By Dick Miller
WE.CONNECT.DOTS: President-elect Donald Trump doesn’t get sworn in until January 20, but he already commands an important aspect of foreign affairs.
Like improved relations, maybe even détente, with Russia.
Questions of Trump’s business ties (and those of his associates) with Russia dogged the GOP nominee as much as his misogyny during the campaign. Both had very little impact on his vote total.
Unhappiness with the economy was overriding.
The Russians are blamed for computer hacking of the Democrat National Committee (DNC) and Hillary Clinton’s inner circle. At least that seems to be the consensus of everyone but the Trump organization, per last week’s revelations. Further, the conclusion was hacking targeted against Democrats was intended to help Republicans win elections.
The hackers gave copies of the emails to WikiLeaks who made them public.
A lazy mainstream media released stories about intimate details contained in the emails. Editors and reporters spent scant time learning who hacked and/or why. Gossip sells more papers.
Emails revealed the DNC helped Hillary rig the primary elections and defeat Bernie Sanders. That caused Debbie Wasserman Schultz to lose her job as party chair.
The release of voluminous notes penned by Hillary campaign committee chair, John Podesta, presented his candidate with even more character flaws. This may have been a factor in her close defeat.
Trump’s response to the allegations of Russian involvement in his election:
He reminded that “weapons of mass destruction” was a false charge by the same government intelligence community. This hacking could have been done by “a guy in his house in New Jersey,” joked the President-elect.
There is a back story.
Russians (and the United States!) have been known to dabble in elections past in other countries. Of course, when Russians interfered they hoped to undermine democracies. We only interfered to help the good guys.
Our relations with Vladimir Putin appeared to be improving until the Russians started making life difficult in the Ukraine. Until recently (Trump) this was the slant of the Republican Party. GOP national convention delegates watered down a platform plank in support of Ukraine as a sop to Trump.
Alternatively, when discussion centered around some Democrats being too hawkish, that was Hillary and President Obama agreeing with the Republicans on Russia-Ukraine to reach for more conservative support.
For months Obama debated how to respond to the alleged Russian intrusions. He and his staff did not want to be accused of helping Clinton’s campaign. That concern obviously ranked higher than stopping or publicizing the hacking.
Obama shared this view with Mitchell McConnell, GOP Senate majority leader, and perhaps the most avowed opponent of this president for the entire eight years. Apparently, anyone with a title in Washington, D.C. was informed in late August or early September that a solid majority of National Security Council members believed Russia was responsible for the hacking.
Just not you and I.
McConnell’s stance (and some other Republicans, including Trump) was clear. They viewed any public release of this conclusion as an act of partisan politics, reported the Washington Post.
National Security Council members were also not unanimous that voters should learn of their findings.
FBI director James B. Comey is a member of the National Security Council. Apparently, he believed it was okay to alert voters he was investigating Clinton emails. When it came to Russian interference in our elections to the benefit of Republicans, Comey thought voters should not be in the loop.
Bottom Line: There is one complication. At least three powerful Republican senators think the hacking needs a thorough examination.
John McCain (R-Ariz.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Lindsey Graham (R-Sou.Car.) put the good of the country ahead of partisan politics.
Trump will begin ruling not only at odds with the CIA, but likely these three senators.
Comey, a lifelong active Republican until registering as an Independent this year, was appointed by Obama to the FBI post in 2013 for a ten-year term. Comey’s conduct may have been a major reason Obama’s legacy will be undone early in the next Presidential term.
Obama has ordered a complete report of the hacking of the Democrat political processes by January 20, the day he leaves office. Obama cannot expect Trump will do follow up? What Obama will do with it in his final day in power is anyone’s guess.
Make no mistake about it. Trump belongs in the Oval Office. He was more on target with what motivated voters. Everyone knew his baggage. His campaign was more effective than Clinton’s.
Democrat leadership needs to stop pretending they can be conservative like Republicans. Clinton paid the price for minority voters concluding her party put white workers first and and that whites thought they were ignored for the sake of minorities.
You cannot fool all the people all the time. Democrat leadership needs to stop trying.
Twenty million people have insurance now that didn’t have it before. That is a success. There are many aspects of Obamacare that Drumpf wants to keep. All evidence points to the Iran deal being successful. You want to blame racism on Obama? Ha! The Republicans stopped his infrastructure proposals. You blame him? He pulled us out of the biggest depression since the great depression. No one was starving in the streets like they were in the thirties. He saved the auto industry! Job creation has been unprecedented. Unemployment is 4.9. When he took office we were losing jobs a million a month! Republicans cut funding for veterans three times while Obama was in office. Day one McConnell stated he didn’t want Obama to succeed. How is he supposed to with constant resistance from the Republicans? It’s amazing that he’s had as much success as he did.