The Editorial Board

USA TODAY

A U.S. president with proper respect for the powers of his office would not seek to outsource opposition research to a foreign government.

A president with a proper understanding of the rule of law would not treat the nation’s attorney general as just another fixer.

Donald Trump is not such a president.

To hear Donald Trump and his defenders tell it, the president’s interactions with Ukraine’s new president were no big deal. “The single greatest witch hunt in American history ... a disgraceful thing ... a manufactured crisis,” Trump said Wednesday.

Actually, if it’s a crisis, it’s one of the president’s own making. As a partial transcript released by the White House confirmed, Trump pressured Volodymyr Zelensky in a phone call two months ago to investigate a political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.

Moreover, the memo revealed that Trump sought to involve America’s top law enforcement officer, Attorney General William Barr, in a scheme to assist Ukraine in trying to dig up dirt on Biden and his son Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukrainian energy firm.

The White House readout did not show an explicit quid pro quo between nearly $400 million in military aid for Ukraine and the Biden inquiry. But immediately after Zelensky mentioned defense support, Trump said, “I would like you to do us a favor.”

A U.S. president with proper respect for the powers of his office would not seek to outsource opposition research to a foreign government. A president with a proper understanding of the rule of law would not treat the nation’s attorney general as just another fixer.

Donald Trump is not such a president.

Underscoring the seriousness of the allegations, for only the fourth time in America’s nearly 250 year history, the House of Representatives — led by a previously reluctant Speaker Nancy Pelosi — has started an inquiry into whether the president of the United States should be impeached.

REP. ANDY BIGGS:Impeachment inquiry is just more Democrat-led obstruction of President Donald Trump

Now that the machinery of impeachment is formally cranking up, all of the major players in Washington have a responsibility to treat the process with the gravity it deserves:

►The White House. If, as Trump insists, everything was handled perfectly, the administration should have nothing to hide and should cooperate with the process. Sharing with Congress an intelligence-agency whistleblower complaint that raised an “urgent concern” about Trump’s Ukraine dealings is a good step. Allowing that whistleblower to meet with congressional investigators should be next. Trump also must make Barr and personal attorney Rudy Giuliani available to explain their roles.

►Democrats. As eager as some progressives are to try to run Trump out of office, Democrats have an obligation to focus their inquiry on the most serious allegations, gather the facts carefully and avoid rushing to judgment on the basis of incomplete information. In particular, they will need to learn the truth behind the Trump-ordered delay in delivering to Ukraine $391 million in Congress-approved military aid. That money was desperately needed by Kiev for munitions and communications equipment in its five-year war against Russian-backed separatists in the nation’s eastern sector. Was funding withheld as a pressure tactic?

If Democrats conclude that impeachment is warranted, they must clarify for Americans how Trump’s conduct disqualifies him from retaining office, and why that question shouldn’t better be left to voters in November 2020. This is a heavy lift. Surveys have shownthat the majority of Americans oppose impeachment.

►Republicans. So far, the president’s fellow Republicans have excused and enabled all manner of behavior that they would have found intolerable if engaged in by a Democratic president, ranging from election-eve payoffs to a porn star to a declaration of “love” for North Korea’s brutal dictator. Now they have a duty to put the nation’s best interests above reflexive partisanship.

It was mildly encouraging Tuesday to see the Senate unanimously demand that the whistleblower complaint be turned over to Congress’ intelligence committees. That kind of cooperative search for the truth will be what the nation needs in the difficult and divisive days ahead.

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