DNC: Republicans have lied directly to the American people 'Congressional Republicans have failed to do their constitutional duty.'

USA TODAY

After President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, and his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, were both found guilty on eight counts each, Republican leadership has remained silent on the matter.

Trump brings with him a culture of corruption

The seriousness of this week’s developments cannot be overstated.

Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, was found guilty on eight counts of financial crimes. And no one was closer to Trump than Michael Cohen, his longtime personal lawyer and "fixer," who also pleaded guilty to multiple crimes, including making illegal hush-money payments at Trump’s direction.

The culture of corruption that Trump brings with him is a disgrace to the presidency and a threat to our democracy. And what do Republicans have to say about their party’s leader being accused of and associated with such serious crimes? Good question.

The Republican Party has largely shrugged off this development. In their attempts to spin the facts, the president, his administration and members of his party have lied directly to the American people.

USA TODAY editorial: Hey Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, come collect your GOP leadership spines

Counterpoint: President Trump didn’t violate campaign-finance law

Take Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, for example. Hatch actually said it is amazing Trump is “as good as he is” on Thursday and defended his past actions because he comes from New York City, a “slam-bang, difficult world.” And then there is the Republican National Committee, whose spokesperson said Michael Cohen bore all the responsibility for the payments, though Trump himself said they "came from me."

The Republican Party’s response would be unbelievable, if it weren’t completely predictable.

Time and again, congressional Republicans have failed to do their constitutional duty to provide oversight and act as a check on the executive branch. They have allowed the corruption connected to Trump's team to flourish unchecked. And the rest of the Republican Party has hypocritically and shamelessly bent over backwards to provide cover for the president’s growing indiscretions.

The American people have had enough.

It is long past time for Republicans to put country over party and join Democrats in standing up for the rule of law.

But the lesson of the past eighteen months is that we can’t hold our breath and wait for that to happen. The more Democrats we elect this November, the better we will be able to hold this administration accountable and take back our democracy.

Tom Perez is the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. You can follow him on Twitter: @TomPerez.

What our readers are saying

Porn stars, unnamed executives and former staffers being squeezed over business-as-usual corruption, this is special counsel Robert Mueller’s plan? Prison rats testifying against their former boss for reduced sentences? Reeks of small time.

— Charles Westmoreland

GOP now stands for: Gullible Old People. No matter what lie Trump tells, the party just buries its head in the sand and it believes him.

— Tom Williams

Michael Cohen was Trump's attorney, so if payments were improper then he did not properly advise his client. It all comes back to Cohen's lies and incompetence. Tough to shift blame to Trump when Trump paid him for his legal advice.

— Larry Gilbert

What others are saying

Dana Milbank, The Washington Post: "It seems nothing can bring them to state what is manifestly true: The president is unfit to serve, surrounded by hooligans and doing incalculable harm. ... This intolerable silence of the Republicans — through 'Access Hollywood,' racist outbursts, diplomatic mayhem and endless scandal — is what allows Trump and his Fox News-viewing supporters to dock their spaceship in a parallel universe where truth isn’t truth. At Tuesday night’s rally in West Virginia, Trump’s irony-challenged audience could be heard chanting 'Drain the Swamp!' and 'Lock her up!' (Hillary Clinton, that is), just a few hours after Paul Manafort’s conviction and Cohen’s guilty plea."

The Fresno Bee, editorial: "When members of Congress take the oath of office, they swear to defend the U.S. Constitution, not to protect a president. Every time Republicans from California and elsewhere ignore or rationalize or excuse Trump’s transgressions, they tarnish that oath. ... On days like Tuesday – when the Cohen plea happened nearly at the same time that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted of bank and fraud charges that were filed by Mueller’s team – it is instructive to think about what the reaction would be if it wasn’t Trump in the Oval Office, but Barack Obama, or any other president for that matter. Wouldn’t there be bipartisan concern and calls for inquiries?"

Kimberly Ross, The Washington Examiner: "I don't blame the GOP for wanting to win, but I do question the continued insistence that says rectitude must be set aside in order to do so. If that's the case, then those "wins," whether on the campaign trail or in the White House, are not worth having. If the shoe were on the other foot, would Republicans so blindly look past a similar deficit of integrity?"

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