Dear Trump-Supporting Friend,
You and I haven’t talked politics much for the last few years, it’s really the only way we’ve been able to stay friends.
You knew this was coming, right? I gotta talk to you about Trump, because this last week was a doozy.
Before I get to that, while I don’t agree, I understand why you support Trump: He cut taxes, the economy has stayed strong, America is getting some judges with backbone and we’re finally trying to tackle immigration directly. None of it has been easy or clean, but Trump is taking care of business.
I think you’ll agree that one of our biggest problems when talking politics is hyperbole. Everything seems so over the top, that nothing seems real. America will be fine, because whatever somebody’s complaining about will just float by like all the other other manufactured crises.
OK, but here goes: This stuff with Trump and Ukraine is big. Like attacking our democracy big. This is such a huge deal, there’s not even a specific law against it, because our Founding Fathers never imagined a president would try to get a foreign power to help him get reelected.
Here’s what happened: President Trump was supposed to approve $250 million in defense aid to Ukraine, which is fighting a live, low-level war with Russia. Trump calls up the Ukrainian president and tells him he should investigate Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, on a business deal he tried to do in Ukraine. The Ukrainian president refused to do so, because their inspector general had already run an investigation and cleared Hunter Biden. Then, Trump withheld the $250 million defense aid.
Maybe you don’t believe The Washington Post or New York Times’ reporting on this. But some of the big scoops on this story have actually come from The Wall Street Journal, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, a big Trump supporter. And President Trump actually admitted to it on camera. He actually believes he did nothing wrong.
Friend, this is so wrong. Wrong beyond belief. An American president can’t blackmail a whole country into investigating his political rival. That’s using the levers of state to ensure he stays in office. No American official has ever done anything like this. If America lets this stand, no country will ever trust us again. We’ll just be a thug government like in Russia.
So, here’s the pitch: I want you to support impeachment of the President. I know you believe he’s done some good, and there’s a lot of concern about what would happen with a President Mike Pence, but Trump is literally attacking our democracy. He is trying to alter the election outcome by enlisting foreign powers to attack his opponents.
And now, this is not hyperbole!
America is strong because we believe in our democratic process, and we take action to ensure our elections are secure and free from interference. The President of the United States has been directly, knowingly interfering with our democratic process. No political or policy gain – judges, taxes, immigrants – is more important than the democracy and constitution our Founding Fathers bequeathed to us.
Please, join me in supporting impeachment of Donald Trump. We flag-waving, democracy-loving Americans have to be united in this. We just can’t endure threats to the core of what makes our country great.
Thanks for listening.