Truth doesn't matter to those who benefit monetarily from its obfuscation.
Translation: In war, history is written by the victors. The 'coup', is riding in the facts, and how to hide them.
10
The press, however battered and enervated by Trump's vitriol, needs to take a breath and think carefully about their headlines or they will repeat the mistakes they made during the summer of 2016 when, in order to appear fair and balanced, whenever they reported Trump's near-daily transgression(s) they wrote over and over and over about Hillary's emails even on days where there was no real new news about them, and the only new information was a different GOP operative howling about them. It was a kind of unintentional gaslighting. If so many NYT headlines are about HRC's emails they must be really bad!
There have been so many stories lately about "The Death or Truth" or "Truth Doesn't Matter" or "Post-Truth Political Discourse" etc. People are just starting to accept this as "the way it is now." NO NO NO NO NO!
Flip it around! "The Fight for Truth" or "House Democrats Push to Refute Lies in Nunes Report"or "Mueller Investigation Collecting Sorting Facts and Fiction." This Op-Ed headline cannot stand. It is actually NOT TRUE. Truth is what matters most in the Russia Probe.
33
Just turn on Mark Levin(choose your conservative)and you'll hear shouting from him about how the whole affair is a Democrat plot to impeach the president... bla bla bla.
Michelle, Putin confessing Trump and family all conspired together to elect The Donah would be seen as HRC, the CIA/FBI/State colluding to throw out the dully elected president. There is no political will from Republicans in the search for truth. And if by a miracle they find it, truth, they'll shove it into the nearest closet.
6
And Trump is clamoring for us to host the 2026 World Cup and wants help from our friends abroad? Are they any left? Well, they might support us since, even if he were to be re-elected in 2020, he would be gone by 2026---unless he can persuade Congress to amend the Constitution and make him President-for-Life, an inspiration from the Chinese. But his BFF Putin's not fairing so well with his censorship push. Tsk, tsk.
5
Just heard Rod Rosenstein tell an audience he has no worries about the Rule of Law holding up in this country. But he also suggested that precedent suggests that a sitting president cannot be indicted, which sounds more like the Law of Rule.
9
Yes,
A new wave of Fascism from a team of pretty mean and egotistical politicians. The Russians are just smiling at how they are playing us.
17
And of course this is the real problem, not the Trump. It's his supporters both in terms of his voters and the Republican Party who are irrational delusional and without a shred of moral turpitude. Perhaps we'll survive Trump. Honestly, don't know if the country can survive having a large portion of the population the moral equivalent of the Nazi SA.
15
Believe me, if the shoe were on the other foot and Hillary was caught up in one thousandth of this muck, the Republican "trust" in our law enforcement institutions across the board would remain unquestioned. Trump set the pattern himself, lauding Comey when he publicly castigated Hillary for her careless email server use, then ridiculing Comey when the question turned to his own credibility.
18
Somehow this article reminds me of the children's parable about the "The Emperor has no clothes!": An innocent clear-eyed CHILD simply & reflexively reports the obvious truth. And of course the :"moral" is how Adults, with their own agendas, fears, self-interest will deceive themselves--only seeing what the want to see, or need to see, or not seeing what they should see.
That seems to be the NAKED TRUTH about the Democratic Party Pols & the MSM and their hysterical disdain and venomous contempt for Donald "Duck" Trump.
Of course the Republican Party Pols pulled the same stuff
with Obama & Clinton-----but as Hillary nailed them, the
RIGHT WING CONSPIRACY didn't have 90% of the MSM
to pile on. As unsophisticated the average voter may seem to the Wise & Powerful, they are instinctively outraged by dirty pool by desperate Pols. This unprecedented Collusion between the Political Class & the Media is so Corrosive-- definitely making America
Worse Again. Please stop: it's time to MOVE ON.
fair.
3
Maybe the Russians have copies of Hillary's deleted and destroyed e-mails where she might have been promising US federal government no-bid contracts and other actions to benefit MIC contractors, campaign contributors, Russians, Communist Chinese, and other people in return for cash contributions to her various Clinton Foundations and were offering sell copies to the Trump campaign!
Would that have been against the law for the Trump Campaign to buy them and then exposed Hillary's PAY TO PLAY transactions?
That might be why Hillary ordered the busting up of her and her staff’s cell phones with hammers before they could be produced as additional evidence when they were subpoenaed?
Some of our US military servicemen and servicewomen in combat, US foreign service diplomats, foreign citizen spies for the US, drug informers secretly working for the USA, and/or US government diplomatic employees might have DIED HORRIBLE DEATHS because of Hillary’s slack security protocol with her personal computer that she installed and misused for her own personal convenience at her unsecure residence.
