So What?
by tristero
Trump is claiming that he will release a “declassified and unredacted transcript” of his phone conversation with the Ukrainian president.
So what?
First, anyone who believes, without hearing an audio recording, that the transcript is truly verbatim is naive.* Secondly, “unredacted” does not mean “unedited.” The clue is in the word “declassified.” It will almost certainly be edited. There just won’t be those ominous black boxes on the page so it will look “pure.”
Third, it’s not enough.
The whistleblower complaint was only partly about the phone call. There is more. And I’m not the only one who thinks there is a lot more. The complaint itself must be handed over to Congress. The law must be followed.
But even that is not enough. Joseph Maguire must go.
And no, that’s not enough, either. Maguire must be replaced by someone completely acceptable to Adam Schiff. And there needs to be assurances from the Justice Department that there will no more interference — ever — with the whistleblower program by the Trump administration.**
Oh, and in other news, Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry. I suppose I should be relieved but instead I’m just disgusted that it took this much to get her to stop dithering. Why?
Read David Leonhardt’s brilliant precis of Trump’s high crimes and misdemeanors and ask yourself how on earth any decent Congressperson could have waited so long to support a formal impeachment inquiry.
There is something dangerously wrong with a government that would allow any president to get away with 1/10th what Trump has done. There is something dangerously wrong with a press that — after all his lies and bullshit — would fall for Trump’s switcheroo on the whistleblower complaint and minimize that aspect of this story.
It is my sincere hope that this is the beginning of a transition to sanity, but I fear that the press is going to let the whistleblower complaint go after the transcript is released. And that Pelosi moved far too late.
*Even with an audio recording, it’s easy enough to edit out the naughty bits and no one would ever be able to tell. I happen to be an expert at audio editing. Believe me, I know.
**Frankly, I don’t know how such a pledge could be enforced but it’s better than no pledge.