Joe Biden is a good man who has never been accused of wrongdoing.

After losing his wife and young daughter years ago in a fatal car accident, Joe raised his remaining two sons, ran for Congress and served with honor and distinction.

He re-married, later became vice president of the United States and served the nation for eight years in that position. You would not know any of this if you have listened to the lies Republicans have told about Joe Biden this week in the Trump Impeachment trial.

No one ever said politics was not a dirty business, but there is a distinct difference in suggesting one may not be qualified to serve and simply offering childish lies about another. Our mothers and fathers taught us that such behavior was dishonorable. It will always be dishonorable, and those who practice such conduct are truly unfit to serve.

Republicans have fought creatively to protect Donald Trump. They started by arguing nothing wrong took place in Trump asking Ukraine to influence the 2020 election in favor of Trump, because it never happened.

But the facts buried that argument. Then they argued that there was no firsthand witness to support that Trump personally was involved in the scheme. That fell apart when John Bolton said he heard the president direct the foreign aid to Ukraine to be withheld until Ukraine agreed to announce it was investigating the Bidens.

Then Republicans said, even though there was a direct witness, they did not want to hear his statement.

Republicans finally ended up on the most laughable of all arguments, one advanced by Alan Dershowitz in the Senate trial, that…and follow this closely…IF a president thought that his re-election was in the national interest, then illegally pushing a foreign government to interfere in a U.S. election was correct.

Following this smirking argument, taken seriously, any president could, at anytime, do anything, because his re-election was for the good of the nation in his opinion.

Who is the guy who was Lindsey Graham, senator from South Carolina? His Democratic opponent in South Carolina is statistically at a dead heat with Graham in the state. Maybe South Carolinians who do the right thing and grant Lindsey the peace or retirement he has earned.

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Ohio, is up for re-election this year. One wonders how straight speaking Iowa voters will find her position on the president’s right to sell the 2020 election to foreign interference? In Haskins, she was confronted by an Iowa voter this week on why she would not stand up to Trump. Ernst did not fare well in her response.

Republican senators took exception to being indirectly called toads of the president this week. They strongly responded that they can vote any way they want, as long as Trump is OK with their vote.

Between Trump’s failures to aid Puerto Rico’s recovery and corruption in Puerto Rico, the people of Puerto Rico have endured more hardship than they deserve.

Remember when Trump promised not to touch Medicaid? That was a lie, a new initiative from the White House will significantly cut Medicaid by changing the program from “qualified” and therefore covered, to block grants that budget funding by state restrictions.

About 75 percent of Americans wanted a fair Senate trial and witnesses in that trial, like the previous trials. Americans got neither, as only 5 percent of Republicans agreed.

Remember when the EPA fought to reduce pollution? Not so much anymore as the Trump administration seems to think such regulations hinder business.

Jim Crawford is a retired educator, political enthusiast and award-winning columnist living here in the Tri-State