It seems like a straightforward question: Is it ever appropriate for a president to ask a foreign power to investigate his domestic political rival? Yes or no?
If I put a poll in here on that same question, I'm betting that every person answering in good faith would say no, because the founders of this nation so clearly feared foreign interference and built guardrails meant to prevent it.
But Senator Joni Ernst, who has sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution, cannot answer the question. Or will not, more like. Three times she is asked, and three times, she won't answer.
Instead of yes or no the first time, Ernst said, "I think we are going to have to go back, just as I said last week, we’ll have to wait. All that information is going to have to go to Senate Intelligence.”
The CNN reporter on the ground wasn't having it, and repeated the question.
The second answer to the very same question with some unnecessary clarification: “We again, we don’t have the facts in front of us,” Ernst dodged.
She added, “And what we see pushed out through the media, we don’t know what is accurate at this point.” At that point the reporter cut her off again. And this is a reminder that Trump himself has done it twice on the air, and once in the released rough notes of his conversation. The facts are indeed in front of us.
To her credit, the reporter persisted. "I’m asking you if it’s appropriate for a president to ask a foreign power to investigate his domestic political rival. Yes or no?" she pressed.
And for the third time, Ernst ducked the question “I don’t know if we have that information in front of us, and I’ll just stick with what I said all along--" she answered before the reporter once again stopped her from filibustering, at which point she just walked away.
Again, the facts have been provided by Trump himself. They are not in dispute. All Sworn-to-defend-the-Constitution-Senator Joni Ernst had to say was a simple "yes" or "no" and she could not do it.
The Republican Party needs to be burned to the ground electorally. They need to have no further relevance in this country, because they are just a crime syndicate and little more. Joni Ernst has a strong Democratic challenger in Theresa Greenfield. It's time to burn the lifeboats and exile these criminals.
(h/t Iowa Starting Line)
