When a president makes American foreign policy an arm of his reelection campaign

This we know for sure:

A president of the United States should never strong-arm a foreign government into digging up dirt on a political opponent.

That’s putting raw self-interest above doing what’s best for your country, as impeachable an offense as you will find.

Yet we have every reason to believe President Donald Trump has done just that.

Trump’s usual abject apologists are attempting to spin this otherwise. Don’t be taken in.

There is much we have yet to learn about a complaint filed in August by an anonymous whistleblower. But the gist of the allegation, submitted to the intelligence community’s inspector general, apparently goes like this:

The Trump administration, including the president himself, put the squeeze on the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, to investigate the business dealings of a son of former Vice President Joe Biden, who is a Democratic candidate for president. If Ukraine did not go after the Bidens, Zelensky had every reason to fear, the White House would block $250 million in military assistance that Congress had approved.

And, in fact, the White House already had put a hold on the military assistance at the time Trump urged Zelensky eight times, in a phone call on July 25, to investigate Biden’s son. The administration did not release the aid until Sept. 12 — the day after a House committee asked for information about the whistleblower complaint.

The president’s defense, put forth on Friday, is that it “doesn’t matter” what he said to anybody in Ukraine and, gee, “someone ought to look into Joe Biden.”

To which all American patriots should reply: Yes, Mr. President, it does matter. You took an oath to do what’s best for your country, not for your reelection.

If there is legitimate dirt to be found on the Bidens, Trump is free to chase it down, though the current accusations involving Hunter Biden’s work for a Ukrainian gas company look more like Fox News hocus-pocus. But the president cannot be allowed to make our nation’s foreign policy an arm of his reelection campaign.

Three House committees are demanding to see the whistleblower’s complaint, which they contend is their right under the law. The White House is blocking the demands, claiming the president’s communications are subject to executive privilege.

We don’t know who’s right on the law. But legal technicalities aside, there must be a way for Congress to have oversight over commitments the president might have made to a foreign power. What promise or threat, according to the whistleblower, did Trump make to Ukraine?

If Trump did not abuse the powers of his office to go after a political opponent, he should have nothing to hide. A transcript of his phone call with Zelensky should be made public, and Congress should be given the whistleblower’s full complaint.

A miserably unethical presidency grows worse by the day.

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