Throughout the run of Trump I’ve been wishy-washy on the idea of impeachment. While I personally would love to see Trump out of the White House, impeachment is not a thing to be taken lightly. I supported the Mueller Report being given it’s due but not jumping to any conclusions until its completion. While it certainly highlighted a lot of questionable behavior by Trump, most especially the attempts to undermine and interfere with the investigation, it was not a “smoking gun”. Trump did not end up stopping the investigation. While he still interfered, there’s a distinction to be made. Barr’s attempt to mis-characterize the results to make Trump look squeaky clean are troubling but that’s a different problem than impeachment.

Whatever the other results, the report did not find any strong evidence that Trump knowingly colluded with Russia to win the election. Cohen provided the strongest testimony to suggest that and his reliability is questionable. So fair enough, I still want Trump gone but let’s move on and remove him the proper way with an election.

And then...there’s this issue with the emoluments clause. For those unaware, the Constitution forbids the President from using the office for personal gain. That’s why most presidents sell off or put into blind trusts their business interests when they become president. Jimmy Carter famously sold his peanut farm when he became president. But did Trump? No, he gave control to his kids and then made his kids members of his administration.

There is also all the time Trump spends vacationing at his own resorts which are paid for by US Tax dollars. Anytime the president goes somewhere it costs quite a bit with all of the staff and security that goes along. Even more troubling, is the reports of people staying at Trump hotels in DC in order to curry favor with him. Or the US Air Force making use of Trump resorts that are out of the way for personnel. There’s also the time Pence went to visit the Ireland president and stayed in a Trump resort on the opposite side of the country.

Does any of this cross the line of the emoluments clause? Maybe. But more troubling than that itself is that no one seems to even care. Even if Trump loses in 2020, this may become the new standard. Instead of the president being a role to look out for the interests of the country it will become a position for personal gain.

Finally, there is this latest whistleblower report. As of this writing, there are not a lot of confirmed details beyond this. The Director of National Intelligence leaves the position and his expected replacement also resigned. A whistleblower report is filled with the Intelligence Community Inspector General outlined conversations by Trump with a foreign leader. The ICIG labels this report urgent and forwards it to the new acting DNI. The new DNI does not forward the report onto Congress as is required by law. Biden and Trump are throwing accusations at each other.

Now, further reports suggest the whole thing boils down to Trump attempting to pressure Ukraine, using US aid, to investigate Biden and his son. If true, Trump is using the power of the president to coerce a foreign government to investigate one of his political rivals. If that doesn’t concern you then there’s something wrong.

Maybe this turns out to be nothing. No one outside of the executive branch has seen the whistleblower report. Trump says a lot of concerning things to foreign leaders that aren’t actually illegal. But it needs to be investigated and the results publicly available. And Republicans need to be in support of it being investigated. Otherwise, what’s even the point of having a democracy with rules?