Is asking leaders of other countries to become involved in our elections a crime? I don’t know if it’s a crime, but it’s the last thing I would expect our president to do. During his campaign, President Trump asked Russia to find Clinton’s emails; I heard him ask China and now he wants Ukraine to investigate the Bidens. If he felt the need to investigate the Bidens, why not direct the CIA or the FBI to investigate, that’s what they do? I’ll bet the CIA would have done it for a lot less than $400 million. But Trump is not known for well- thought-out decisions, but then again neither am I—I voted for him.
President Obama would not send aid to the Ukraine due to concerns of corruption and how much aid would actually reach their military and how much would find its way into the pockets of the oligarchy. Our ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, was working with a Ukrainian investigative reporter in an effort to uncover corruption in the Ukraine. The reporter died when someone showered her with acid. Trump then recalled Yovanovitch because of her supposedly poor job performance. He then released the $400 million in aid to the Ukraine—money we had to borrow.
Like I said, I don’t know if it’s a crime or not but I do believe it to be unethical. It seems ethics and politics have diverged in America. It’s party before country. Trump did something you would never expect an American president to do. I realize Trump won the election not because of his experience or ability to govern but he was the lesser of two evils. The field of candidates the Democratic Party has marshalled is again less than stellar. If Trump survives the convention this summer, it will be another election of the lesser of two evils.
The trial is now over and Trump has been exonerated by a Republican-dominated Senate with only one guilty vote cast by a member of his party. The lone dissenter was Mitt Romney. He felt Trump was guilty of one of the charges and he voted his conscience. Trump and his senators are outraged at this man who voted his conscience. I certainly can empathize with Trump and these Republicans; an honest man with a conscience, integrity, ethics and common sense certainly has no place in today’s Senate. I wholeheartedly support Trump and the Senators’ call to expel Mitt from the Republican Party. There is no place for a man with these qualities in today’s Republican Senate. I believe Senator Romney should be ousted from the Senate and transferred to the White House this January.
—Tom Janicki,
Almont