Just the facts
Investigate fully the role of Russia in election
The testimony Monday by FBI Director James B. Comey and National Security Agency Director Michael S. Rogers before the House Intelligence Committee is extremely important to Americans, but the facts of it will have to struggle to find their way through the Democratic and Republican smokescreens that are accompanying discussion.
The part that remains critical, and must continue to be kept in view, is for Americans to learn what role Russians played in our 2016 elections. No one is suggesting that voting tallies were tampered with; Donald Trump’s election is legitimate and any effort to cast doubt on that is fruitless. But it is important to the American people to learn whether Russia tried to influence the election by active measures. Foreign involvement in American elections, be it by Russians, Israelis, Cubans or the British, is entirely unwelcome. Firm steps need to be taken to block it out.
We count on our legislators to carry out the part of their duty that involves digging out the information and making it available. Democrats sawing on the apparent fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin hated Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and favored Mr. Trump is interesting but, in March 2017, irrelevant. Republicans trying to divert committee and audience interest that leaks may have brought some of the information about Russian actions into the open doesn’t help either. The media, and virtually everyone else interested in American politics, thrive on leaks, which sometimes lead to flows of information useful to voters and other consumers, whatever political spinmeisters might desire.
It is probably worth saying again that it is extremely unlikely that anything that comes out of either the committee hearings, or the FBI investigation for that matter, will lead to the departure from office of Mr. Trump. Impeachment, if there were reason for it, would have to involve the Republican-controlled House and Senate, and is thus very unlikely. It is useful that Monday’s testimony deflated the notion that President Barack Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower, which is a distraction from more serious matters.
Mr. Comey started out somewhat suspect in bipartisan terms, given his role in the 2016 campaign. Now he seems to be dealing from the top of the deck, hoping to preserve his own credibility through the end of his term as FBI director. NSA Director Rogers’ role in the investigation and the testimony before the committee is equally important given the NSA’s role in the different forms of surveillance.
In spite of Democratic and Republican, congressional and White House sniping, Americans can only say, “Sail on and help rid us of future foreign meddling in our elections.”