In his capacity as what, exactly?

Trump ally Franklin Graham, an evangelical preacher who shoulders much of the blame for finally separating the American white evangelical movement from identifiable "Christianity" once and for all, traveled to Russia earlier this March to meet with prominent (and sanctioned) Russian officials. This raises two obvious questions. One: Why was evangelical Trump ally Franklin Graham traveling to Russia to meet with sanctioned Russian officials? And two: Why the hell was evangelical Trump ally Franklin Graham traveling to Russia to meet with sanctioned Russian officials?

Per a captioned photo re-posted from the Duma Instagram account to Graham’s own Instagram account, the meeting with [sanctioned Russian Duma Speaker] Volodin focused “on the current state of U.S.-Russia relations,” including “the possibility of intensifying contacts between the State Duma and the U.S. Congress.”

That's the story? That Franklin Graham trundled off to meet with U.S.-sanctioned Russian officials in an effort to make nicey-nicey on behalf of the U.S. Congress, which Graham isn't in, has never been in, and which has an exceedingly ample travel budget of its own for these things? Why?

In an interview with RIA Novosti, a major Russian state-run outlet, Graham said he called Pence directly to tell him of the trip. “He was very happy to hear the news,” Graham said. “And he admitted that he fully supported my decision.”

You know, Vice President Mike Pence has an entire government agency at his disposal to facilitate communications with Russia. It's called the State Department, and while the White House may have gutted a good portion of it, this is still the sort of thing that is right in its wheelhouse. Instead, we're going to ignore the State Department and have Franklin Graham pop over there? Uh huh.