5
For the life of me I can't understand why Republicans are rallying around this loathsome dumpster fire of a human being. If they agreed to get rid of Trump they'd still have Pence who would enact their agenda even better than the incompetent Trump. I just can't figure it out.
11
This opinion piece might have better been entitled "Pimping for Putin." It is not surprising at all that republicans would sweep under the rug anything that impugns President Tweetstorm. What is most exasperating is the relative silence of democrats. They should be railing against the outrages from every corner of the capital. What are they waiting for? Godot? Sisyphos? The Seventh Cavalry? The Wizard of Oz? The presidency has been stolen by a conspiracy of lies, deceit, corruption, intrigues and treason that would have the founding fathers rolling over in their graves. While democrats bide their time waiting for Meuller’s report to conclude they risk having it arrive with an anticlimactic thud. We need more incendiary assaults like Michelle Wolf’s routine this past Saturday to wake people from the catatonia into which republican and Faux News hucksters have successfully placed most of the public. Where’s is the moral outrage? Over some raunchy and well-targeted jokes by a stand-up comedian? Or real damage being done to the rule of law?
1
Why would you expect politicians to act differently. The Republicans are fighting for their survival. When survival is at stake truth becomes secondary. The republicans need Trump voters. Its a bit naive to expect the truth from politician either the Republicans or the Democrats. Politics is about the power to govern. Truth is had through evidence. And no matter how many deceptive tricks the Republicans try, the truth in the form of evidence via the Mueller investigation will eventually come. I know everyone is tired of hearing all the lies and deceptions, but a little patience is required here.
2
This article is a bit disappointing, and not up to Ms Goldberg's usually high standards. The title is a bit disingenuous, as the only investigation in which the truth no longer has any role is the House Intelligence Committee's investigation; there remain other, on-going investigations, in the Senate and of course Mueller's. By all accounts the Senate investigation is much better organised and run than that in the House, and Mueller's is the epitome of fact-based investigating.
Though I didn't watch the WHCA event, from what I've read, it seemed to be more of the same. Washington is the centre of the "politics of personal destruction" world, and Ms Wolff just continued that, so where was the comedy? Sanders and Conway deserve all the opprobrium they've received, but they get that every day from the real media (which specifically excludes the supine lapdogs at Fox). Also, aren't we frequently lectured, by women, that we shouldn't place so much emphasis on a woman's looks? Is it now okay to do that in the name of comedy? I'm just trying to get my bearings on this issue. :-)
1
The collaboration of Mika Brzezinski and Andrea Mitchell (who I otherwise admire) in the witch hunting of Michelle Wolf was particularly galling.
We live in a pre-Fascist America now. It is not our right, but our DUTY, as the last poets had it (about Nixon), "to abolish that government."
5
When Mueller moves on Trump, there are a flock of GOP Congress members who need to be held for obstruction of justice and colluding with the enemy with their lying "reports" defending Trump and demeaning the intelligence agencies. The members of Congress who have done this are traitors -- plain and simple.
9
It all boils down the lucrative business of governance. Why wouldn't the Republicans do anything and everything including being un-American to protect Trump. This is almost like the country of my birth I left 42 years ago where the corruption is a rule than an exception. As regards to Trump, he doesn't even know the spelling of Truth.
9
I hope Maggie Haberman reads this. I was shocked by her tweet expressing sympathy for Sarah Sanders. Boo-hoo. Although she's paid by the public, the press secretary lies to America about our government daily--with no sign of scruples anywhere. Like it was her job. But since she's sitting on the dais, she deserves a 'get out of jeer free'? No. She and every liar in government deserved the burns they got.
47
The author would be credible if she would at the very least recognize the Republican stated issues with DOJ and FBI which showed a bias against trump and a possible conspiracy to delegitimize him. She does have to agree to that point of view, but for the sake of fairness and objectivity state what the counter position iis. This lack of objectivity makes this a biased opinion.
9
Objectivity requires adherence to facts. Republican statements are statements ... that does not make them facts.
2
The DOJ and the FBI have a bias against Trump same way they have a bias against other criminals - and Trump is a criminal, given his fraud with the Trump University. Of course, criminals complain the cops are biased against them and treat them unfairly. Greenberg’s opinion is not a biased opinion, but a fact based opinion. The counter position against the truth is lies and the counter position against facts is fantasy. Thanks, but no thanks! And we still need to see Trump’s tax returns.
10
We should expect our federal agencies to defend us against our adversaries, in this case Russia. If trump and his minions are setting up back channels to Russia, we should expect DOJ and the FBI to do exactly what they are doing "...defend our country against all enemies, foreign and domestic." Look it up, it's part of the pledge all USG personnel take...including the electoral college president and those who work in our White House.
