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- Sep 6, 2019
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A president either exercises his constitutional authority within his domain.
Or he doesnt.
There is no try.
The president has the authority to place conditions on foreign aid.
He didn't do so.
1. In our system of laws, a failed "try" can still be a crime. So, you're wrong. There IS a "try".
2. Threatening a foreign leader is an action a President can take in furtherance of his official duties and in pursuit of U.S. national interests (meaning Trump was exercising his authority as President -- acting as the President -- when he abused the office of the President and was not acting out in some temporary, alternate universe where he was momentarily not being the President and just doing something for sh*ts and giggles).
3. Trump threatened Ukraine, by attempting to extort from Ukraine a favor, by threatening to withhold various official acts and assets that Ukraine wanted from the U.S. government in exchange for a personal benefit. And we have evidence of this in the form of direct evidence from Trump himself via the transcript.
4. Yes, the President has the authority to place conditions on foreign aid. HOWEVER, that authority ends the moment he engages in illegal or impeachable conduct. The President does NOT have the authority to engage in corrupt acts. The President does NOT have the authority to abuse the office of the President by trying to use the power and authority of the office of the President in an attempt to extract a personal benefit through the corrupt manipulation of his authority. CORRUPTION is NOT a power of the executive branch...no matter how much you might like it to be so.
5. And we just found out that yet another thing that Trump actually did withhold from Ukraine was an official visit by Pence to Zeleneskyy's inauguration. So there's that.
6. Trump did place conditions on the military aid and was somewhat successful in extracting from Ukraine the condition he demanded. Trump did extract from Ukraine a promise to publicly announce an investigation of the Bidens as per Sondland and Taylor's testimony, and Ukraine eventually did just that and announced a review of the Burisma investigation in a sort of half-way measure to placate Trump:
Ukraine Conducts Probe Sought By Trump Regarding Hunter Biden's Ex-Employer : NPR
7. Trump conditioned an official White House visit and Pence's visit to Zelenskyy's inauguration and successfully prevented both things from happening.
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