The Dems, media need to let Trump do his job
For the first two years in office, President Trump was under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, accused of “collusion” with Russia, which turned out to be unsubstantiated. Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Ron Rosenstein did not find that Trump had committed any obstruction of justice.
All this distracted Trump and impeded his ability to govern and get legislation done. Some Republicans in Congress were hesitant to align with Trump because of the accusations.
There was the “deep state” federal bureaucracy of “never Trumpers” who leaked private conversations between Trump and foreign leaders.
Combine all this with the 24/7 onslaught of negative reporting on Trump by the overwhelmingly Democratic-biased mega news media who hate him. Now comes impeachment of Trump by Democrats in the House of Representatives.
No Republicans support it.
Would these same Democrats be supporting impeachment of Joe Biden if he were president and alleged to have withheld aid to a foreign country unless a prosecutor investigating his son’s oil/gas firm was fired? Trump is owed another term!
Aida Reed
Midtown
Opinion piece full
of unfounded claims
The Daily Star published a local opinion titled “Fruit of the poisonous tree, revisited.” Authored by Jeff Rayner, it was designated as a “special” to the Star. Rayner’s opinion piece is full of baloney!
He wrote “He (Trump) knows that without the help of the Russians he would not be in office.”
What got Trump elected were his tireless mass rallies across the country that were ignored by the liberal news media.
If anything, it was the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign that paid for unfounded dirt on Trump provided by the Russians and used it to harm him during the campaign and after it with the Mueller investigation, which obtained FISA surveillance warrants based in significant part on that dirt!
What got Trump elected was Hillary Clinton, a poor campaigner not really liked by some Democrats, who stayed home expecting her to win by a landslide. Rayner’s opinion is full of unfounded or disputed assertions, but gladly published by the Trump-hating Star!
Juan Santiago
Southwest side
Yes, retired judges can have their own opinions
In a recent letter to the editor, a reader stated that it was unconscionable for me, as a retired judge, to suggest that Sen. Martha McSally should be ready to convict the president before she considers all of the evidence.
The letter writer seemed shocked that my previous status as a judge did not constrain me from expressing an opinion, before the impeachment hearings are concluded, about McSally’s willingness to convict the president on the articles of impeachment.
Judges are, by their oaths and the code of judicial conduct, under a duty to never prejudge a case. I adhered to this requirement for nearly 20 years on the bench. Retired judges are not so constrained.
I never asked McSally to prejudge the president. I only challenged her to vote based on the evidence and not political self-interest.
The redacted transcript of the president’s conversation and weeks of pressure the administration put on Ukraine to exchange “dirt for money” makes it almost impossible to keep an open mind.
Charles S. Sabalos
Foothills
The concept of fairness seems to confuse Dems
Several recent letters have expressed the opinion that the identity of the whistleblower is redundant and unnecessary as subsequent testimony has provided the same information. While strictly speaking this is true, Democrats are being shortsighted in their thinking.
To date the impeachment proceedings are not consistent with prior proceedings as the current rules appear highly partisan.
To build a bipartisan consensus, the Democrats will have to create a much more even-handed process to build any kind of a credible case that will gain support from both sides of the aisle in Congress.
Part of that would be to bring the whistleblower forward and let him or her not only testify but be cross examined by Republicans.
A fundamental part of our Western system of jurisprudence is the right of the accused to confront an accuser.
If Democrats don’t understand this basic precept of fairness they will have trouble convincing anyone except their most vocal supporters that this is anything more than a partisan takedown.
Ed Wegener
Oro Valley