3
In a healthy mind, facts yield knowledge. In a healthy society, knowledge prompts action. The GOP in Congress are revealing to us that a) they possess deeply unhealthy minds or (b) they want us to live in unhealthy society. Or both. They WANT there to be no knowledge and no action; they are pursuing other goals.
19
It is not hyperbole to indicate we, regardless of nationality or party affiliation, are all in mortal danger with this slippery loose cannon making critical decisions in the White House. Even the "Know Nothings" actually had some knowledge of how the government worked and an underlying desire to preserve it. Trump is an emotional and intellectual child, guided by a life of selfish privilege and a world view that ends at the tip of his nose. The majority of the Republican Party has obviously caught Trump's Disease. Retaining power and the eventual donor rewards waiting for them after retirement are all that truly matter to them.
26
He is saving the World if you would just stop the HATE machine and pay attention.
2
"We’ve been bludgeoned, through a combination of Republican bullying and stultifying conventional wisdom, into treating Trump’s legitimacy as self-evident."
What Trumps supporters have been led to is collective treason. The Trump movement is a rejection of everything it means to be American. It rejects rule of law, fact based decision making, in fact it rejects facts altogether. At this point in time, with all the facts that we know, the people who still support Trump are unreachable. They are part of a cult, where they have given up their reason and whatever intellect they may have had to their buffoonish cult leader. Its time to stop over analyzing. In a previous article, Ms. Goldberg called these people what they are - traitors.
33
When it was convenient to be a pacifist, when cowardly democrats and leftists needed an excuse to not sacrifice along with us working and middle class "dispicables" fighting in the Cold War, they said that it did not matter that Russia and China financed and advised the anti war movement in the US. Then the media and left wing academia said, maybe their systems were as good as ours, and that their 'interference' here did not matter because a free press could always get out the whole truth and our educated American public would make the right decisions based on getting ALL the information. That it was much more important to allow free speech and expression of all views and information by everyone to include communist agents in our society than it was to risk setting up a culture and mechanisms of censorship in our society. You know it was declared to be great to commit treason and publish the Pentagon Papers, highly classified files from WikiLeaks all in the name of the people have a right to know. But when Hillary got outed by WikiLeaks and Trump won, our Left all of a sudden developed a completely hypocritical hatred for Russia. If Hillary were president and expressing a desire to make peace with Russia (like we've done with China) she would be given a Nobel Peace Prize. But because Trump won all of sudden the democrats the Left have abandoned their decades of willingness to "forget" the Second Holocaust and the many other 10's of millions killed by the Stalinist Soviets.
8
First. I was part of the anti-war movement and the vast majority of us were not FOR Russia or China or Vietnam - We were patriotic Americans AGAINST an unjust war.
And despite the fact that your ilk is obsessed with impeaching Hillary we are not FOR Hillary we are AGAINST this awful, anti-American con man who seems to have found his minions amongst the easily fooled.
19
The constant lies and denials from the Trump White House are both numbing and damning. No one needs to lie when he is innocent. As Trump lies casually and almost constantly, I must conclude he is not innocent. It really is that simple.
19
For those of us who lived through the Watergate mess, this is a travesty of democracy. I recall being riveted to the televised hearings as John Dean testified to a bi-partisan group of senators led by Sam Ervin and Howard Baker. They probed for the truth, politics be damned, because they understand the danger that a rogue president posed to the nation. The Republicans in Congress would do well to remember that A) They serve the citizens, not the president; and B) Their oath is to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, not Trump.
28
Nixon was a great man who still claimed his place in Global History even though he resigned.
You are always brilliant and to the point. And this administration stinks, but, yes, it's power, naked power, but it keeps continuously destroying everything in all the spheres of our activities from education to the naming of a new Supreme to the Supreme Court. Democracy: Remembrance of Things Past.
16
I have lost faith in our government. Fortunately the Congress and the President will disappear into the dustbin of history. If on the other hand we are to believe the Republicans who are actual in power right now, the FBI, the CIA and the Justice department should be disbanded immediately.
If you're going to contend that our law enforcement and Justice department is corrupt suspend their operations and at the very least get rid of the Patriot Act. Why should American citizens be at the mercy of our corrupt FBI, CIA and Justice department. We can't pardon our friends.
2
The headline is wrongheaded.
In this affair, the truth is all that matters, which is why the Republican underweight committee's report -- a Watergate sized cover-up -- has the smell of Roman Senate cowardice about it.
