'He is our O.J.': POLITICO readers explain why they’re standing with Trump during impeachment
Simply put, it seems obvious beyond serious dispute that very few Republicans defending Trump’s conduct in the Ukraine matter would be similarly tolerant if Hillary Clinton had attempted to use military aid as leverage on a foreign government to begin an investigation of a leading 2020 rival.
People who correspond with POLITICO reporters may not be representative of Trump backers as a whole. But I was struck by how many couched their purported praise with a recitation of his personal failings. Still, they say Trump does not pretend to be anything other than what he is, compared to the preening of more conventional politicians.
One of the most emphatic themes in my inbox is anger that the Washington professional class—journalists included—doesI expected a lot of whataboutism to my inquiry, and I anticipated a lot of the specific lines of argument. I was struck anew, however, by how strongly this theme unites the disparate elements of the Trump coalition.
Above all, why is Trump being roasted for pushing for an investigation of Hunter Biden’s lucrative seat on the board of a Ukrainian energy company—despite a checkered personal background and no evident expertise—while the media is not up in arms over the board seat itself? I always believed the line actually captured a larger truth about how he survived the impeachment 21 years ago. He believed—and many of his supporters believed with him—that many questions of right and wrong in politics are relative, not absolute. A charge of presidential misconduct can’t be divorced from context—between who is making the charge and what their motives are, between who stands to gain and who stands to lose.
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