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<\/a>Yesterday, President Donald Trump was interviewed on television in the Oval Office by George Stephanopoulos. The\u00a0ABC News Chief Anchor asked the president whether or not during the upcoming presidential campaign he would accept from a foreign government \u201cdirt\u201d\u2013derogatory information\u2013about his political opponent he\u2019d be running against or turn it over to the FBI.<\/p>\nTrump answered, \u201cI think maybe you do both. I think you might want to listen, there isn\u2019t anything wrong with listening. If somebody called from a country, Norway,\u201d and they said, \u201c\u2018we have information on your opponent,\u2019 oh, I think I\u2019d want to hear it.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
Stephanopoulos asked this question especially due to the president\u2019s son, Don Jr., having been recalled to Congress yesterday to testify again because he might have lied to Congress last year when he seemed to say concerning the Trump Tower meeting in June, 2016, that he did not then receive \u201cdirt\u201d on Hilary Clinton from Russians.<\/p>\n
Stephanopoulos then responded to the president by asking if receiving such \u201cdirt\u201d would be \u201cinterference\u201d by a foreign government in our electoral process.<\/p>\n
Mr. Trump answered, \u201cIt\u2019s not an interference. They have information, I think I\u2019d take it. If I thought there was something wrong, I\u2019d go maybe to the FBI\u2013if I thought there was something wrong. But when somebody comes up with oppo [opposition] research, right, they come up with oppo research, \u2018oh let\u2019s call the FBI.\u2019 The FBI doesn\u2019t have enough agents to take care of it. When you go and talk, honestly, to Congressmen, they all do it. They always have, and that\u2019s the way it is. It\u2019s called oppo research.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many members of Congress afterwards pushed back on President Trump\u2019s remarks, especially about him saying, \u201cCongressmen, they all do it.\u201d That last clause is typically made by people who try to defend their wrongdoing when, in fact, it is not true.<\/p>\n
There are multiple problems with this answer by President Trump. First, he answered in a way that would lead one to think he believed the Russians did indeed offer dirt on Hilary Clinton to Don Jr., something Don Jr. and The Donald have never admitted.<\/p>\n
Second, I think the FBI would object to Trump\u2019s answer, \u201cThe FBI doesn\u2019t have enough agents to take care of it.\u201d The FBI certainly does have enough agents to take care of a problem of this nature, which can gravely hurt our democracy.<\/p>\n
Third, President Trump had said, \u201cyou do both,\u201d meaning you accept the information AND take it to the FBI. But\u00a0Stephanopoulos then asked President Trump if his son, Don Jr., should have taken the Russians\u2019 offer of dirt on Hilary Clinton to the FBI. Trump then\u00a0said, \u201cSomebody comes up and says, \u2018hey, I have information on your opponent,\u2019 do you call the FBI? I\u2019ll tell you what, I\u2019ve seen a lot of things over my life. I don\u2019t think in my whole life I\u2019ve ever called the FBI. In my whole life. You don\u2019t call the FBI.\u201d That contradicts what he said earlier. And it sounds like mobster talk. A big part of Donald Trump\u2019s life was owning gambling casinos in Atlantic City, thus not far from his business headquarters in New York City.<\/p>\n
Fourth, it certainly is interference.<\/p>\n
Fifth,\u00a0Stephanopoulos then said concerning turning such information over the FBI, \u201cThe FBI director said that is what should happen.\u201d Stephanopoulos was referring to FBI Director Christopher Wray, when questioned in a public congressional hearing in April, saying that is what should be done. Wray also said, \u201cthe FBI would want to know\u201d about foreign election meddling. President Trump then responded, \u201cThe FBI director is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
This last response by Donald Trump is one of many instances during his 2.5 years as our president in which he has undermined our democratic institutions. Moreover, his answer that he would accept maligning information by a foreign government on his political opponent moves him closer to impeachment proceedings that are being seriously considered by the Democratically controlled House of Representatives.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yesterday, President Donald Trump was interviewed on television in the Oval Office by George Stephanopoulos. The\u00a0ABC News Chief Anchor asked the president whether or not during the upcoming presidential campaign he would accept from a foreign government \u201cdirt\u201d\u2013derogatory information\u2013about his political opponent he\u2019d be running against or turn it over to the FBI. Trump answered, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1477,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2660],"tags":[734,4299,4302],"class_list":["post-9552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-donald-trump","tag-donald-trump-jr","tag-george-stephanopoulos"],"yoast_head":"\n
Trump Just Moved Closer to Impeachment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"President Donald Trump just moved the needle closer to impeachment proceedings against him in the Democratically-controlled House of Representatives when he admitted in an interview yesterday that he would accept derogatory information from a foreign government on his political opponent.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kermitzarleyblog\/2019\/06\/trump-just-moved-closer-to-impeachment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump Just Moved Closer to Impeachment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President Donald Trump just moved the needle closer to impeachment proceedings against him in the Democratically-controlled House 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