Sara Stevenson was until recently the librarian at O. Henry Middle School In Austin. She reads the Wall Street Journal daily and writes letters to the editor often to correct their uniformed rants about public schools and school choice. She is singled out for her persistence in my new book SLAYING GOLIATH.
This past week, she explained the Constitution to writers and readers of the Wall Street Journal:
Your editorial “Pelosi Ducks an Impeachment Vote” (Sept. 27) claims: “Impeaching a president means nullifying the results of a presidential election, which is the core act of American democratic legitimacy.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Impeachment is a process the Founding Fathers embedded in our Constitution to hold the executive branch accountable and to prevent it from using its office unlawfully, for instance, to pressure a foreign government to dig up dirt on a political rival.
Furthermore, this is about more than politics. Karl Rove is right that the politics of impeachment may backfire on the Democrats (“Pelosi’s Circular Firing Squad,” op-ed, Sept. 26), and as Kimberley Strassel writes, impeachment may well include the collateral damage of bringing down the Democratic frontrunner, Joe Biden, before this is all over (“Taking Out Joe Biden,” Potomac Watch, Sept. 27). But this is about more than winning elections. It’s about our fundamental freedoms, the integrity of our nation.
If it were only political, why did seven newly-elected, vulnerable Democrats in Trump-popular districts join to write an op-ed in The Washington Post denouncing the scandal?
This impeachment is about national security and making sure that no one, not even the president, is above the law. Some things are more important than politics.
Sara Stevenson
Austin, Texas
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The Wall Street Journal of old would have never penned such an article. That a reader should feel it necessary to explain the role of impeachment and the constitutional basis for it to a venerable newspaper speaks volumes as to our increasing vulnerability to tyranny in this time. Where are the reliable institutions? What pillars of honesty do we have left in the fourth estate?
Why are taxpayers paying Barr’s salary when he is a lawyer for only Trump?
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Attorney General William Barr is personally involved in investigating President Donald Trump’s complaints that he and his campaign were improperly targeted by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies during the 2016 election campaign…
Some former Justice Department officials say Barr, the top law enforcement official in the United States, is legitimizing baseless conspiracy theories and improperly harnessing government resources to help Trump win re-election in 2020…
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-whistleblower-barr-explaine/explainer-barr-gives-top-priority-to-investigating-the-investigators-of-russ ian-meddling-idUSKBN1WG4QZ
So right! The election of a president is covered in Article 2 of the Constitution, but the election of Congress and the power to impeach is covered in Article 1. Congress came first. Sure would be nice if business people stopped assuming they know better than scholars. Money doesn’t endow brains.
Spending time on correcting stuff in the WSJ (it was bought by Murdoch and Co in 2007) is as pointless as arguing with Alex Jones. In fact, Alex Jones is not too far in his views from the WSJ.
Wikipedia clearly says in the intro: “The Journal editorial board has promoted pseudoscientific views on the science of climate change, acid rain, and ozone depletion, as well as on the health harms of second-hand smoke, pesticides and asbestos.”
Friends don’t let friends read WSJ.
I’m glad that Sara Stevenson takes the time to challenge the WSJ’s errors. Sorry you don’t agree and prefer to let Error and lies go unchallenged. She’s a hero.
This is Trump’s version of the telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy.
This was posted from the WH:
Statement from the Press Secretary
FOREIGN POLICY
Issued on: September 25, 2019
ALL NEWS
President Donald J. Trump has released a declassified, unredacted transcript of his telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from July 25th, 2019. The transcript can be read HERE.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-press-secretary-81/?utm_source=link
1600 Daily
The White House • October 2, 2019
BREAKING: ‘Whistleblower’ colluded with House Democrats before making complaint
As President Donald J. Trump joined Finland President Sauli Niinistö for a joint press conference this afternoon, he was handed a breaking news article published by The New York Times. The story is damning for House Democrats: Impeachment czar and Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) knew about the “whistleblower’s” complaint against President Trump before he or she made it.
President Trump: Schiff’s account to Congress was a total fabrication.
“The federal intelligence community whistleblower law explicitly states intelligence community whistleblowers must formally go through the ICIG [Inspector General of the Intelligence Community] before contacting Congress,” Federalist cofounder Sean Davis writes on Twitter.
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) adds that Rep. Schiff “withheld this info from the American people” and even from the House Intelligence Committee. “In light of this news, it’s hard to view impeachment as anything aside from an orchestrated farce.”
Legitimate whistleblowers do this country an important service, President Trump says. But when these laws are exploited for raw partisan politics, it makes a mockery of the entire process. The damage being done to public trust in government is enormous.
“Trump’s transparency is driving the left nuts,” says former Rep. Jason Chaffetz.
President Trump’s advice: Read the transcript!
