Thumbing his nose at the well-considered and thoroughly documented judgment of the entire American intelligence community, this president holds a cordial, jocular telephone conference with a murderous foreign despot who deliberately hacked, distorted and manipulated the 2016 presidential election to obtain a result that benefited his own and his country’s strategic and private interests.
And by his own arrogant admission, this president doesn’t even bother to bring up the subject of this attack on our country during the conversation. In fact, against all evidence pointing the opposite direction, he smugly declares it a “hoax.” Because the foreign meddling worked for his interests, both political and personal.
The federal and congressional intelligence and national security groups that have stated that Russia interfered in the election:
1. Central Intelligence Agency
2. Office of the Director of National Intelligence
4. National Security Agency
6. Department of Homeland Security
7. House Intelligence Committee
8. Senate Intelligence Committee
At some point, someone really should remind the American media of the definition of “treason.” The word is well-defined in the United States Code.
18 U.S. Code § 2381. Treason
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
If ignoring, based on all the facts available, the deliberate, calculated and planned manipulation of our sacrosanct electoral mechanism in order to curry personal favor from those who committed it is not “giving our enemies aid and comfort,” then it is difficult to understand what else could be categorized as treason.
Charles Pierce:
They have to be kidding now. From the Washington Post:
President Trump said he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone for more than an hour Friday about topics including special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation but that he did not confront Putin about Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that the two leaders devoted only a brief part of their conversation to what Trump characterized as a finding of “no collusion” between his campaign and Russia.
“I sort of smiled when he said something to the effect that it started off as a mountain and ended up as a mouse,” Trump said. Pressed by a reporter on whether he had confronted Putin on Russian interference in the election, Trump said: “We didn’t discuss that.”
What. The. Ever. Loving…??
All "checking in with the home office" japery aside, the President* of the United States was on the line with the Russian president whose people ratfcked the 2016 presidential election and already may have started ratfcking the next one, and neither of those events even came up? This is like JFK's getting on the teletype with Khrushchev in October of 1962 and discussing the weather in Havana.
Former CIA operative Robert Baer, on the implications of this president’s treachery:
[I]t is an open invitation for the Russians to meddle in 2020,” he said. “The fact that he didn’t bring it up, the fact that he didn’t warn Putin. This was the most damaging act of political sabotage which frankly has ever happened to this country and to talk about it as if it’s still a hoax and frame it as no collusion is completely ignoring what the Russians did.”
“If I were Vladimir Putin, and intended to disrupt the politics of this country, I would meddle in 2020 and he probably will.”
I don’t want to ever hear the words “patriotism” or “honor” come out of any Republican’s mouth for the remainder of my time on this earth.