Tuesday, July 11, 2017

By Reed Galen

Russia is the big bad bear of American politics. Since their (now-confirmed) meddling in last year’s presidential election came to light, President Donald Trump has been suffering from Russian Vodka Torture. Day in and day out, the drip, drip, drip of new, seedy details splashes onto the White House, causing them to do the drunkard’s walk between crises and pushing President Trump to repeated, rash Twitter rants.

This week’s revelations, first reported by the New York Times, that Donald Trump, Jr. offered, and quickly accepted, a meeting with a Russian national on the promise of damaging information about Hillary Clinton’s campaign pushed the issue further up the food chain and perilously close to the president himself. That Mr. Trump Jr. was so easily baited by the dangle says a great deal about his impetuousness and single-minded desire to help his father, regardless of the methods or ethics involved.

Speaking with folks within the American intelligence community, they described the approach as a classic maneuver to gain access to a potential source. Moscow Centre must have been beside themselves when they realized they had to give up nothing of value, not even a little chicken feed, for a meeting at Trump Tower. That they hooked not one, but three big fish, Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort also attended, (one could make the argument Manafort has been at the end of a Russian harpoon for many years) with the measly bait provided surely induced great slapping of backs.

DJT-II, realizing the need to get out in front of the story before the Times did if for him again, released the email communications between himself and the cut-out for a Russian attorney who claims she had (and has) no connection to the Russian government. Like many across the political spectrum, this disclosure was surprising: both that Trump Jr. would do it, and that it confirmed what so many of the president’s opponents have been screaming about for months; that there was at least an attempt by the highest echelons of the Trump campaign to take advantage of what the Kremlin might have on Clinton and use it to their own political advantage.

Many people before me this week, including many veterans of presidential campaigns, have already gone to great lengths to discuss what they (and what I) would have done when faced with an approach by a foreign power. Go to the campaign manager, then call the FBI and the Secret Service and let them know the organization is the target of foreign intelligence operations. This was not done by Donald Trump, Jr. He should have recognized what was happening and backed away immediately. He didn’t. His ignorance (it’s my first campaign!) is no excuse. Most people know right from wrong, if not the nuances between collusion and espionage.

In short order, Republicans in Washington and across the country have taken up the mantra: Donnie Junior committed no crime! I’m no lawyer, nor are most of the people opining about this. In the immortal words of my father to a hungover son, “Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should.” The Republican Party I was born into and worked in for two decades is nearly gone. Far from small government, individual liberty and strong national defense, from the hinterlands to Capitol Hill, far too many members of the GOP appear ready and willing to die on the hill for a president who certainly would not do the same for them. The GOP’s lotus eaters haven woken up as members of a leader party; only there to fulfill the wishes and ambitions of one man.

Whether or not Donnie JT Jr. committed a crime or not will be decided by Robert Mueller and his team. What we’re discussing now are not legal issues, they’re political. How long will Republican leaders on Capitol Hill continue to defend the president, his family and the strange actions related to one of our foremost foreign opponents. When will they drop the mantle of the old, tired elephant and instead serve as the phalanx of the United States? When will they decide, in the face of extremely unpleasant realities, that a sitting president of the United States and his family have compromised his office and violated his oath?

Late last month, the United States Senate voted 98–2 to impose sanctions on Russia as punishment for last year’s meddling. The US Senate doesn’t vote 98–2 to name a post office, but they agreed, almost by acclimation, that something must be done about Moscow on the Potomac. The White House has dispatched staff to the US House of Representatives to try and derail the sanctions bill before it can reach the president’s desk. What? First, how does anyone in the White House Legislative Affairs shop look themselves in the mirror after making that pitch and secondly, why isn’t Speaker Paul Ryan moving the bill to the floor TODAY? The sanctions bill should already be on President Trump’s desk, laying there, radioactive and daring him to touch it.

Republican Congressional leaders could make the argument that President Trump was the best vehicle to push through their legislative and political agendas. Given that neither the House nor the Senate can appear to get out of their own way, and the president is both unwilling and unable to achieve any kind of consensus within his own party, how much longer will they man the ramparts for him? Election Day November 2018 will be here before they know it. Republican members are already unhappy about having to stand before constituents and defend an unpopular healthcare bill. Only when the questions shift from, “How can you take away my healthcare?” to “How can you support a president in league with the Russians?” will we start to see any movement. Only when their hometown newspapers, television and radio stations and local grandees start calling them out for their defense of indefensible behavior will Republican members stand up.

It should not be this way. Republicans across America, if for no other reason that they care about their country, should ask President Trump to a) stand up to Russia like he should b) allow the investigation to go forward unimpeded and c) actually begin doing the work tens of millions of Americans elected him to do. Every new report that comes out deepens the chasm between citizens. Every new angry tweet storm pushes us further down the road to instability. President Trump is facing a crisis likely of his own making and certainly of his own behavior. Republicans need to be Americans first and tell him enough is enough: Put the country first; or let someone govern who will.

Copyright 2017. Jedburghs, LLC.

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