Last week, House Democrats chose to open an impeachment inquiry into Trump before they even investigated the alleged “quid pro quo” and “cover-up” in his phone call with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky. That decision will haunt Democrats for months if not years to come.
The very next day, President Trump foiled their gambit by releasing the full, unredacted transcript of his telephone conversation. You can read it here.
The President wants all Americans to read the transcript for themselves. Congressional Democrats do not. That alone reveals their stunning error in judgment. The far left may not care what the truth is, but most American citizens expect Congress to do its homework before trying to remove a duly elected President from office. It didn’t.
It explains why Rep. Adam Schiff read a fake, “parody” transcript of the call before the House Intelligence Committee last week. It explains why Democrats have quickly moved on to demanding other transcripts and documents, hoping to distract from the fact that the entire basis of their impeachment inquiry was proven to be false in a matter of hours.
The problem is that, once again, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has overpromised and underdelivered. Democrats do not have the votes to remove President Trump from office. Even if they did, a majority of Americans oppose impeachment. Democrat leaders know this. But since they’ve used investigations as an excuse to obstruct bipartisan legislation for nearly 3 years, they eventually had to deliver something for their far-left base.
It won’t work, but the good news is that something positive will come from the Democrats’ astonishing political incompetence. Democrats are right that Americans deserve to know the truth about corruption on the part of elected officials. With the media spotlight now on the Ukraine investigation, they’re finally going to get it.
Senate Democrats pressured Ukraine last year to cooperate on the Mueller investigation into President Trump. This year, President Trump has asked Ukraine to fully cooperate with the Justice Department’s investigation into the actions of former Vice President Joe Biden and his family in Ukraine.
Transparency and accountability apply to everyone. Congressional Democrats got their 2-year investigation into President Trump, which turned up nothing. Now, aided by their own impeachment stunt, Democrat leaders are coming under the same scrutiny.
That’s a good thing. After all, Speaker Pelosi put it best: If there’s nothing to hide, then they have nothing to worry about.
The Washington Post
Democracy Dies in Darkness
Trending Now Oct 3, 8:20 AM
‘Rough transcript’ of Trump’s Ukraine call contains odd markings and ellipses, fueling doubts about completeness of the document
Current and former U.S. officials studying the document pointed to several elements that, they say, indicate that the document released by the White House may have been handled in an unusual way.
President Trump has said the call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky was transcribed “word-for-word, comma-for-comma.”
BA is right. Those who pen the Wall Street Journal editorials seem to net even read their own newspaper. If they do, they simply discard the facts they read in the news pages.
The WSJ editorials are as uninformed – and dangerous in their own right – as Trump’s lunatic-like rants. Dlid anyone see his news conference yesterday? The boy is unhinged, hate-filled, and has absolutely no business being in the Oval Office.
The WSJ cares about as much for the Constitution and the Republic as Trump does. Or about as much as Republicans do. Or about as much as Putin does.
The WSJ has a split personality.
On one side is the news room, which has some first-rate journalists.
On the other is the editorial and opinion pages, written by rightwing fringe ideologues with no regard for fact or history.
The Twain never meet.
Just another Putin-inspired attack on the Constitution. If Trump’s egregious, in-your-face despotism doesn’t warrant removal from office then we ought to strike impeachment from the Constitution – it would be rendered meaningless.
Callisto,
Exactly right. If Trump’s egregious behavior is not worthy of impeachment, nothing is.
Now our news media that doesn’t bow to the president is corrupt. That’s a step down from ‘fake’. Trump is becoming increasingly unhinged. He can’t take criticism.
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Reporter’s Question, Repeated, Launches Trump on Latest Media Attack
Oct. 2, 2019
After his profane tweet pushed CNN to allow an exception to its standards, the president trotted out his latest sobriquet: “corrupt news media.”
…“The question, sir,” Mr. Mason said, “was what did you want President Zelensky to do about Vice President Biden and his son Hunter?”
Polite but persistent follow-ups are a White House correspondent’s stock in trade. But Mr. Trump expressed deep offense, interrupting Mr. Mason and instructing him to ask the Finnish president a question instead.
“Did you hear me? Did you hear me?” Mr. Trump said from his lectern. “Ask him a question. I’ve given you a long answer. Ask this gentleman a question. Don’t be rude.”
“I don’t want to be rude,” Mr. Mason replied. “I just wanted you to have a chance to answer the question that I asked you.”
Again, Mr. Trump deflected — this time with a verbal fusillade against journalists. “I’ve answered everything,” the president said. (He hadn’t.) “It’s a whole hoax, and you know who’s playing into the hoax? People like you and the fake news media that we have in this country — and, I say in many cases, the corrupt media, because you’re corrupt. Much of the media in this country is not just fake, it’s corrupt.”…