework to support Trump’s presidency. Every single one that comes out of the clouds of theory to get close to the reality on the ground has crashed. He’s a nationalist who puts America first but says we’ll await Saudi Arabia’s say-so on a military strike against Iran. He says he wants free trade but also thinks tariffs are good.
Just this week, the same people who insisted that Trump would never collude with a foreign nation for his political interest are now defending collusion with a foreign nation for his political interest. The people who turn crimson with rage when you point out Trump’s decades of corrupt business practices now insist his only interest in the Bidens is his concern about corruption. They say it’s outrageous that Biden’s son sat on the board of a Ukrainian company when Biden was vice president, but they also say it’s fine to have a daughter and son-in-law duo running vast swaths of foreign and domestic policy while also making a fortune from their business interests around the world. Enemies are sinful or decadent when they lie or cheat on their wives, but who are you to judge Comrade Trump?
There’s no halfway defensible ideological, intellectual or moral standard that Trump doesn’t violate, often routinely. A cult of personality that replies “Trump’s right” or “his enemies are worse” before the question is even asked is the only place to hide.
A doctrine of infallibility is the only defense of this deeply fallible man.
We have arrived at that moment in our history which our Founding Fathers most feared writes the AZ Blue Meanie at Blog for Arizona.
I have said before and I cannot emphasize enough that the Party of Trump is a criminal enterprise led by a third-rate mafia “Don” Trump. They are all accomplices, co-conspirators and accessories to his criminality and corruption. There is not a patriot among them. They put fealty to their “Dear Leader” above all else, including loyalty to their country and our national security, and their oaths of office to defend the Constitution.
[Making everyone dirty] is Trump’s insurance policy against impeachment. He has an authoritarian political party that puts party loyalty and GOP tribalism above all else: loyalty to country, their oaths of office to defend the Constitution, and openness to conspiring with foreign adversaries to remain in power. The Party of Trump is not going to vote to impeach and remove the Trump administration for its openly admitted crimes and make House Speaker Nancy Pelosi acting president.
The Blue Meanie cites Michel Sozan (americanprogress.org): “President Trump’s solicitation of the Ukrainian president to interfere in the U.S. political process for Trump’s benefit violates the Constitution and federal law—not to mention the public trust. If they were here to see Trump’s deeply corrupt actions, the founders undoubtedly would vote t