General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTwo big questions -does this formulation work.
Question #1 - Did Joe Biden exercise his authority to shut down investigations into a company that his son sat on the board of?
Question #2 - Did President trump exercise his authority to try and force he Ukraine into investigating Joe Biden, using his power to attack a political enemy?
There are a lot of other wrinkles but those seem to be the two big ones - and the answers seem to be pretty clear. Joe Biden's influence was to get rid of a corrupt and lackluster investigator in favor of one that would actually investigate Ukranian corporations (including the one his son was on the board of). If his goal was strictly to protect his son, wouldn't he have wanted Shokin to remain in power as he was disinclined to investigate.
On the second question you just have to read the President's words - he wanted to hold off providing necessary military aid until the Ukranian government gathered information on his political rivals. And that isn't really an appropriate action for a President to take.
Bryant
snowybirdie
(5,191 posts)Has been answered. Biden along with many other world leaders, did want the Ukr A.G gone because of corruption. He was the lead US leader in this with full support of Pres Obama.
genxlib
(5,507 posts)It was never within his authority to withhold the military aid. It was congressionally authorized spending and it isn't up to him as to whether it gets spent.
So he was using unconstitutional powers to extract unconstitutional favors.
One of the many abuses of power that accompanied his primary crime.
But I don't disagree with your overarching point of trying to dumb it down for the people barely paying attention.