Recall these prescient words during Donald Trump’s impeachment trial:
“Imagine living in a part of Louisiana or Texas that’s prone to devastating hurricanes and flooding. What would you think if you lived there and your governor asked for a meeting with the president to discuss getting disaster aid that Congress has provided for? What would you think if that president said, ‘I would like you to do us a favor? I’ll meet with you, and send the disaster relief, once you brand my opponent a criminal.’
Wouldn’t you know in your gut that such a president has abused his office? That he’d betrayed the national interest, and that he was trying to corrupt the electoral process? I believe the evidentiary record shows wrongful acts on those scale here.” — Professor Pamela Karlan’s testimony
And this from Adam Schiff:
In fairness to Trump he isn’t asking Governors to investigate his political rival. He just wants them to “appreciate” him, meaning they are required to extoll his virtues in public in order to get the federal aid they need to save people’s lives.
Why? So he can use their coerced words in ads like these:
He extorted the president of Ukraine into publicly declaring an investigation into his political rival in exchange for badly needed military aid. Now he is extorting American governors into publicly singing his praises in exchange for badly needed medical aid for their dying citizens — so he can use them in campaign ads.
This is what he does. It is who he is. If people cannot see that the man is corrupt all the way down to the blackened void where his soul should be, we won’t survive this.