Trump and his Administration report being concerned about Hunter Biden serving on the board of Burisma, a Ukraine oil company, while his father Joe Biden was Vice-president. Although it is ethically questionable behavior for Hunter to have done this, there is no evidence of wrongdoing by either him or Joe Biden. Trump engaged Rudy Giuliani, AG William Barr, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and a cast of nefarious characters to try to get Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, claiming grave concern about their corrupt behavior. The US government never discovered any unethical behavior by Biden in his role in dealing with Ukraine while Vice-President. However, as is familiar with Trump, an explanation for his accusation of corruption was not produced. Why would a president ask a country he believes to be corrupt to conduct an investigation of an American citizen to look for corruption? These actions expose the level of lying Trump engages in abuse of his power for personal and political gain.
Trump-appointed Republican State Department officials came forward during the impeachment inquiry to expose the Ukraine scheme by Trump and his cronies. They were so alarmed by the inappropriate actions by the Administration they defied the president’s attempt to block their testimony. These patriots risked their jobs and the wrath of an unstable president to protect the integrity of our elections and our democracy.
There is also hypocrisy in Trump’s criticism of Hunter Biden serving on the board of Burisma. His daughter Ivanka has negotiated 5-10 new trademark deals with China while her father has been negotiating a trade deal with the country. Political ethics experts, such as former President George Bush’s ethics counsel Richard Painter report Ivanka’s business dealings in China, present a severe conflict of interest for the United States. Trump views behavior as right if it benefits him or his family. He will call the same behavior wrong when it applies to an opponent. For example, Trump disparaged Obama for the frequency of his golf outings, yet views the number of his own golf days ( which far outnumber Obama’s) as perfectly fine. Because he sees himself as having unlimited, unchallenged, presidential power, he believes anything he does is acceptable. The colluding that Republicans are engaged in should disqualify them for elected office.
The Republican party is following Trump’s lead on hypocrisy. During the Clinton impeachment trial, Senator Lindsey Graham argued for the importance of witnesses to appear. However, in Trump’s impeachment trial, he argued that witnesses should not be allowed to appear. Many Republicans complained about a lack of due process for the President during the impeachment inquiry. Yet, they supported the ignoring of subpoenas and withholding evidentiary documents in the investigation of the president. Hypocrisy is dishonest and narcissistic. It damages the integrity and trust of any discourse. All Americans must see hypocrisy as dangerous and unacceptable.
The culture of cult worship for political leaders is damaging the integrity that has made America strong. Possibly the biggest mistake that the founding fathers made is creating such a low bar to qualify to be president. The sole criteria of being 35 years old and a natural-born citizen has made room for an unqualified, unstable, and corrupt person to become the US President. Letting his daughter and son travel the world making business deals with China, Turkey, and other countries to capitalize on the name of the President is the kind of conflict of interest that Congress should be investigating. So for every Hunter Biden investigation, let us have an Ivanka, Don Jr, and Eric Trump investigation. Trolling Trump and his family on their self-serving corruptive acts would be Bloomberg’s money well-spent.
