As explosive new Russia revelations hit Trump, Republicans throw him a lifeline

[riversedge]

As explosive new Russia revelations hit Trump, Republicans throw him a lifeline

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/07/19/as-explosive-new-russia-revelations-hit-trump-republicans-throw-him-a-lifeline/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e883d386e821


by Greg Sargent July 19 at 9:27 AM Email the author


President Trump's news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin was a disastrous capitulation, says Democracy Post editor Christian Caryl. (Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post)

THE MORNING PLUM:

For many months, leading Republicans have practically pleaded with President Trump in public to avail himself of a simple escape hatch on the Russia scandal: If you just acknowledge that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, and take seriously the prospect that Russia will do it again next time, there won’t be a scandal anymore. You have an easy way out, Mr. President. Why not just take it?

But the latest explosive revelations from the New York Times will make that posture much tougher to sustain. Or, at least, that’s what should happen. Instead, it’s perfectly plausible that Republicans will continue to throw Trump that lifeline for as long as possible, which in practice means abdicating on the use of congressional authority to force the full truth about this saga out into the open, even as learning the truth grows ever more urgent.

The Times reports that in January 2017, two weeks before his inauguration, senior intelligence officials privately presented Trump with extensive evidence that Vladimir Putin had personally ordered the campaign of cyber-subterfuge and information warfare that worked to tilt the 2016 election to Trump. ...............................

The Republican approach has been to set the threshold for an acceptable Trump response at the point of acknowledgment that the Russian interference effort did take place. ......................................................

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But the new revelations from the Times fundamentally change the situation. The question is no longer: Why won’t Trump accept the intelligence services’ verdict on what happened, and act accordingly? That question can be easily answered, by, say, the idea that Trump’s ego won’t let him publicly admit to anything that diminishes the greatness of his victory. But the question now is a lot harder: Why did Trump continue actively trying to deceive America into believing that Russian sabotage didn’t happen at all, after having been comprehensively briefed to a previously unknown extent on Putin’s direct involvement in that sabotage effort?

This should only increase the urgency of answering all of those follow-up questions, not to mention the imperative that congressional Republicans use their authority to the fullest extent possible to answer them. Yet, in an interview with CBS News that ran last night, Trump claimed he does acknowledge Russian meddling and even said he warned Putin against doing it again. And now he’s tweeting that this has been his position all along.

So it’s perfectly possible that Republicans will now profess great relief that Trump is now admitting Russian sabotage did happen, as if this settles the issue. But can they really get away with avoiding the questions raised by the new revelation that Trump has had detailed knowledge of Putin’s direct involvement for 18 months now?.........................

[alwaysinasnit]

1. Congressional Republicans truly are Russian collaborators.

[empedocles]

2. The 18 months, keeps adding to the case,

keep methodically building the political case

[elser1939]

3. Here is what we do about it

1. Buy massive airtime warning people that because of the Russians and the Republican Party, the 2018 mid-term election is not safe. Implore all voters to call their county board of Elections IMMEDIATELY to make sure they are registered and have a voter card. No Nov 6 Surprises!

2. Organize Bus trips in intercity areas to make sure people have their voter photo IDs.

3. Figure out which states have the cleanest elections and particularly target Republicans in those states.

4. In ANY place where people can use paper ballots, encourage them to do so.

5. Run ruthless attacks ads linking the entire GOP as nothing but shills and pawns of the uberwealthy who will never be a check on Putin's, I mean, Trump's power!

[Fred Sanders]

4. Take more than that. Remember the purpose of a Russian interference was to create the

perception of election unfairness in everyone, forever. Even if no actual change to voting results, the perception created erodes democracy because folks think there might be.

Good to have normal safeguards but going crazy over unfairness is playing into their hands.

With you in pen and paper ballots, solves every issue regarding vote count, but still leaves Russian election influencing by any means they can.

[SWBTATTReg]

5. Traitor, all of them traitors...nt