Thank you, Yas, for a great post yesterday. I especially appreciate it for the reference to the emoluments clauses in the Constitution, which Donald Trump violated throughout his presidency. I don't know why he was given a pass for that but was impeached for Ukraine. Maybe it was because his dealings with Ukraine defied Congress, or maybe it's because geopolitcs is seen as "serious" in a way that corruption isn't. I know that Nancy Pelosi resisted impeachment for a long time, and the emoluments-clause violations were there from the outset of Trump's presidency, whereas the Ukraine shakedown happened well into Trump's term. I also think Trump's presidential profiteering seemed too much like garden-variety political corruption -- maybe the thinking was If we declare something like this a crime, how many of us would be considered criminals?
It's a shame, because much of America struggled to understand the point of the first impeachment, whereas an emoluments impeachment would have been extremely easy for ordinary citizens to grasp: If you use your status as president to cash in, that's illegal. Simple. Relatable. It's like stealing from the cash register. And he was allowed to get away with it.
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