A question for defenders of President Donald Trump: What if President Barack Obama had done this?
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for a time held off calls for an impeachment, wisely citing a lack of votes even within her own House Democratic caucus.
But even moderate Democrats who had unseated Republicans last year seemed to be galvanized in early September by a whistleblower's accusations centered on a July phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The whistleblower's statement, later backed up by a rough transcript of the call provided by the White House, accused Trump of using his authority to hold up military aid to Ukraine while putting pressure on Zelenskiy to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
The president predictably denounced the accusation as fake news but, unlike countless other media blowups he has experienced, he quickly seemed to lose control of this narrative. Why?
For one, unlike the Mueller report, which is about the past, the Ukraine revelations are about the future. Mueller investigated whether Trump's 2016 campaign colluded with Russians to help him beat his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. The Ukraine conversation exposes Trump's apparent appeal to another government's head of state to help him undermine the rising potential challenge of Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. Trump also asked Zelenskiy to work with Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr.
So how much did Trump twist Zelenskiy's arm, with weapons that Ukraine needs to defend itself against its aggressive neighbor Russia hanging in the balance? We don't know, and that's a big reason why, unlike Trump's earlier controversies, polls suddenly have shown a surge of interest in an impeachment investigation to dig out the truth.
A CBS News poll released Sunday, for example, showed 55% of Americans -- and 87% of Democrats -- saying they approve of the inquiry, which Pelosi launched formally Sept. 24. Back in July, a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found only about 4 in 10 Democratic voters favored such hearings.
Trump has responded with a typical move from his playbook: distract and deflect by calling for an investigation of Biden and his son, who held a lucrative seat on a Ukrainian oil company's board of directors even as his dad was involved in formulating Ukraine policy.
There's no question that Hunter Biden's board position, which he left in March, created the appearance of a conflict of interest, which in politics can be as damaging as the real thing. Evidence of a real conflict has been lacking, but that absence can't stop a tantalizing conspiracy theory, especially in an election year. That's why the Bidens have been fending off questions about Ukraine for years. The whistleblower's complaint changes the game, though. And now its Trump's turn.
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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)
(c) 2019 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
