https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/09/23/fact-checking-trumps-latest-claims-biden-ukraine/let me fact check the WaPo fact checkers here for a second
notice that they're quibbling over the lack of proof that Biden's interference to fire Shokin is connected to Hunter's firm being investigated. Contemporaneous events, a clear motivation, in line with west vs east corruption claims and the competing interests of ukrainian oligarchs, sure. But there is indeed no proof that's the reason he shook down ukraine to fire shokin. That's like having the gunman, the smoking gun and the corpse, but not the motive. It could have been justifiable. Nevermind that its inherently a blatant violation of sovereignty and clearly geopolitical wrangling to corruptly manipulate a foreign country no matter how you slice it- that's why manafort & podesta were there to begin with, that's all modern ukrainian history.
But the point I noticed is that when they bring up Trump talking to ukraine, they directly accuse him of withholding aid to shake down ukraine;
Quote
On top of that, Trump is arguing that because Biden said he withheld aid from Ukraine in the name of battling corruption, there’s nothing wrong with Trump withholding aid from the same country in the name of fighting corruption (ie, Biden was involved in supposedly corrupt dealings and should be investigated
wait wait wait
so this presumption of innocent intentions and no corrupt motive only extends to Biden, not Trump. Not only do they have no proof that Trump withheld aid from Ukraine to coerce them into investigating Biden, but their only source for this story already debunked it and said there was no threat to withhold aid or offer of quid pro quo.
So in order to give Biden a free pass, they have to assume that no matter if he had a conflict of interest and a clear corrupt benefit to firing the prosecutor, the fact that he
could have done it for legitimate reasons means we must assume he is innocent. But in Trump's case, even though there's no evidence of a corrupt motive and no claims of that, and the aid has already been released, we have to assume there was a corrupt motive by wantonly theorizing without even evaluating the logic of whether it would be rational for Trump.
The fact is, this WaPo drivel is just as crap as tinfoil hat conspiracy mongering by Alex Jones, the only difference is these dolts act like their farts don't stink. You can dress it up in all the pretenses of authority and integrity you want, but if you're just spewing up inane shit that doesn't hold up to basic logical scrutiny, you're rolling in the mud with the pigs. And that was without me getting into their lack of context of how lines like "
Biden’s action was coordinated with other major players in the region and celebrated at the time because Shokin was widely seen as a failure." are absolutely ridiculous when you've got an appreciation for the ukrainian situation. That would be like Putin's media saying that the annexation of Crimea was widely celebrated with other major players in the region because the Ukrainian government was corrupt and taken over by western imperialists. When you are leading the corrupt and cynical operation, the agreement of those beholden to you is not legitimization.