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THREAD: Late last night – I asked the President’s lawyers a pretty simple question: Does President Trump agree that foreigners’ involvement in American elections is illegal?
Their answer was stunning – and left me and many of my colleagues even more alarmed than before.
Their answer was stunning – and left me and many of my colleagues even more alarmed than before.
First – some context.
We’re conducting this impeachment trial to determine whether President Trump abused his power and worked with a foreign government (Ukraine) to interfere in our 2020 election, but we’ve seen President Trump do similar things before.
We’re conducting this impeachment trial to determine whether President Trump abused his power and worked with a foreign government (Ukraine) to interfere in our 2020 election, but we’ve seen President Trump do similar things before.
Remember - in July 2016, Pres. Trump, in response to a question about reports that Russia was behind the theft of emails from the DNC, said, “Russia if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing” from Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
In June 2019, Pres. Trump said that if Russia or China offered information on his opponent, ‘[t]here’s nothing wrong with listening,” and that, “if somebody called from a country, Norway, [and said] ‘we have information on your opponent’ – oh, I think I’d want to hear it.”
President Trump also stated then that he might not alert the FBI because: “Give me a break.”
Then, back to the case at hand: in July 2019, President Trump demanded, over the phone, that Ukrainian President Zelensky “do us a favor” by opening an investigation into President Trump’s leading political opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden.
That’s why I was surprised – and even encouraged – when the President’s lawyers said in their impeachment trial brief:
‘Congress has forbidden foreigners’ involvement in American elections’.
‘Congress has forbidden foreigners’ involvement in American elections’.
So – I asked the President’s lawyers a simple question: does the President agree with the statement in your brief, that foreigners’ involvement in American elections is illegal?
This is where it gets disturbing.
This is where it gets disturbing.
Patrick Philbin, a member of the President’s legal team, started by dodging the question, but then, he said something that made my jaw drop: he said, effectively, that it’s OK for the President to accept and then use dirt on other candidates that he gets from foreign countries.
Here's the exact quote: “I think that the idea that any information that happens to come from overseas is necessarily campaign interference is a mistake.”
And: "Information that is credible that potentially shows wrongdoing by someone who happens to be running for office, if it’s credible information, is relevant information for the voters to know about for people to be able to decide on who is the best candidate for an office.”
This is the President’s counsel, on the floor of the United States Senate, saying that it’s OK for the President to use information from foreign governments, including hostile ones, to get elected.
Let’s be clear about what Russia and China just heard – an invitation.
Russia’s listening – they’re hearing loud and clear that they should continue to help the President’s campaign.
China's listening, too: they’re hearing loud and clear that they can get away with helping President Trump with his re-election campaign, and it might help them in their trade negotiations with us.
Regardless of what happens in this impeachment trial – we can’t let this slide.
Republicans and Democrats need to stand up, together, and say clearly that we will not tolerate foreign interference in our elections.
This is a principle as old as our country itself, and if we lose sight of it, we are lost.
This is a principle as old as our country itself, and if we lose sight of it, we are lost.
