This archive report was first published on 15 November 2019.
November 15, 2019, marked a pivotal moment in the Trump impeachment saga. The revelation of a quid pro quo scheme, outside the infamous phone call, has left many wondering why some Republicans refuse to acknowledge the truth. Lindsey Graham, a key ally of the President, initially stated that he might support impeachment if evidence of such a scheme existed. However, with the abundance of evidence now available, Graham has shifted his stance, claiming that the inquiry is 'invalid' unless the whistleblower who revealed Trump's Ukraine scheme is outed.
It is a monumental mistake to allow individuals who will accept anything from Trump to set our standards for acceptable public behavior. The recent news, including the impeachment hearing, the Stone trial, and the Erdogan meeting, was sensational and historic. The fact that Republicans are insisting otherwise is a sign of the depths of our political crisis.
As the evidence of Trump's crimes continues to mount, a significant part of the right is trying to convince Americans that the President has been set up by George Soros. The lurid McCarthyite fantasy that Soros controls American diplomats has been a theme in this scandal from the beginning. Rudy Giuliani has repeatedly pushed this idea, and now, Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing, two attorneys who have served as conduits between Giuliani and corrupt Ukrainian interests, have appeared on Lou Dobbs's Fox Business show, claiming that Soros controls a large part of the career foreign service of the United States State Department.
These anti-Semitic conspiracy theories deform public life in squalid second-rate oligarchies like Russia and Hungary. In just three short years, Republicans have allowed our country to sink to that level – indeed, to sink below it, since foreign authoritarians find it easy to manipulate our President, and scarcely seem to regard him as their equal.
