In a discussion about Donald Trump’s omission of any mention of his relationship with Russia during his address to Congress last night, host Jon Scott played “devil’s advocate” by suggesting that Americans care more about potholes than whether or not our president may be a traitor.
Scott’s guest was Foreign Policy Initiative fellow James Kirchick. He called it “a little surprising” that Trump said nothing about Russia, “especially considering all the unanswered questions.” Kirchick continued:
KIRCHICK: There’s these ongoing investigations we have in Congress, there’s the former national security advisor, Mike Flynn, who had to resign over the content of some phone calls that were made between him and the Russian ambassador that we still don’t really know much about. And I think that there’s a lot of people, not just Democrats and people who oppose President Trump, by the way, but also Republicans. I mean Senators McCain and Graham who are very concerned about the Russian interference in our election. So I think it would have been a good idea had President Trump at least talked about this, said something to maybe put the issue to rest.
Scott replied by suggesting Trump’s relationship with Russia is no big deal.
SCOTT: Not to disagree with you but to play devil’s advocate, I mean, the speech did go an hour. He mentioned things like potholes in American roads and you could argue that that is of more concern to the guy who’s out trying to put bread on the family table.
Kirchick was not buying it.
KIRCHICK: It may be but again, there’s these lingering questions around it. People are still talking about it and there’s an ongoing investigations [sic] in Congress. And I think there’s this sort of cloud hanging over Donald Trump and there are a lot of people who might want to support him and who might be inclined to agree with him on some issues and be sympathetic but there’s this feeling that you know what? There’s just something we don’t get about Donald Trump and Russia. There’s just something missing here. There’s a missing piece. Why does he always go out of his way to defend Vladimir Putin? There’s just something strange about it. And I really wish that he had mentioned it at some point and let’s hope he’ll say something about it in the future.
In fact, Americans do care about Trump’s ties to Russia. Furthermore, there could be very serious ramifications for Trump. John Dean, former counsel to Richard Nixon, explained recently:
DEAN: Russia kind of breaks down into three categories. There’s the pre-election activity: Did the Trump campaign have contact with Russians and somehow know that they were hacking into the DNC, trying to hurt Hillary and help Trump? That’s the first question.
Then there’s the period between the election and the inauguration, when Flynn was having contact with the ambassador. Did the president, and how many—who else on his staff was involved in those efforts to try to possibly undercut the Obama administration?
And, of course, the third big area that they’re investigating is: What is the truth or falsity of the dossier that appeared from the MI6 former employee, a fellow by the name of Steele, who reported what he was finding from some of his contacts in Russia as to whether or not Russia had compromised Donald Trump?
Those are sort of the big three areas they’re looking at in the Russian investigation. And any one of those could cause Mr. Trump a serious problem.
The fact that Trump didn’t address any of these issues only makes the situation look more suspicious. Except to Fox News, of course.
Watch Fox’s latest attempt to cover Trump’s Russia ties in the thinnest, most Trump-friendly way below, from the March 1, 2017 Happening Now.
The Yaklaa raid was an absolute blunder. I an an ex-Army infantry soldier (infantry by choice, not assignment), and have around 7 years of college credits.
Trump is another Putin. P.O.S.
I did public FM news across the way from Michael Kirk when he was still at KUID-TV.
How about that tragic raid in Yemen? No sign as yet that the GOP will support an independent investigation of that. I have absolutely no doubt but that they to a wo/man would be bawling for one. Wouldn’t surprise me one bit were someone to claim that one dead man is not worthy of note.
I dare, double dare you to say that, Natalie.
And 8 separate investigations of BENGHAZI!!!!!!!! were just fine. But look into tRump? Hell no.
Hey Natalie (stupid troll name, by the way —), when will you admit you helped put a Russian sympathizer in the White House? When we all start calling each other ‘comrade’?