This past May, Our Revolution President Nina Turner said that “No one in Ohio is asking about Russia,” in an attempt to get Democrats to stop talking about Russian interference in the 2016 US election. Just a few days ago, Sanders went on Seth Meyers late night show to make similar statements. Sanders claimed that “Americans are not staying up every day worrying about Russia’s interference in our election.” Sanders went on to claim that Democrats need to lessen their efforts to hold Republicans accountable on Russian meddling, and instead focus on taking on the 1%.

These calls from the far left are a common refrain, they have been saying pretty much the same thing since the general election ended. The reasoning here is quite simple and fairly self-serving. Bernie and his acolytes believe that if Russian meddling is indeed accurate, then the idea that Sanders would have waltzed to a victory over Trump can’t be taken seriously. In an attempt to save the “Bernie would have won!” narrative, Sanders’ team has moved to try to get Democrats to more or less drop the issue.

There’s a few problems with this approach. The first is quite obvious: if you don’t investigate Russian meddling, you are inviting the same problem in future elections. Sanders surely would be singing a different tune if he won the Democratic nomination in 2020, only to face Russian inference and lose a close race. The second is that Democratic voters really care about the Russian issue. It isn’t something that voters would rather ignore. According to a poll from Axios, 83% of Democrats believe that Russian meddling is a serious issue. 54 percent of Americans overall feel the same way. Even back in April, an NBC poll found that 73% of Americans backed an independent investigation into Russian interference in the election. Americans certainly care about the Russian investigation, and Democratic voters in particular really care. Ignoring their calls for an investigation isn’t smart with a mid-term election coming up: the investigation has the benefit of simultaneously energizing Democratic voters and demoralizing Republican ones.

But perhaps the biggest problem with this approach is that it flat out lets Trump off the hook, allowing him to use his political capital on furthering his agenda instead of using it defending himself from attacks related to the investigation. Freed from the shackles of the investigation, perhaps Trump is competent enough to get the Republican votes needed to repeal Obamacare. Perhaps Republicans in Congress aren’t retiring, fearful of how voters will respond in 2018. And maybe without the investigation, tax cuts for the wealthy sail through Congress. Giving up on the Russian investigation is giving the Republican Party the biggest gift that they could ask for, a lifeline in a scandal ridden administration.

And if Trump could actually pass his legislative agenda through Congress, who would get hurt the most? Marginalized communities, people of color in particular. Trump “wins” would allow him to go even further, perhaps strengthening police departments to crackdown on Black protesters or something similar. So why even give Trump the opportunity? Why, when Trump is on his toes, back peddling, with the Republican Party collectively fearful of the next election, would the far left be so willing to basically give Trump a hand?

It all comes down to protecting the narrative that Sanders was “wronged” by Democrats and “would have won” if given some kind of hypothetical fair shake. If the Russians actually did interfere with the election and influence the outcome, then Clinton isn’t the worst candidate ever and Bernie probably would have lost (even though I’ve long argued that he would have lost anyway, due to his inability to resonate and mobilize communities of color). It is time for the far left to stop calling for the Democrats to drop the Russia investigation. If the pressure (and of course, the real legal ramifications) harm Trump’s political objectives, then the investigation has helped marginalized communities from the wrath of the Republican Party. Why would anyone on the left want to stop that?