Despite the reality, Vance says Trump was impeached by the Russia scandal

“I mean, look, just go back a few years ago, you had the whole government, you had an impeachment, a bogus impeachment that was completely geared to the idea that Donald Trump was in bed with a foreign government,” the senator said. . “We all remember that Russia Russia Russia scam? That scam was a total lie.

“Even the Justice Department’s independent investigator basically said this is all completely made up. But here’s the problem. They admit it was made up. They admit it distracted this country. It led to a false impeachment. How many people Are they fired for this? Zero.”

So, a few things.

First, Trump was impeached twice, but he was never impeached over the Russia scandal. I know Vance is new to politics, but his running mate’s presidency wasn’t that long ago, it’s a little strange that the senator doesn’t know why Trump was impeached. (It was especially funny to see Vance incorporate the phrase “we all remember” into his comments, because he clearly doesn’t remember the story at all.)

Second, the scandal was neither a “scam” nor a “lie,” no matter what Republicans say to the contrary. In reality, investigations by special counsel Robert Mueller’s team and the GOP-led Senate Intelligence Committee documented the extent to which Trump and his team hosted, received and benefited from the assistance in the Russian campaign. (They also obstructed the investigation into this assistance, with some measures, 10 times.)

Third, Vance told the audience that “the Justice Department’s independent investigator basically said it’s all completely made up.” This apparently refers to former special counsel John Durham, whose report Republicans only pretended to read, and which in no way concluded that the underlying scandal was unfounded. (It reminds me of a New York Times report last year, which noted that the GOP’s partisan reactions to Durham’s findings had become “Exhibit A of how the American right seems to be living in the its own universe”).

But even if we leave all these relevant details aside, does Vance really want to spark renewed interest in Trump’s ties to Russia right now? Because it was just days before the Ohioan made those comments that the public learned about Bob Woodward’s new book, which claims the former president has spoken to Vladimir Putin “up to seven times” since leaving office .

Woodward’s book also alleges that the former Republican president, while in office, secretly sent Covid testing kits to Putin at the height of the pandemic, even as his own country’s people struggled to access these resources.

If Vance wants to explore in more detail all the allegations surrounding Trump’s ties to Putin, I’m game, but it sounds like a conversation the GOP ticket should want to avoid.