Yesterday's big headline from the Q & A session at the impeachment circus seems to be about an answer that Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz gave regarding whether or not a "quid pro quo" is necessarily an impeachable offense. The media has twisted his response to such an extent that an explanation is needed.
The President has a job to do. The Constitution sets the broad outlines of that job. Among other things, the President runs US foreign policy. The President is to act in what he believes to be in the best interest of the USA. If he is doing that, the Constitution makes clear that he is not committing an act for which he could be impeached. For example, if the President tells Mexico that he will put tariffs on Mexican goods imported into the USA unless Mexico stops the caravans of illegal aliens crossing from Central America to the USA, the President is doing what he believes is in the best interest of the USA. The Democrats in Congress may disagree with the President as to what is in the best interest of the USA, but the Constitution does not provide for them to impeach the President because they disagree in that way. The President is just doing his job; he's running foreign policy. If this threat to Mexico helps the President with his base in his re-election bid, it doesn't matter. He is still doing his job and it is not impeachable. Indeed, essentially everything a first term president does is going to help (or hurt) his re-election chances.
Applying this to Ukraine and the investigation of the Democrats and of the Bidens, the rules don't change. There is an obvious issue of whether or not Joe Biden acted corruptly by misusing the power of his office to force a Ukrainian prosecutor out of office in order to protect Hunter Biden. Were the President to tell the Justice Department to investigate the matter, it is a valid exercise of his role as head of law enforcement. When he asks Ukraine for help in such an investigation, it is a valid performance of his job as president. Whether or not the President does this and it also might help in his bid for re-election is irrelevant to the issue of whether or not it is an impeachable offense.
That's a long way of restating what Dershowitz, in fact, told the senators.
The President has a job to do. The Constitution sets the broad outlines of that job. Among other things, the President runs US foreign policy. The President is to act in what he believes to be in the best interest of the USA. If he is doing that, the Constitution makes clear that he is not committing an act for which he could be impeached. For example, if the President tells Mexico that he will put tariffs on Mexican goods imported into the USA unless Mexico stops the caravans of illegal aliens crossing from Central America to the USA, the President is doing what he believes is in the best interest of the USA. The Democrats in Congress may disagree with the President as to what is in the best interest of the USA, but the Constitution does not provide for them to impeach the President because they disagree in that way. The President is just doing his job; he's running foreign policy. If this threat to Mexico helps the President with his base in his re-election bid, it doesn't matter. He is still doing his job and it is not impeachable. Indeed, essentially everything a first term president does is going to help (or hurt) his re-election chances.
Applying this to Ukraine and the investigation of the Democrats and of the Bidens, the rules don't change. There is an obvious issue of whether or not Joe Biden acted corruptly by misusing the power of his office to force a Ukrainian prosecutor out of office in order to protect Hunter Biden. Were the President to tell the Justice Department to investigate the matter, it is a valid exercise of his role as head of law enforcement. When he asks Ukraine for help in such an investigation, it is a valid performance of his job as president. Whether or not the President does this and it also might help in his bid for re-election is irrelevant to the issue of whether or not it is an impeachable offense.
That's a long way of restating what Dershowitz, in fact, told the senators.
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