Trump is the kid with his hand in the cookie jar - and Republicans know it

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/05/donald-trump-impeachment-republicans-senate

Trump is the kid with his hand in the cookie jar – and Republicans know it

Robert Reich

Sat 5 Oct 2019 06.00 BST Last modified on Sat 5 Oct 2019 09.39 BST

Donald Trump will almost certainly be impeached in the House, possibly as soon as Thanksgiving. The odds are rising that he’ll be convicted in the Senate.

There are only two questions at stake, and the answers to both are becoming more obvious to more Americans every day.

The first is whether asking a foreign power to dig up dirt on a political opponent is an impeachable offense. The answer is indubitably yes.
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The second question is whether Trump did this. The answer is also an unqualified yes. In the published version of his phone conversation with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Trump asks for the “favor” of digging up dirt on Joe Biden.

Everything Trump has tried to do to divert attention from these two facts is further undermining his case and his credibility.

He’s been acting like the spoiled child who gets caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar – denying his hand was there, blaming the person who caught him, blaming the cookie jar, blaming the cookie, throwing a tantrum, daring his parents to do anything about it.

Trump denies he ever asked Zelenskiy for help, claiming it’s all hearsay. He blames the whistleblower. He likens the witnesses who informed the whistleblower to “spies”. He blames it on a “political hack job”. He accuses Adam Schiff, chairman of the House intelligence committee and the person now in charge of the investigation, of “treason”. He calls it a “coup” and suggests that if he’s removed from office there will be civil war. He dares the political system to stop him by publicly calling on China to help dig up dirt on Biden’s son.
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