Posted: 02/15/2022 12:11:23 Modified: 02/15/2022 12:09:30 At the time of the 2016 elections, disturbing news attended t...
Posted: 02/15/2022 12:11:23
Modified: 02/15/2022 12:09:30
At the time of the 2016 elections, disturbing news attended the event: it was rumored that the Russians had hacked the electoral bases of several states. Nobody knew if it was just a rumor, or if it really happened, but I guess it did, because outgoing President Barack Obama warned the Russians and their President Vladimir Putin to “don’t do this again.”
The hack was widely reported, but in each of the reports about it, this caveat was added: “The election results were in no way affected by these Russian activities.” This may have had a calming effect on some who feared that our election was indeed tampered with.
There was a wave of public doubt about what had happened. But, after a meeting, behind closed doors, and without any presidential aide taking notes, President Donald Trump explained to America that Mr Putin had “forcefully” denied any Russian involvement. Putin’s response was acceptable to Mr. Trump, but it was in direct opposition to multiple findings from several US intelligence agencies.
What Trump calls a witch hunt has yet to specifically implicate our former president, but it has attracted most of his closest aides. Perhaps this is really a witch hunt, because she has already captured many flying monkeys that surround the ex-president. They have lied to grand juries, FBI investigations and special prosecutors, and now face heavy prison sentences. They lie every time the words “Russia” and “Trump Presidential Campaign” are mentioned in the same sentence.
Cut to two years later. Instead of insisting that the 2016 election results were unaffected by Russian interference, most media outlets have now changed course and started to describe the different scenarios of how the collusion may have happened after all, and may indeed have enabled Trump’s victory. The Muller inquiry, while discussing whether a sitting president can be indicted, had a lot to say about Trump’s involvement, but that was deliberately and significantly watered down by the botched scrutiny of the case. investigation by former Attorney General William Barr.
The objective of this short summary of events is, finally, this: if the 2016 election was fraudulent, does that mean that there should be a recall, a new election? (This time without Trump, who would be incarcerated). And are his lackluster picks for Supreme Court justices also overruled?
Unless the rampant cowardice extends to the Republican minority in the Senate, there is no reason for these senators to stay on the sinking ship that is now the hallmark of the Trump administration. This is the most upsetting facet of this whole sordid affair. Trying to make it look like the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is “no big deal,” when in fact it is the worst treasonous attack on the country since the Civil War. There is more than enough evidence that Trump instigated this insurrection, and the body of evidence is growing every day.
Apparently, these MPs would rather keep their seats in a Senate presiding over a country that is no longer a democracy, than face the accusation that some members of their party actually attempted a coup, which would have brought an inglorious end to the United States’ “noble experiment.”
Rowland Scherman lives in Amherst.
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