Russia Monitor: Trump’s ‘Gang Of Putin’ Is Standing Down For What Is Best For Nation

 

The party’s transformation into a Russian lickspittle makes me sick; “GOP” might as well stand for “Gang of Putin.”

— Columnist and Never-Trumper Max Boot, The Republicans have become the party of Russia. This makes me sick.

By Dan Peak
The Commoner Call (12/9/19)

Dear Fellow Readers,

Trumpsters are now inventing their own reality. Let’s be clear, Russia interfered in the 2016 election to benefit Trump. Special counsel Robert Mueller called Russian interference information warfare.

Trump has never been a fan of this history and so sought to write his own. By extorting the Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky Trump planned to force a politically ‘inconvenient’ investigation of former VP Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden and concocted a story about how a Ukraine company was responsible for the 2016 hacking of Clinton and Dems.

None of the above is true, but when Trump got caught because a whistleblower came forward and disclosed the crime, Trump did what Trump does – he projected criminal activity on everyone else to deflect from his own criminality.

Trump is a criminal and a serial liar. But — as always with Trump — there’s more.

Trumpsters joined in. Some were literally involved in the crime of helping Trump extort Ukraine, but the rest were complicit in the cover-up, and the blizzard of non-stop lies. Trumpsters are increasingly adamant that Ukraine tried to interfere in the 2016 election. Some like House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-CA) and Sen. John Kennedy (R-CA) are unrestrained in their lies; spouting baseless claims backed by no evidence, but said aloud and repeatedly regardless. Kennedy talks out of both sides of his mouth depending on his audience, but happily declares, “I don’t think this is fake news”, adding, “I think these pieces were well researched…Ukraine did middle in the 2016 election”. (Watch MSNBC host Joy Reid as she deftly covers and then counters the lies here. )

Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee and is more nuanced with his complicity. He argues it wasn’t just the Russians, and suggests “every elected official in Ukraine was for Hillary Clinton. Is that very different than the Russians being for Donald Trump?”

It is very, very different. Burr says ‘bias’ but not ‘interference’ but his own committee reported on Russian interference – with never a comment about Ukraine. Not only never a comment against Ukraine – no evidence against Ukraine.

Burr’s committee even INVESTIGATED the claims against Ukraine, as explained by Politico with: Senate panel look into Ukraine interference comes up short.

“But the Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee thoroughly investigated that theory, according to people with direct knowledge of the inquiry, and found no evidence that Ukraine waged a top-down interference campaign akin to the Kremlin’s efforts to help Trump win in 2016.”

So while Kennedy and Nunes will out-and-out lie, Burr has to be more nuanced, sowing doubt as best he can.

Burr’s Committee ranking member is Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) who summarizes:

“I take very seriously the responsibility of, what I hear in classified settings needs to stay classified,” Warner told the outlet. “But I think it is very clear to me, and this has been testified to by every leader of law enforcement, [and the] intelligence community, that there’s been absolutely no validity to this crazy conspiracy theory that Ukraine was behind the 2016 intervention.”

Warner offers the truth, Kennedy lies, Burr distorts – here’s Senate Intelligence Committee member Sen. Angus King (I-ME), “an independent who caucuses with the Democrats”:

“… he’s “probably been to between 20-30 briefings and hearings on this subject of election interference in 2016, and I have never heard one word about any culpability on the part of Ukraine.”

““It has never been mentioned in any of the briefings I’ve had on the Intelligence Committee,” King said. He called the claims about Ukraine’s interference in 2016 “unfortunate” because “it muddies the waters,” and noted that Russia’s attempts to blame Ukraine are not inconsistent with its standard disinformation tactics.”

The Politico article debunks Trumpster lies. MSNBC host Joy Reid shreds the Trumpster lies. Reid boldly invites a Trumpster on her program and confronts him directly as he tries to spin the lies. Her guest, described as a ‘Trump 2020 campaign surrogate’, is Jack Kingston.

But Trumpsters don’t stop there. Fox host Tucker Carlson now comes right out and says he’s “rooting for Russia in its conflict with Ukraine”.

Raw Story comments on a Voice of America report that has “military leaders at the Pentagon…increasingly concerned: Pentagon panicked as US troop affinity for Russia grows: report

“While most Americans still see Moscow as a key U.S. adversary, new polling suggests that view is changing, most notably among the households of military members. The second annual Reagan National Defense Survey, completed in late October, found nearly half of armed services households questioned, 46%, said they viewed Russia as ally. Overall, the survey found 28% of Americans identified Russia as an ally, up from 19% the previous year.”

Trumpsters are burnishing Trump’s defense by rewriting history – Russia GOOD. Ukraine BAD.

The Party of Trump knows no bounds. Trump held a hush-hush campaign event at Mar-A-Lago and had two of the three war criminals he recently pardoned appear with him.

“… bringing on stage Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance and Maj. Mathew Golsteyn, who Trump pardoned last month for cases involving war crimes. Lorance was serving a 19-year sentence for ordering his soldiers shoot at unarmed men in Afghanistan, and Golsteyn was to stand trial for the 2010 extrajudicial killing of a suspected bomb maker.”

The Party of Trump partied with 1,000 supporters raising $3.5 million. Secrecy was the order of the day, “The 1,000 attendees were required to check their cell phones into individual -locked cases before they entered the unmarked ballroom at the south end of the resort. Reporters were not allowed to attend.

The Party of Trump – looks the other way as Trump fails to hold Saudi Arabia accountable after a Saudi Air Force officer opened fire and killed three of his classmates at a naval base in Pensacola, FL.” Instead Trump offered Saudi talking points:

“…Mr. Trump told reporters that “they are devastated in Saudi Arabia,” noting that “the king will be involved in taking care of families and loved ones.” He never used the word “terrorism.””

Party of Trump – only one Republican voted to restore and expand voter protections. Of course these protections would make it harder for Republicans to suppress minority voting.

*****

Standing down

The Party of Trump is not standing up for what is best for Americans. Who touts war criminals as heroes, who denies voters fair process to vote, who excuses Trump criminality by making up lies about the real risks to the United States compromising our foreign policy and abandoning our allies? The world is laughing at Trump which White House advisor Kellyanne Conway spins as, “Trump commands the room and makes people jealous”.

Columnist and Never-Trumper Max Boot says it best with his December 4 column, The Republicans have become the party of Russia. This makes me sick.

Of all the changes that have occurred in our politics since the rise of Donald Trump, the most gut-wrenching for me personally is to see the Republican Party transformed into the Kremlin’s “useful idiots.” 

Boot says the GOP now stands for “Gang of Putin”.

Impeach Trump – drive out the complicit Trumpsters; the Gang of Putin.

(Commoner Call cartoon by Mark L. Taylor, 2018. Open source and free for non-derivative use with link to www.thecommonercall.org )