One of the most ludicrous aspects of Donald Trump’s presidency was his first impeachment, ostensibly over a never-proven “quid pro quo” between him and Ukraine to fight corruption, including looking into Hunter Biden’s highly questionable activities in the nation. In the end, what we got was the quasi-criminalization of basic foreign policy and the complete exposure of just how far government bureaucrats were willing to go to protect their power.

As if to put a finer point on the absurdity of it all, Joe Biden is now mimicking Trump’s posture regarding Ukraine. Several days ago, it was revealed that the White House had threatened Ukraine if they expressed any opposition regarding the Russian-German Nordstream 2 pipeline. Sounds like a quid pro quo, right? In essence, Biden told Ukraine to shut up and in exchange, he won’t fray the relationship, which includes military aid.

Now, because life must imitate parody, Biden is also pushing Ukraine’s president to clean up “corruption,” a demand that was at the center of Trump’s first impeachment.

Biden will push Ukraine's president to 'tackle corruption' when he visits White House https://t.co/5FZHDCevme pic.twitter.com/dBvjDL57Tc

— New York Post (@nypost) July 21, 2021

President Biden will host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Aug. 30 and push him to “tackle corruption,” despite claims of corruption in Ukraine involving his own family, the White House said Wednesday.

As vice president, Biden led the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy while his son Hunter Biden earned a reported $83,000 per month on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, despite no relevant industry experience.

Apparently, it’s now totally cool to demand Ukraine battle corruption, and you can bet this latest demand won’t include Biden’s son. Of course, a year and a half ago, attempting basic foreign policy in that vein was an impeachable offense. Couple that with the fact that Biden obviously initiated a quid pro quo regarding the Nordstream 2 pipeline, something that actually helps a foreign adversary in Russia, and the mind boggles at the incredibly different standards being applied here. Where’s Alexander Vindman speaking out on how all this hurts Ukranian interests?

In fact, I’ve yet to see a single mainstream media member or Salon conservative even comment on this. What’s the excuse? That it’s fine to threaten Ukraine as long as Biden’s son isn’t a part of the proposition? And even that is assuming that Trump did indeed make Hunter Biden a key part of his demand, something that was never proven despite all the partisan bureaucrats who testified before Congress. Yet, we had an impeachment anyway because everything is blatantly political. Goalposts move and standards change depending on who is in the crosshairs. If a Republican even suggests not giving military aid to Ukraine, the establishment freaks and mobilizes. Yet, Biden can literally withhold aid, as he did some weeks ago, and it’s not even a news story.

Nothing matters anymore in politics, and regardless of how one personally feels about Donald Trump, there is no doubt he was held to a different standard than those who came before him and have come after him. A president telling a foreign nation to stop being a corrupt dumpster fire in order to receive aid is normal foreign policy and always has been. But under Trump, it was an impeachable offense. Under Biden, it’s back to being normal foreign policy. All of this is incredibly convenient, and I’m not at all interested in the unproven caveats that supposedly justify the double standard.