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Showing Original Post only (View all)Here's the Real Trump-Russia Hoax - David Corn [View all]
Its Trump defenders and lefty Russiagate skeptics claiming there is no scandal.
DAVID CORNMARCH 29, 2019 11:25 AM
There has been much crowing from Trumpsters on the right and Russiagate skeptics on the left about Special Counsel Robert Muellers report. That is, the three-and-a-half-page letter Attorney General Bill Barr sent to Congress summarizing Muellers work. (The report itself remains secret and is reportedly over 300 pages.) Pointing to Barrs citation of a single, partial sentence from the report ([T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities), Trump and his partisans, as well as the small number of lefty Russiagate deniers, have declared that because Mueller found no direct collaboration, the Trump-Russia scandal is kaput. Some have even declared it was a hoaxand a gargantuan media con jobfrom the start.
These critics are wrong. And heres an easy way to tell whether they are engaging in honest discourse.
Two fundamental facts were established long before Mueller completed his investigation. First, the Russians attacked an American election in order to sow chaos, hurt Hillary Clinton, and help Donald Trump. Second, Trump and his top advisers during the campaign repeatedly denied this attack was underway, echoing and amplifying Moscow disinformation (the false claim that Russia was not attacking). Whether or not the Trumpers were directly in cahoots with the Russian government, they ran interference for Vladimir Putins assault on the United States, and they even did so after the intelligence community had briefed Trump on Russias culpability.
So to determine if the Barr triumphalists are acting in good faith, you need only ask them a simple question: do you accept these basic facts and acknowledge the profound seriousness of each one?
The Russian attack on the 2016 election was an attempt to subvert the foundation of American society: the democratic process. How can Americans have faith in their government, if elections are undermined by secret schemers, including a foreign government? It is certainly arguable that the Russian interventionparticularly the stealing and drip-drip-drip dumping of the John Podesta emails across the final four weeks of the electionwas one of several decisive factors in a contest that had a narrow and tight finish. Consequently, there is a strong case that Moscow helped shift the course of US history by contributing to the election of Trump. (And recognizing this is not the same as defending Hillary Clinton or concocting an excuse for the Democrats embarrassing loss to Trump.)
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https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/03/heres-the-real-trump-russia-hoax/
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Yes. Putin did not do Trump's bidding. tRump did Putin's bidding. Trump-Republicons provided cover
Bernardo de La Paz
Mar 2019
#2