2nd whistleblower comes forward after speaking with IG: Attorney

So you think there are reasons to investigate a domestic political rival.

Interesting.

 

Who said otherwise?

 

So if I understand correctly, you do think it's appropriate to investigate a political rival if...Russia. And maybe other reasons as well, although probably not for any corruption purposes.

As for my opinion, I would guess there are possible reasons why investigating a political rival might be appropriate. I don't think just being a political rival grants you immunity from any sort of investigation, but just as a fishing expedition, like Crossfire Hurricane, I would say no. Give me a real world example.

 

You work real hard to avoid the full aspects of a very simple question. So let's try it again and this time, I would like to not selectively ignore primary components of the question.

Is it appropriate for a sitting US President to ask a foreign government to investigate a domestic political rival?

 

I'm not dodging the question, I answered it. And the answer is there are circumstances when it's appropriate. In fact, it's the same answer as yours, so I'm unclear what your objection is.

 

The objection is to your repeated lack of willingness to address a critical component of the question - specifically asking a foreign government to do the investigation against your domestic political opponent.

If you, as an elected official, think the domestic political opponent is guilty of a crime, asking the domestic investigative agencies to review is already somewhat - but not very - controversial because those agencies should remain independent enough to review the available evidence and make the decision to launch the inquiry on their own without you requesting the campaign assistance.

But asking a foreign government for campaign assistance used to be a wholly different level of unethical behavior for Republicans. The question I asked of you, is whether that still remains the case?

Is it inappropriate for an elected official to ask a foreign government to help investigate a domestic political opponent? A response of "in some circumstances" is insufficient without at least some elaboration in the form of an example.

 

Well that was exactly the scenario we'd discussed under Crossfire Hurricane, where we did have foreign government assistance in investigating a campaign and a candidate. Since you have already written your approval of that, it looks like you are trying to cut much finer line, but I'm unclear of the line. If the line you are asking is, should we solicit foreign government assistance in a political campaign, then of course the answer is no. If the question is, should we solicit foreign government assistance to conduct an investigation, even if that investigation is of a possible political opponent, then the answer of course is yes.

But as there is zero chance Biden will ever be a candidate running against Trump, you can rest easy.