UPDATE, SEPT 28:

A three-minute explainer, in a chat with LBC’s Andrew Castle, of the Trump-Ukraine-Biden affair and the opening of the impeachment inquiry:

See also TrumpWatch, Day 981: House Committees Subpoena Pompeo Over Trump-Ukraine-Biden


UPDATE, 1530 GMT:

I spoke further with Monocle 24’s Andrew Mueller on Friday afternoon to explain why the substance of the complaint against Donald Trump, based on multiple White House sources, is so significant.

Listen from 2:06:

Using conspiracy theory? Trump has done that before.

Approaching a foreign government to help his election effort? Just think about Russia.

But to have so crystallized in the transcript and in the complaint — to directly approach the President of a foreign country and say, “Investigate my political rival” — that is more than sufficient for an impeachment inquiry.


ORIGINAL ENTRY: I joined Ireland’s RTE 1 Radio on Friday to discuss the new evidence of Donald Trump’s pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Trump’s Democratic rival Joe Biden.

We consider the complaint of the US intelligence official, putting it in the wider context of the months-long campaign by Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani to dig up political “dirt” on Biden, seeing him as the likely opponent in the 2020 Presidential election.

Listen to Discussion

The issue of launching the investigation is not whether or not you “win”. If you do not investigate these possible crimes, if you do not investigate possible abuses of power by the President, then you step back from the US system and US Constitution and say that any man — not just Donald Trump — is free to stomp on the US system and the US Constitution.

See also TrumpWatch, Day 980: Whistleblower — White House Covered Up Months of Trump-Giuliani Pressure on Ukraine Over Biden
EA on Monocle 24, BBC, and Radio FM4: Impeachment Inquiry Begins Into Trump

I also spoke with talkRADIO’s Eamonn Holmes on Thursday afternoon, as events were developing, about the extent of the challenge to Trump and the effect of impeachment.

Listen from 26:50 in 1730-1800 Segment