Two deceptions at the heart of Democrats' impeachment brief

In a newly released impeachment brief, Democratic House managers argue that President Trump must be removed "immediately" to protect the integrity of the current presidential race. "The Senate must use that remedy now to safeguard the 2020 U.S. election," the managers write.

"The Senate should immediately remove President Trump from office to prevent further abuses," they continue. "He is an immediate threat to the nation and the rule of law. It is imperative that the Senate convict and remove him from office now."

Democrats insist on Trump's immediate removal because, they argue, he was the knowing beneficiary of Russian help in the 2016 election, and if he is not thrown out of office right now, he will do it again. But in making their argument, Democrats make two critical mis-characterizations about Trump, Republicans, and 2016. One is flat-out wrong, while the other is misleading.

The one that is flat wrong is the Democrats' assertion that Trump wanted Ukraine to investigate "a debunked conspiracy theory that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 presidential election to aid President Trump, but instead that Ukraine interfered in that election to aid President Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton."

The problem is, the theory does not hold that Russia "did not interfere" in the 2016 election. There is a mountain of evidence that Russia interfered, and that has been the conclusion of every investigation into the matter, beginning with the first congressional probe, by the House Intelligence Committee under then-chairman Devin Nunes. The theory is that in addition to Russian interference, some people in Ukraine, including some government officials, also tried to influence the U.S. election. It was not a government-run effort, and it was on a far smaller scale than the Russian project, but it happened.

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