Our spirit is vexed by President Trump, whose words and actions seem to undermine the U.S. Constitution, the safety and security of our nation and the ideals we stand for.

Where to begin?

The president was questioned Tuesday about a Wall Street Journal report that Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, was a CIA informant before he was assassinated in a chemical weapon attack at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in February 2017. 

According to reports, security camera footage from the trip showed him in a hotel elevator with a man who was said to be a U.S. intelligence operative. Mr. Kim’s backpack held $120,000 in cash, which, according to reports, could have been payment for intelligence-related activities or earnings from his casino businesses.

President Trump’s response: “I see that, and I just received a beautiful letter from Kim Jong Un. I think the relationship is very well, but I appreciated the letter. I saw the information about the CIA with regard to his brother or half brother, and I would tell him that would not happen under my auspices. I wouldn’t let that happen under my auspices. I just received a beautiful letter from Kim Jong Un.”

In 2018, the United States expelled 60 Russian diplomats after Russian operatives poisoned Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Great Britain. Mr. Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer, had acted as a double agent for the UK’s intelligence services in the past.

Yet, President Trump says and does nothing about a U.S. intelligence operative being murdered. Instead, he seems to want to console or assure Kim Jong Un that he won’t let U.S. spying against the unstable leader take place again.

This is another example of President Trump’s actions and remarks betraying America’s formidable national security and intelligence agencies in favor of one of America’s greatest adversaries. Last summer in Helsinki, he stood just feet from Russian President Vladimir Putin and publicly dissed U.S. intelligence agencies and their findings that Moscow interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

Again, it calls into question just who President Trump is working for — the American people or the despots of America’s adversaries. What interests are really controlling the president?

While the lily-livered Democrats in Congress are petrified to open impeachment proceedings against a president who unequivocally needs to be removed from office, we are heartened by a Quinnipiac poll released this week showing that six Democratic contenders for president in 2020 would beat President Trump in a head-to-head matchup. Those Democrats are former Vice President Joe Biden; U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and Corey Booker; and Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind.

Mayor Buttigieg and another 2020 Democratic contender, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, will be in Richmond on Saturday, June 15, as keynote speakers at the annual state Democratic Party’s Blue Commonwealth Gala. We will be interested to hear what they have to say.

If the Democrats in Congress won’t do their job to remove President Trump, then we’ll push to remove him and the yellow-bellied Democrats at the ballot box in November 2020.

Bring it on.