Be Serious

The thinness and seeming insincerity of the Republican defense of Donald Trump is most evident in the inane, shallow, and downright illogical arguments of his defenders. Somehow they just can't be serious.

Over a month into the impeachment hearings, for example, they remain fixated on the whistleblower. What sense does that make?

The whisteblower sounded an alarm. The alarm led to investigations. The investigations uncovered fact witnesses—lots of them, with actual involvement in the events in question. The witnesses provided testimony. The testimony is detailed, compelling, and coherent: thousands of transcribed pages of it. Evidence has piled up. A factual picture that's not in serious dispute has emerged.

It no longer matters who the whisteblower is, what direct knowledge he had or didn't have, or what motivated him. All those things are now irrelevant, except to Republicans.

Even if it could be done, discrediting the whistleblower would not negate what we've learned from William Taylor, George Kent, Fiona Hill, Marie Yovanovich, Michael McKinley, Kurt Volker, Laura Cooper, Gordon Sondland, and others. Sorry, Republicans; the process has moved on. We're up here; you're back there. Continuing fixation on the whistleblower shows that you have nothing better to fixate on.

More unseriousness: In his opening statement on Wednesday, ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, seemed more interested in unrelated topics such as the Mueller investigation and the Steele dossier than the actual matter at hand. He was attempting to make the case that the dastardly Democrats are constantly out to get Trump (Mueller was somehow part of that Democratic plot), and the day's hearing was just more of the same. Meanwhile, William Taylor, our top diplomat in Ukraine, and George Kent, a deputy assistant  secretary of state, waited patiently at the witness table to tell the country what they had observed.

Throughout the day's hearing the Republicans came back repeatedly to unsupported conspiracy theories about the Bidens, and about alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election. Why oh why can't they be serious? Both notions, which have no factual basis, come straight from the right wing fever swamps.

Republicans want you to think a fair process has to give due consideration to such craziness. It doesn't, for the same reason we ignore cranks, charlatans, and hucksters in any serious area of inquiry. There is no place for made up fantasies in fact-based discourse. Even if one side adopts such fantasies, serious persons are under no obligation to engage them.

And it's no use arguing that because such madness inhabits the unhinged mind of the president, we must give it special credence.

Sorry, dear sputtering Republican: we are not going to go there. Your inability to discern reality is your problem, not ours. Whether you are intentionally attempting to distract, or you just don't know better, your nonsense won't be allowed to bollix up the works. If you want to be taken seriously, you will have to learn how to process evidence, and to be serious.

I realize you don't know this, dear Republican, and I wish it were otherwise, but every serious look at Joe Biden's conduct toward Ukraine indicates not just that there was nothing untoward, and not just that his conduct was proper, but in fact that it was exemplary.

In his public testimony yesterday George Kent was asked whether there was any factual basis to support allegations against Biden. "None whatsoever," Kent said.

Kent said Vice President Joe Biden's role was "critically important" in carrying out the foreign policy of the United States in Ukraine. "It was top cover for us to pursue our policy agenda," Kent said. Which is what investigations by serious media outlets have also found.

So there is no confusion about what I mean by "Biden's conduct," I am referring to the same thing you are: to his role in the removal of the corrupt Ukrainian Prosecutor General, Viktor Shokin. That removal was the official policy of the United States, of our European allies, and also international agencies such as the IMF and the World Bank. Against all that, do you really want to suggest that Biden was freelancing to protect his son? Be serious.

And the idea that Ukraine significantly interfered in the 2016 election is beyond ridiculous, despite having taken up residence in Donald Trump's deranged mind.

Tom Bossert, Trump's former homeland security adviser, said the "CrowdStrike" conspiracy theory that Trump said he wanted investigated had been "completely debunked."

The idea seems to have been planted in Trump's willing brain by Rudy Giuliani, Bossert said.  "And at this point I am deeply frustrated with what he and the legal team is doing and repeating that debunked theory to the president. It sticks in his mind when he hears it over and over again and for clarity here ... let me just again repeat that it has no validity."

Bossert treats the witless Trump, who never seems willing to listen to his real advisers, as a victim. But really, can't we expect better from a president of the United States? And from the Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee?

And not just Bossert. The New York Times reported that "other former aides to Mr. Trump said on Sunday that he refused to accept reassurances about Ukraine no matter how many times it was explained to him, instead subscribing to an unsubstantiated narrative."

You just can't explain things to some people. Wednesday's hearing suggests the problem isn't just with Trump.

Bossert reiterated that the 2016 election interference was the work of Russia, not Ukraine, which of course  is what U.S. intelligence agencies concluded unanimously and with high confidence. Serious persons, but not the president or perhaps committee Republicans, have understood this for years. The Mueller investigation provided additional public detail, and issued indictments of more than two dozen named Russians and Russian entities. More recently, the Senate Intelligence Committee reached the same conclusion. For reasons known only to him, Donald Trump finds it congenial to blame Ukraine instead.

So here we go. We heard from important witnesses the first day of open impeachment hearings, and there will be plenty more. We also saw that Republicans can't be serious. We can only wonder why. Democrats will have to be the grownups as the process moves along. I have no doubt that they'll be able.

Copyright (C) 2019 James Michael Brennan, All Rights Reserved

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