USA TODAY International Edition
Donald in Wonderland: Russia denials defy belief
President Trump continues to insist that any collusion between his campaign team and Russia is “phony” and a “witch hunt.” On Sunday, the president’s new communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, said “the Russian thing is a nonsensical thing.”
To believe that, however, is to be like the White Queen in Alice Through the Looking Glass: You would have to believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast. You would have to believe:
That all the emerging contacts, phone calls and meetings between Team Trump and Russian proxies, in the midst of Russia’s cyber and disinformation campaign aimed at influencing U. S. elections, were innocent and coincidental.
That when Donald Trump Jr., son- in- law Jared Kushner and then- campaign manager Paul Manafort met in June 2016 with Russians dangling dirt on Hillary Clinton — “part of Russia and its government’s support of Mr. Trump,” the invitation email read — it was just naive openness to opposition research that came to naught, not attempted collusion that contradicted previous denials of any contacts between campaign officials and Russian operatives.
That Donald Trump knew nothing about this meeting and it was pure happenstance that, three hours after his son agreed to the meeting, the presidential candidate gave a speech boasting he would soon release information about Clinton’s “corrupt dealings.”
That the initial failure of Kushner to mention several contacts with Russians on his security clearance forms, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ failure to tell Congress about meetings with the Russian ambassador to the United States, represented mere oversight or forgetfulness.
That the president knows better than the entire intelligence community, which concluded that Russia hacked American democracy and views Vladimir Putin as a formidable adversary, not as a strong leader worthy of admiration.
That there’s nothing suspicious about recent discussion of presidential pardons and efforts to tarnish the investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller, the widely respected former head of the FBI.
In the real world, as opposed to wonderland, a president with nothing to hide would welcome an investigation that would find him faultless.
He would praise Sessions for taking the ethical step of recusing himself from the Russia investigation. He would demand transparency from aides regarding their contacts with Russians. ( Kushner’s detailed, 11- page statement Monday was a start in that direction.) And he would want them to testify voluntarily, under oath and in public.
As this tale continues to unfold, the public should ask itself this: If stories about Russian interference are really “fake news,” then why are the president and many of his men acting so guilty?