The GOP’s Ukrainian Limbo

[Formerly Once-Ler]

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/politics-ideas/an-open-and-shut-case-ukraine/

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For Republicans who are sticking to the facts of the case, all that is left to them is the argument that none of the president’s actions were explicitly illegal. That remains to be seen. On Thursday, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office confirmed it was reviewing the circumstances around which Ukraine’s assistance was withheld and whether the administration broke the law by failing to notify Congress about the contravention of its expressed intent.

At most, the GOP’s efforts on Trump’s behalf represent a series of lost opportunities. If Republicans want to argue that the president’s actions are not so egregious as to merit impeachment and removal from office, that’s an intellectually consistent and reasonable case. But neither the president nor his allies in the conservative press are inclined to lend any legitimacy to the mounting evidence that everything in the initial whistleblower complaint was true. The longer the president prevents Republicans from making the only logical argument they have left, the more their resentment toward the president will grow. And it’s never a wise idea to antagonize the people who will one day determine your fate.