r/politics • u/RB_Reich Robert Reich • Sep 26 '19

Let’s talk about impeachment! I'm Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor, author, professor, and co-founder of Inequality Media. AMA. AMA-Finished

I'm Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor for President Clinton and Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. I also co-founded Inequality Media in 2014.

Earlier this year, we made a video on the impeachment process: The Impeachment Process Explained

Please have a look and subscribe to our channel for weekly videos. (My colleagues are telling me I should say, “Smash that subscribe button,” but that sounds rather violent to me.)

Let’s talk about impeachment, the primaries, or anything else you want to discuss.

Proof: https://i.imgur.com/tiGP0tL.jpg

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u/lannister80 Illinois Sep 26 '19

Trump has already broken the law merely by asking a foreign power to help him in the election.

I keep hearing the argument that Trump is not "asking foreign power to help him in the election", is just so happens that Biden and his son are corrupt and Trump wants Ukraine to crack down on corruption.

It doesn't pass the smell test in the slightest, but I don't know how to rebut the plausible deniability aspect. How do we do that?

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u/michelloto Sep 27 '19

If Trump was interested in an actual investigation, there are government channels that he could have gone through. No need to sneak a phone call. Trump didn't want that. He wanted manufactured dirt, because the Ukrainians had already investigated and found no wrong doing.

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u/lannister80 Illinois Sep 27 '19

If Trump was interested in an actual investigation, there are government channels that he could have gone through. No need to sneak a phone call.

Devil's advocate:

  • Trump doesn't work that way, he likes to talk leader-to-leader.
  • He wasn't doing anything wrong because he knew other people were listening.
  • He doesn't trust government channels (US or Ukrainian), deep state is out to undermine him.
  • He released the aid to Ukraine before the whistleblower complaint was publicly known.
  • He released the aid to Ukraine without getting anything back from them.

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u/BeatsMeByDre Sep 27 '19

....Trump....wants to cut down...on corruption?

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u/Charakada Sep 27 '19

First of all, do not accept that the published memorandum on the July phone call is a "transcript". It is not and explicitly says so on the document itself. These are not the exact words of the call. The exact words are on a top secret computer, where they were placed, apparently in order to hide them.

In addition, the call was one of many contacts between Trump and others, such as Pence, Giuliani, Barr, and others, with Ukrainians about exactly this issue. There is tons of public info on this, in part because neither Trump nor Giuliani can keep their mouths shut. For a partial, but informative rundown, see today's NYTimes: Trump’s Efforts to Push UkraineToward a Biden Inquiry: A Timeline