Impeachment: Why Ukraine Matters
Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead; Image courtesy of the White House via Flickr
The United States is currently embattled in a clash of narratives. President Donald Trump is currently under investigation for abuse of presidential power in the House of Representatives. The investigations center on Trump's conduct with regard to Ukraine, specifically his July 25 phone call where he asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for political favor while at the same time withholding from Ukraine $400 million in congressionally appropriated military aid, which was only later released by the president due to political pressure.
The Russians annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and the war is still ongoing. Not just about resources, this is a war on ideology. Ukraine has embraced democratic ideals, and when they began to uproot entrenched corruption in their own institutions, Russia targeted them with weapons of both warfare and misinformation.
The United States’ policy interest with respect to Ukraine lies in helping them with military defense so that they may continue to uphold and expand their democratic institutions.
Mick Mulvaney, acting Chief of Staff to the president stated in a Nov. 17 news conference that the aid was withheld on the contingent of launching of Trump’s investigations, though he later walked those remarks back. Testimonies during the Intelligence Committee hearings highlighted an unusual channel of diplomacy with regard to Ukraine policy.
Republicans’ defenses of the president included a false narrative of U.S. election meddling originating in Ukraine. In reality there is overwhelming and damning evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 election, which brought forth charges against 12 Russian nationals.
Fiona Hill, a U.S. national security expert on Russia, testifying on Capitol Hill Nov. 21, indicated a serious undermining of U.S. policy.
Commenting on these conspiracy theories in her testimony, Hill said:
“Based on questions and statements I have heard, some of you on this committee appear to believe that Russia and it’s security services did not conduct a campaign against our country, and that perhaps, somehow, for some reason, Ukraine did. This is a fictional narrative that is being perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves.”
United States’ democracy is under threat if we do not call out the president’s actions undermining our national security interests. The framers of our constitution were concerned with the dangers of election interference and foreign influence. This is in addition to protecting the state from a president who would be vulnerable to corruption, subordinating the common good for their own personal benefit.
Via impeachment - the mechanism provided for us by the constitutional framers - the inquiry in the house aims to answer whether Donald Trump has demonstrated actions of these high crimes.
Ultimately, public opinion is critical. Some Republican lawmakers are upholding false portrayals of our recent history and it is imperative we hold those elected representatives accountable. Let us disregard efforts to govern us into indifference.