President Pelosi?

By now we’ve all heard about the Trump administration releasing the outline of a conversation President Donald Trump had with the Ukrainian president. The reaction to the release of this information turned out to be a very telling experience for the American people. Most telling by the release of this information is that Trump and the Republicans genuinely didn’t realize that what they released was smoking-gun proof of felonious behavior and constitutional violations. Trump and the GOP didn’t even realize that their behavior is criminal. Trump and today’s GOP literally cannot discern right from wrong.

We’ve all been watching the GOP make excuses for and attempt to whitewash Trump’s daily constitutional violations and felonious behavior. Until recently, they were able to say they were playing politics. Now we have proof today’s GOP genuinely does not know the difference between right and wrong.

The irony here is that we now have smoking-gun proof of Trump’s criminal behavior, and in the same statement, Trump implicated Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General William Barr as well. Has no Republican considered what happens if both Trump and Pence are held accountable for their repeated constitutional violations?

It could very well happen that, if Trump and Pence are held accountable for their crimes, that this time next year we could be looking at President Nancy Pelosi in the White House. Today’s GOP may have put Pelosi in the White House without her ever even having to run for the office. Now that is irony.

Brian Rhoades

Genesee

Three-time loser

Happily, the third Mark Lankford trial is finally over. He was convicted again, as he should have been. Except for some weird conduct involved with the first and second trials, there would not have been a third trial because he was guilty those other times, too. His attorney has said there may be an appeal. Hopefully, it will be denied. This guy has had plenty of bites at the apple.

As an ardent criminal defense attorney for about 45 years, I have every belief in a person having his day in court. It is just annoying sometimes that circumstances are such that these things drag out way too long.

I don’t know whether the death penalty is off the table here or not. This guy killed a United States Marine warrior and his wife in a very cowardly way. If the death penalty is still available, Lankford ought to get it. If not that, then he should spend his life in prison and never allowed parole.

It was a bad day for Idaho when these two scumballs wandered up here from Texas. We would have been far better off had they stayed in Texas and had jobs to support themselves, rather than killing and robbing others.

Danny Radakovich

Lewiston

Unverified

Whistleblower: This is a term all over the news these days. But there are many more similar phrases we hear and read all over the news as well: an “anonymous source,” an “unnamed source,” “a person familiar with the situation,” “a person not authorized to comment” and “sources say.”

There are more, but you get my point. These are statements contained in the article that cannot attributed to an individual. The validity of the statement cannot be verified. The motive behind the statement cannot be verified. And it is even possible that the statement is a total fabrication made by the author for his own personnel motivations. I’m sure these “journalistic” tools are widely used and I see it often in the Lewiston Tribune (aka The Washington Post-West).

As a service to your readers I suggest adding a disclaimer at the end of each article when an unnamed source is used: “Some statements in the above article are from an unnamed source and may or not be true.” That would be the right thing to do.

Chris Evans

Clarkston