Republican attacks on whistleblower undermine their defense of Donald Trump

When Republicans insist that the whistleblower should be unmasked, they are going against years of precedent. Nothing puts the lack of integrity their case against impeachment in a clearer light.

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Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, speaks during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Friday, Dec. 13.

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, on Friday publicly named the person suspected of being the whistleblower whose complaint triggered the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. Gohmert read aloud the man’s name as part of a list of potential witnesses.

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For decades, the Chicago City Council refused to allow the city’s inspector general to investigate anonymous complaints of corruption against aldermen.

Pretty much everybody in town, including small children, cats and dogs, saw right through that.

The aldermen’s refusal to allow whistleblowers to remain anonymous had nothing to do with their supposed right to confront their accuser. It was about saving their own skin.

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That impediment to investigating corruption was upended in the last couple of years. Inspector General Joe Ferguson now is free to pursue anonymous tips. But we always were amazed that anybody could argue with a straight face against protecting whistleblowers from being named, and we are amazed now that Republicans in the U.S. House are trying to sell the same hogwash.

Transparently cynical diversion

Nothing, to our thinking, puts the lack of integrity of the Republican case against impeachment in a clearer light. They may tell themselves they believe many of the specious arguments they’re making, but not this one.

This one is such a transparently cynical diversion tactic that it puts the lie to the whole Republican effort, even as the House prepares for a final vote on impeachment this week.

Historically, lawmakers across the political spectrum in Washington — from the craziest conservatives to the looniest liberals — have supported whistleblower protections, including anonymity, knowing that encouraging whistleblowers to come forward is an important way to put a check on corruption.

It has not mattered that the whistleblower might have an ax to grind. It has not mattered whether her or she voted Democratic or Republican. What has mattered is the quality of the tipster’s information — the alleged facts themselves — which either hold up or fall apart upon investigation.

When Republicans insist that the whistleblower, whose 7-page complaint triggered the impeachment of President Trump, should be unmasked — publicly outed and forced to testify and dragged through the mud by Fox News — they are creating a massive chilling effect.

They are threatening this whistleblower’s safety and deterring future whistleblowers from coming forward.

And they know it.

But unable to refute the substance of the accusations against Trump, they need a noisy diversion — and a villain.

Nothing of substance to gain

Trump has called the whistleblower “almost a spy,” “a disgrace” and — on Friday — “a fraud.” He and other Republicans have demanded that the name of the whistleblower, who works for the CIA, be made fully public. On Wednesday, the reprehensible Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, publicly named the person suspected of being the whistleblower while ticking off a list of potential committee witnesses.

To what end?

Republicans have an obvious motive in attacking the whistleblower, but there is nothing more to be gained. Everything in the whistleblower’s complaint, filed on Aug. 12 with the office of the Intelligence Community inspector general, has been corroborated by others, including Trump himself.

In a phone call on July 25, Trump did in fact ask Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, particularly Hunter Biden’s business dealings with a Ukrainian energy company, Burisma.

Trump did in fact ask Zelensky to look into a baseless story that Ukraine had interfered, on the side of the Democrats, in the 2016 presidential election.

A transcript of the phone call was in fact placed by White House officials in a highly classified database, contrary to the usual practice.

That’s all the whistleblower had to say, and it has been confirmed by a wealth of evidence and testimony gathered by the House Intelligence Committee.

Trump and the Republicans are attacking the messenger because they’ve got nothing else. The substance of the message itself has been fully confirmed. There is even no doubt, by any objective assessment of the evidence, about the quid in Trump’s quid pro quo.

Until Zelensky announced an investigation of the Bidens, Trump was in fact prepared to hold up almost $400 million in military aid to Ukraine and a coveted White House meeting, putting our nation’s best interests second to his reelection.

If there is not as much first-hand confirmation of all this as we might like, it is only because Trump won’t allow it. He has attempted to obstruct justice by dissuading witnesses from testifying. He knows that would not go well for him.

Believe what’s convenient

In trying to understand the breathtaking willingness of Republicans in the House to flip reality upside down, it helps to remember the first imperative of elected officials — to get reelected. Toward that end, they develop an almost superhuman ability to believe what is convenient to believe.

We have known more than a few legislators, for example, who believe — who really believe — that all taxes are evil. Until the lines of their staunchly conservative districts are redrawn and they now must appeal to more centrist voters to win reelection. Then they believe — really believe — that taxes are evil but sometimes they have to be raised to pay for such things as schools and senior centers.

At some point, though, the worst elected officials — on the left and right — don’t believe a word they’re saying. Their ability to kid themselves reaches its outer limit and they just lie.

This is what we’re seeing with respect to the Republicans’ insistence on outing the whistleblower.

They have abandoned any pretense of intellectual honesty, giving the lie to their entire defense of President Trump.

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