Members from both parties: In
Sync; On Same Page; Same Tune
(Russia
Guilty of Interfering: Helped Trump and Hurt Clinton)
NY Times
report of grim Senate Intelligence Report on Russian interference in the 2016
election with a
clear focus on Russian effort ordered by Putin to help Donald J. Trump win and to
hurt Hillary R. Clinton in the process (ergo: cause her to lose).
The highlights:
The Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Sen. Richard
Burr (R-NC) released a joint statement with his Democratic vice chair, Sen. Mark
Warner (D-VA) and 9 members, both R and D in attendance and all grim-faced I
note.
It declared that there
was “no reason to dispute” the Obama-era intelligence community’s determination
that Russia attempted to aid Donald Trump in the 2016 election.
Burr and Warner said committee staff had determined
that the community’s “conclusions were accurate and on point, and the Russian effort was extensive,
sophisticated, and ordered by President Putin himself for the purpose of
helping Donald Trump and hurting Hillary Clinton.”
Also, the
Senate Judiciary Committee released 2,500 pages of testimony and exhibits, much
of it pertaining to Donald Trump Jr.’s decision to meet with Natalia
Veselnitskaya, a lawyer connected to the Kremlin and to Fusion GPS, the firm
that commissioned the infamous Steele Dossier, in Trump Tower on June 9, 2016.
At the time, Trump Jr. was told that the purpose of the meeting was to provide
him with “high level and sensitive information” that was “part of Russia and
its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”
The younger Trump received a direct
and unambiguous invitation to collude with Russia, and he took the meeting.
The
Senate testimony reveals two things:
First, Trump Jr. is defiant, stating that he
“didn’t think that listening to someone with information relevant to the
fitness and character of a presidential candidate would be an issue.”
Second, at least according to the available
testimony, the meeting was a disappointment: Russian Lawyer, and now we also know she was an informant, Natalia Veselnitskaya, didn’t deliver the
goods.
Publicist
Rob Goldstone, the man who helped set up the meeting, testified that he
apologized to Donald Jr. saying in part: “Don, I really want to apologize. This
was hugely embarrassing. I have no idea what this meeting was actually about.”
Paul
Manafort’s notes from the meeting are cryptic, but to the extent that they’re
decipherable they relate mainly to the Magnitsky Act, an Obama-era sanctions
regime targeting specific, influential Russian citizens.
In other words, Donald Jr. tried to collude.
He
attempted to facilitate Russian “support for Mr. Trump,” but his potential
collaborators didn’t produce what they promised. (I note: that attempt is still a crime).
(My Insert: Trump
Jr had to have told daddy Trump and that must be believe as 100% factual via at
least one phone call within minutes of the meeting from Jr. to a “blocked” cell
phone of which President Trump uses and Jr. had to have known without any doubt
– he wanted to brag to his father for sure).
Now, what
does this all have to do with Republican conspiracy theories?
If you’ve followed conservative websites,
listened at all to talk radio, or watched five minutes of Fox News, by now you
know the “worse than Watergate” counter-narrative to the conspiracy-minded
Left’s obsession with the idea that not only did Trump collude with Russia to
win the election, he’s also governing while “compromised” by damaging Russian
intelligence.
The
right-wing conspiracy theory goes something like this: (go
to the link and read the details and entire article – eye-popping for
sure).
My 2 Cents: Now watch the GOP / FOX spin machine work
overtime with Trump to continue any and all efforts to discredit and disgrace
S/C Robert Mueller and this degrade and downgrade to destroy and dismiss the
report.
The GOP / FOX nastiness continues.
Sad, isn’t it? The ball as they say is now squarely in
the GOP’s court – what will they do: punt and run the opposite direction like “wrong-way Corrigan flew” or will they play hardball for the people and defend and enforce the rule
of law?
We shall see in short order I suspect. Seems like Nixon redux to me.
Stay tuned, and as always …
Thanks for stopping by.
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