RUSSIANS HAVE THE BEST DIRT
In what universe would Americans’ minds and elections be tampered with by a foreign government and President Obama or President Bush or Presidents Clinton, Reagan, Nixon, Truman, Lincoln or anyone else be allowed just to say, “Oh, well.”
More than that, in what universe would Americans — especially Congress members — allow any of those presidents to say to his attorney general, “… stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now…” — that hunt being to get the criminals who have and are tampering with American democracy?
There is no universe in which our Congress would not have stood up to any one or all of those previous presidents had they demanded a stop to any probe of a foreign power trying to undermine our country and elections. In fact, they did stand up and say no to two of those previous presidents over other issues that were bad but not as frightening as having our arch foreign enemy literally manipulating our social media and trying to manipulate our polling places.
There is, however, apparently a universe in which this Congress is so afraid of an unstable and compromised president that most of its majority members will not take action to protect America or its citizens against President Donald Trump. It was Trump who tweeted that “stop” demand to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday. And it is Trump who has failed to pursue any real action to counter Russia’s cyber meddling.
We’re not talking just about the 2016 election anymore. The Russians didn’t stop with the hack of Hillary Clinton’s campaign and email before the 2016 election, and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats made it clear last month that the “warning lights are blinking red” again on Russian election interference for the 2018 mid-term elections.
Just over a week ago, Missouri’s Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, up for re-election this year, confirmed that she was one of several congressional candidates whose computer networks had been unsuccessfully targeted by the Russian phishing attacks last year.
Facebook revealed this week that it found and removed at least 32 web pages and fake accounts on its platform. The fake accounts were aimed at interfering in this fall’s elections, sowing division and discord in our country, and undermining public faith in our institutions and political system
One such page — “No Unite the Right 2” — seemed to be organizing a counter-demonstration to an upcoming white supremacists event, while another seemed to amplify the “Abolish ICE” message pushed by liberals. The removed pages had more than 290,000 followers. Facebook said it found evidence the network of pages may be connected to the Russian trolls who attacked the 2016 elections.
Then there’s the matter of more than two dozen Russians — some of them Russian intelligence officers — already indicted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russian meddling probe and charged with operating an Internet troll farm or hacking Clinton and the Democratic National Committee.
It’s not a question of whether the Russians are back. They never left. They didn’t have to. They weren’t confronted by our president. They weren’t made to stop.
Congress, too, is dithering. Rather than provide the Constitutionally empowered check against Trump, most of House and Senate members are sitting on their hands while our freedoms burn up.
In fact, Trump, with his tweet to Sessions on Wednesday demanding that the top Justice Department official stop special counsel Mueller’s probe “right now,” seemed to be signaling the Kremlin to turn up the heat.
More and more, it seems that Trump’s aim is much like that of the Russians’ — to sow division and discord in our country and to undermine public faith in our institutions and political system.
Two thirds of Americans told pollsters last month that they believe Russia interfered with the 2016 election, including a majority of Republicans. And more than half of Americans said they believe Vladimir Putin has something he is holding over Trump to influence our president.
Again, we ask: So where is Congress? Pundits and citizens have wondered aloud at the spinelessness of our lawmakers — especially the majority Republicans in the House and the Senate.
But perhaps we’re all missing a rather painful but obvious possibility. Maybe the Russians have compromising information to hang over those Republican Trump apologists, too.
After all, if you were a foreign government looking to obtain controlling influence on American democracy, would you stop with just one man? Even if that one man was the president?
Not in this dark universe you wouldn’t.