Behold the new rallying cry of Donald Trump, his enablers in Congress and his evaporating coterie of con men.
Just get over it.
Chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said the latter three words after acknowledging that Trump withheld your tax dollars from Ukraine for political purposes. Mulvaney then used what appears to be the "Everybody Does It" defense.
Everyone, he means, who believes he has the power to withhold $400 million from a desperate nation under siege by Vladimir Putin's forces.
Behold the new rallying cry of Donald Trump, his enablers in Congress and his evaporating coterie of con men.
Just get over it.
Chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said the latter three words after acknowledging that Trump withheld your tax dollars from Ukraine for political purposes. Mulvaney then used what appears to be the "Everybody Does It" defense.
Everyone, he means, who believes he has the power to withhold $400 million from a desperate nation under siege by Valdimir Putin's forces.
It's fascinating to see Trump's enablers assert that his cause in Ukraine was just -- just doing his job to root out corruption way over there. What a claim, particularly since it seeks to absolve one who's as corrupt as his tie is long.
A number of legal experts have said that were Trump not president, the concerns listed by Robert Mueller would have wrought multiple indictments for obstruction of justice.
Whatever Mueller's case, and it was mighty, the impeachment inquiry should have begun the moment former Trump fixer Michael Cohen opened his mouth before Congress.
We aren't just talking here about sexcapade hush money – a check with a sitting president's name on it.
We're not talking about the "catch and kill" arrangement reportedly made with the National Enquirer to buy a story just to bury it alive.
We're not talking about Cohen's threatening universities not to spill the beans about Trump's scholastic record.
That's all peanuts.
Most serious are Cohen's statements that Trump evaded taxes with deceitful claims about his holdings, and that he committed bank fraud and insurance fraud.
We all know that Republicans weren't inclined to listen to a word Cohen said, as he was being sent to prison in part for lying.
Republicans looked right past the fact that the lies were made on behalf of Cohen's boss.
They cupped their ears to not hear the central truth in Cohen's testimony, that Donald Trump is as corrupt as his tie is long.
One group of onlookers took Cohen's words seriously: New York prosecutors.
The long battle to un-shield Trump's tax records appears to be coming to a close with court victories on behalf of the people who employ him -- you and me.
ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative news source, reports that those records show much that would fit neatly into a criminal trial, such as fraudulent numbers to lower Trump's property taxes and insurance premiums, and to boost his chances to obtain loans for his properties.
For those assuming this all pertains to things Trump did as a civilian, and "everybody does it anyhow," ProPublica reports that in 2017 Donald J. Trump, while serving as your president and mine, told a lender that on one building that year, he got double the rent he reported to tax authorities.
If true, New York Times reporters would affirm it is a continuation of Trump's life story, or at least his life harvesting and hiding his daddy's millions.
The Times last year reported how Citizen Trump used a host of highly dubious tax schemes to shield $400 million in inheritance from the IRS.
It's good work if you can get it. Imagine, then, that Daddy's boy went on to file bankruptcy six times.
Hmmm -- $400 million: the same amount dangled before the eyes of Ukraine's president. Good leverage if you can wield it.
Republicans have framed Trump's now-impeachable deeds as acting on concerns about "corruption" in Ukraine. So lofty a matter.
Corruption? If Donald Trump is truly concerned about that, he should look within his own house. And tweet his resignation.
Then, maybe, the people can get over it.
Longtime newspaperman John Young lives in Colorado. Email: jyoungcolumn@gmail.com.
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