Speaker Nancy Pelosi and many other Democrats continue to talk about the 2020 presidential election as if it will be like all others in the history of the United States.

No need to launch an impeachment hearing, they claim. The important thing is to elect someone other than Donald Trump in 2020.

Opinion

I wish they would share with the rest of the nation the evidence they possess that the next election will be fair, honest and take place as scheduled.

Why do they believe Republicans, Democrats and independents will accept the outcome?

I have serious doubts and would appreciate some reassurance.

For example, if political research falls into the hands of Trump that indicates his political opponent was in a hotel room and asked naked women to urinate on each other, is there anyone who believes he would keep such a report secret to avoid influencing the outcome of the election?

Does any Democrat believe Trump would care whether the information in such a report was unfounded?

The President has already said he would welcome any dirt about an opponent from a foreign country.

Can Democratic Party leaders reassure the nation that hostile foreign governments will not attempt to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election by generating false news stories, hacking campaign computers and inventing social media campaigns smearing the reputations of any Trump opponents?

Who would investigate such allegations? The FBI?

The President has appointed an attorney general that will protect him and serve him. He has said as much. The attorney general has already lied publicly about the Mueller report. At the president’s request, he has launched an investigation into FBI “spying” on the Trump campaign in 2016.

FBI agents who alleged Russian interference in 2016 have lost their jobs, their reputations have been destroyed and their personal lives dragged through the mud. Why would anyone believe that allegations of interference in the 2020 campaign would be aggressively investigated by FBI agents based on that history?

Would the attorney general even allow such an investigation if it might damage his president’s chances of re-election?

The president has accused the FBI, Democratic Party leaders and unknown others of attempting a political coup to overthrow his administration. He has said that election outcomes are rigged. He has claimed massive voter fraud, after an election he won.

Might he not do all of this again if he feels he is in danger of losing the next election? Why do Democrats and so many political pundits remain optimistic about 2020 in the face of such overwhelming evidence that ought to be sounding alarm bells?

Trump invented a fake national emergency at the Mexican border to support his campaign for a border wall. Is it beyond reason to suspect he might declare another phony national emergency during the 2020 election campaign if it benefits his personal interest?

The president has called news reporters enemies of the state, questioned the integrity of federal judges and fired government employees who take their constitutional oaths seriously.

He has thumbed his nose at the Constitution, ordering government employees not to appear before congressional oversight panels and abusing his power of executive privilege.

Time and again the same political leaders and pundits that urge caution now when it comes to impeachment have said, “this is unprecedented” when it comes to the actions of Trump or called his behavior “shocking.”

It would be the ultimate irony if the President were to suspend the next election due to “evidence” of Russian ballot tampering. A special investigator might be appointed. Rudy Giuliani, perhaps?

That is the problem with a president who cannot be trusted. Nothing is as it was in the past. And no one should be “shocked” by anything he does or says.

Email: philkadner@gmail.com

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