Eli Lake, Columnist

Trump’s Best Defense on Impeachment Undermines His Case for Re-Election

Insubordinate bureaucrats may save him from being removed from office, but they also show him to be a weak president.

November 13, 2019 at 7:00 PM EST

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Making the president’s case.
Photographer: Saul Loeb/AFP/Bloomberg

Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal

LEARN MORE

This article is for subscribers only.

The best defense of President Donald Trump on the first day of the House’s public impeachment hearings came from Representative Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican. She cited “the two most important facts” for Americans trying to understand the inquiry into the president withholding military assistance to Ukraine unless it investigated former Vice President Joe Biden: “No. 1, Ukraine received the aid,” she said. “No. 2, there was in fact no investigation into Biden.”

Stefanik’s defense is shrewd because it sidesteps Trump’s hand-waving and gaslighting. It is also dangerous because it reveals Trump’s weakness as a leader.

Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal

LEARN MORE