When my son was little, he once wandered by as I was watching a shouting match on Fox News. He paused and asked, “How come no one on television ever says anything true?”

Good question, my boy — and it’s not just TV either. Donald Trump gave a press conference with Vladimir Putin on Monday. He made some boneheaded errors. It does seem true that some in our intelligence services and Justice Department (and State Department and IRS) were corrupted by Barack Obama and sheer Deep State arrogance. But don’t stand next to a murderous would-be Czar on foreign soil and say so.

Because screw Putin. Trump may think Vlad’s a gangster he can deal with. After all, Trump was in New York real estate; he’s dealt with gangsters before. But those gangsters were looking for a symbiotic payoff. They’re like leeches who want to attach to a host and suck some blood out of it. They don’t want the host to die or no more blood. Putin’s the other kind of gangster. Putin’s the gangster who wants to wipe you off the face of the earth so he can take over the neighborhood. There’s no dealing with such a man until you’ve slapped him silly. Essentially Trump is making the exact same mistake with Putin that Obama and W. made when they first took office.

But the reaction from the Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) was disgraceful, ugly, stupid and surely — surely — served Putin’s purposes more than anything Trump said or did.

After all, what does Putin want? To divide us. To gum up the machinery of legislation. To put us at each other’s throats.

Can anyone doubt that that pompous gas bag John Brennan, former Communist and CIA director, served Putin’s purposes when he tweeted, “Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of high crimes & misdemeanors. It was nothing short of treasonous”?

Can anyone doubt that New York Magazine and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and others are serving Putin’s purposes when they speculate without proof that Trump is a Russian asset or the victim of blackmail?

Can anyone doubt that commentators ranging from Senator Richard Blumenthal to MSNBC legal expert Jill-Wine Banks serve Putin’s purposes when they gin up panic by comparing Russian computer hacking to Pearl Harbor and the World Trade Tower attacks or the Helsinki press conference to (so help me) Kristallnacht, the 1938 Nazi assault on Jews?

Can anyone doubt that it serves Putin’s purposes when what would have been a forgettable flub under Obama — what was a forgettable flub under Obama — is turned into Armageddon by the leaders of the Democrat party — i.e. the corporate media — with their willing accomplices in Congress playing along?

As I’ve said many times now, Trump is a flawed man doing a generally fine job as president. Business is booming, judges are following the Constitution, the administrative state is being dialed back — we’re more free, which is to say more American, during this administration than we have been in a while. But how can we reasonably discuss the rights and wrongs of his presidency — how can we say anything true — when the party of socialism, the party of abortion, the party of open borders and police-hatred goes into a throat-clutching panic every time Trump opens his mouth? It is clear they are trying to divert us from their utter insanity by going utterly insane every time the president does anything. But whom does that really serve?

Putin is a gangster. Trump should learn that, sure. But Putin’s ultimate purpose is to divide and cripple us so he can expand the Russian state. The Democrats in their absolute insanity are doing his work for him.

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