Re-election may not survive impeachment

Well, are we going to have an orange president at the end of the impeachment trial?

I say yes. Our orange-est president ever will keep his standing reservation to the Oval Office after the trial.

With flying colors?

I don’t think so.

I think the orange paled and the MAGA red faded as House Democrats last week masterfully presented a detailed chain of fact-based evidence to support their accusation that President Donald Trump violated his oath of office by attempting to extort a personal, political favor from a vulnerable and valuable foreign ally in return for vital military aid.

Throw in lots of premeditation.

I write this without having seen the president’s defense.

The White House legal team has dropped a few hints, though, but if the Senate were a real jury, I don’t think the defense would be persuasive.

Even a weak defense, however, will not threaten the 34 votes out of 100 Trump needs to keep his job. At least 34 of the Senate’s majority Republicans are captives of Trump’s adoring base.

Of the arguments in favor of Trump’s exoneration, I think the strongest is, “He did it. So what?”

Even if the president sought to force a personal favor from the Ukrainian government in return for military aid to fight a common enemy, the offense does not warrant removal from office, they will say.

Republicans should be a little leery, though. They voted to impeach President Bill Clinton based on his lying about a tawdry affair with a willing intern, which did not threaten to strengthen a hostile power and compromise U.S. security.

The Ukraine got the money after all and did not announce the president’s requested investigations neither of Joe and Hunter Biden, nor of allegations that Ukrainians, not Russians, interfered with the 2016 U.S. election.

The White House group will say that proves there was no extortion. The Democrats asserted it happened only after the White House got caught.

The Trump team will say Trump’s “I would like you to do us a favor” conversation with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky was just a nice talk between allies.

So why did the conversation stun foreign affairs officials as if the president had just belched loudly in church? And why the whistleblower?

I think the weakest of the White House’s potential arguments is the “poor Donald” defense in which the White House will charge that those nasty old Democrats have been out to impeach Trump since Day One.

Wait. Didn’t the GOP lock arms and ignore precedent from Day One to block Barack Obama’s agenda as soon as they got leverage in 2010?

That’s politics.

Only Trump among America’s 45 presidents has been shocked by criticism and opposition, which every other president has accepted as occupational hazards.

The Trump team will also expect us to believe Trump wanted the Biden probe to fight corruption. Trump just complained that American companies can’t bribe foreign governments.

Joe Biden was the biggest threat to Trump’s re-election.

Trump’s case will persuade senators who did not need persuasion, but his re-election may not survive the aftermath.

Steve Hansen writes about our life and times from his perspective of a semi-retired Tucumcari journalist. Contact him at:

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