JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

The Democrats are fortunate to have an outstanding team of House managers presenting the case against President Trump at the impeachment trial.

House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff is the team leader, but he’s hardly a one-man show. Three others who have particularly impressed me are Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Zoe Lofgren of California and Sylvia Garcia of Texas.

Last night, I caught a presentation by Garcia, and it was very good.

Garcia, 69, is a relative newcomer to the House of Representatives, having been elected in November 2018. She represents much of eastern Houston. Garcia began her career as a social worker and later received her doctor of jurisprudence degree from Texas Southern University. She was a state senator for five years before being elected to Congress.

Garcia’s focus last night was on Trump’s abuse of power by offering to meet at the White House with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, provided Zelensky first announced an investigation into Democrat Joe Biden and his son’s connections to the Ukrainian firm Burisma.

Here’s how Garcia closed her presentation…

Remember that abuse of power occurs when the president exercises official power to obtain personal benefit in a way that ignores or injures the national interest. Senators, that is exactly what happened here. By withholding a White House meeting, President Trump used official power to corruptly pressure Ukraine.

Indeed, the entire quid pro quo — the this for that, the entire campaign to use the Oval Office meeting as some kind of asset for the president’s re-election campaign — was corrupt. Officials knew this. Ukrainians knew this, too, and I think deep down we all know it. And I think the American people know it.

Senators, I ask you this one question: Is that not an abuse of power? Was it OK? If it’s not an abuse of power, then what is? Is it OK to withhold official acts from a foreign country until that foreign country assists your re-election effort?

If any other public official did that, he or she would be held accountable. I know that if one of us did that, we would be held accountable. The only way to hold this president accountable is right here in this trial. Otherwise you would be telling Ukraine and the world that it’s OK for the president to use our Oval Office and this country’s prestige and power for himself instead of for the American people.

If we allow this gross abuse of power to continue, this president would have free rein — free rein — to abuse his control of U.S. foreign policy for personal interests. And so would any other future president. And then this president and all presidents become above the law. A president could take the powers of the greatest office in this land and use those powers not for country, not for the American people, but for him- or herself.

I ask you to make sure this does not happen because in this country no one — no one — is above the law…Nadia está encima de la ley.

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Jim Lehrer

I was sorry to hear of the death yesterday of Jim Lehrer, the easy-to-take anchor of “The PBS NewsHour” for many years. He was a hell of a journalist. He was 85 and died at his home in Washington. PBS announced his death but did not provide further details. He had a heart attack in 1983 and heart valve surgery in 2008.

He began his career as a newspaper reporter in Texas before switching to broadcast journalism in the early 1970s. Robert MacNeil, Lehrer’s partner, on “The MacNeil/Lehrer Report,” a precursor to NewsHour, is still alive. He turned 89 last Sunday.