Tough times around here and rather risk being reported (OH, wait VM is gone ) and getting points for hijacking a thread, I'll make this a thread of it's own directed at Tiny but as usual, anybody can chime it, it's a shame I won't see most of them he said sarcastically.
Tiny, this has been bugging me since you brought it up and maybe you can help me understand the difference between the Trump phone call to Zelensky and the Biden ultimatum to Zelensky.
This is my re-collection of how the relevant part the phone call went down and it' relationship to the impeachment of Trump. I'm not going to do my usual looking for quotes, just correct me if you think I'm wrong.
Trump is holding up aide to Ukraine because he is pissed and for sake of argument, I'll concede that Rudy has cooked up some scheme and Trump says to Zelensky (paraphrasing ) " I would like you to continue the investigation into Hunter and Joe Biden ( don't think he ever said Joe but we all know that is what he meant ) and "WE" meaning the American people ( if one was defending Trump and his meaning ), WE would like you to do that for us, continue to investigate which quickly became a "you can't do that because Biden might run for President". I would normally point out the similarity to what is happening with the Mir-a-Lago issue, a sitting President sicking the FBI on a probable political opponent which is a no-no?
Anyway, No overt quid pro quo offered but of course the Democrats will say "Yeah but we all know what he meant" and Adam Schiff went as far as to make up what he later described as a Parody of what Trump had said and it went like this, "Trump here, I want you to find dirt on the Biden family and I don't care what you have to do to get it and Hell, make it up if you have to". That is how Adam Schiff heard that phone call, when in actuality, those words were never spoken. Can't prove they weren't implied but then I don't have to. All I have to do is show who lied about what was said.
So, what we ended up with is an article of impeachment because Trump held up aide money, which he also never mentioned to Zelensky keeping it from being a classical quid pro quo where you have to have all the parts, until he could be satisfied that all the talk that Rudy said was happening, gave Trump reason to believe that there was more to the Hunter and Joe story in Ukraine and now we see the truth of that matter. Well, some of us.
Then we have VP Biden in Ukraine where he has been authorized by Congress and approved by President Obama, to give them 1 billion ( or what ever the amount was ) but Biden says without fear or without understanding, "you will not get this money" and looking at his watch as if he were in a movie says "you have 6 hours to decide before I get on a plane and you get no money". An obvious, classic quid pro quo, which in many cases, is illegal.
But you make the case that because Biden was "just doing his job" ( kinda like he says he is doing at our Southern border ) and with the approval of President Obama, he can do this, no problem even though it is the same act with different people IMHO.
If Obama being President can tell Joe Biden to put this quid pro quo to Zelensky, a stated quid pro quo unlike the Trump "unstated" QPQ, then why can't a President Trump do the same thing? Remembering that both Presidents are holding up aide or threatened to hold up aide, another reminder that Trump never said those words to Zelensky and in every interview he ever gave said he heard no quid pro quo, what is the difference? What makes one impeachable and not the other.
I can't see it, maybe you can explain it to me.