The Republic hangs by a couple of threads, the honesty of Robert Muller, the guts of small number of Republican Senators who recognize the President is not above the law and the untested hope that when push comes to shove, that a Supreme Court majority won't become accessories to the establishment of a Presidential dictatorship.
20
Meanwhile, over on the Foxlandia website, guess who's trending #1 right now for their news story? You guessed it, the Clinton Foundation and "questions of their ethics."
14
Michelle's best work to date
4
On 14 June 2016, WAPO and the NYT came out with details of the hacking of the DNC, naming the FSB and GRU as responsible. The news was out there, at least for thinking people.
Mueller hasn’t moved because he doesn’t want to, yet.
But the solution is up to each one of us: we have to vote the gang out of office. That, not impeachment, is the only solution that will cow Trump’s base and produce lasting effects.
27
Michelle writes, "Try to remember, if you can, how astonishing it was on Jan. 6, 2017, when America’s intelligence community made public its finding that Russia had intervened in our election to help Trump." I remember it very well. I read the entire report, including its various appendices, many times, both then and later. What "astonished" me is that the heads of the various intelligence agencies would put their signatures to such a shallow, non-persuasive, poorly or non-sourced, and weakly argued document. How many times in this document did they cite RT as a source of disinformation and anti-Hillary propaganda? RT is a news service with 1/100th the viewership of Fox News, and approximately the same percentage of anti-Hillary virulence, compared to Fox News. if it had a bias at all, it was in favor of Sanders and Stein. One example of RT's de-stabilization efforts cited in the report- I'm not making this up- is that RT provided a forum for third party candidates. The nerve! And let's not even get started on the report's conclusion that the hack of the DNC emails was done by Russian state actors. The intelligence services made this highly provocative, not to say dangerous, accusation without producing a shred of evidence, either then or since. Their attitude is simply "Trust us." This from the people who gave us Iraq's WMD and the warrantless surveillance of all Americans' electronic communications. This report convinced only people who wanted to be convinced.
8
Gee wiz! I guess I agree there Paul. I’m just a little confused about the President of the United States inviting Russian spies Kislyak, Lavrov, a Russian photographer and members of the Russian media into the Oval Office (no Americans allowed?) to brag about having just fired the American FBI Director which relieves great pressure? Please comfort me further.
10
Media like Goldberg might harken back to GW Bush making fun of looking for WMD in the Oval Office "Nope not there!" where the room full of journalists guffawed up there pate'. But she can't because there's been not a word about that phony run to war out of major media, now that Bush is gone all the way to Texas, which is practically in Bolivia you know.
Media like Goldberg and Maddow have zero credibility. Yes the GOP are playing politics with various "intelligence reports" but that's because the precision of those reports is so low they are useful for either side of the arguments.
The media makes tons of $$$ off Trump every day. They put him in office. To point a finger at the GOP for doing what politics does ordinarily is weak tea.
6
Rachel Maddow is one of the MOST creditable TV journalists out there! She backs up her commentary with facts and sources, chapter and verse; and she often brings on as guests the authors of the reports she quotes. And she brings on creditable witnesses like former prosecutors and experts to explain the import of the facts she quotes.
So take that back!
29
All of have is Fox & Friends who even after to make excuses for getting off the phone with chatty Trump before he gives away all of his secrets.
3
The cult of the GOP will never admit that Trump is in the pocket of Putin or Russian oligarchs who Trump owes his millions of ill gotten money to continue his lavish life style that much is clear to anyone who has paid any attention to the facts.
The American media is a Joke ! cable news shows are nothing more than talking heads more interested in self promotion and resume polishing.. Is it any wonder that most Americans have given up on government as the news we get is bias towards what ever camp your in with little factual information presented but lot of opinions...
Americans are hungry for the truth presented without bias and until we demand it we will continue to live with paid off corrupt government and corp owned media spinning everything to fit their own goals and not those of the vast majority of Americans .
4
I agree with your first sentiment, but don’t condemn all media because without them digging in the trenches, we would not know what was going on with all the lies, subterfuge and Russian meddling.
9
Power is "winning" maybe until we get to the mid-term elections. Very hopefully, the Dems will turn the House. At that point, the Trump impeachment proceedings will begin, and the current GOP House members (virtually all of them of the tea party set or worse) will be remembered in American history for the venality and divisiveness of their actions in power.
18
For me what has been most devastating is the Republican reaction: "Finding out more doesn’t matter because most elected Republicans have developed a paranoid loathing for the law enforcement and intelligence agencies they once revered."
Most Republican politicians today have betrayed the values they once claimed to believe in. They care not for principle, only for principal.
16
TO: McConnell and Ryan and All GOP Members of Congress --
Imagine for a moment, just a single moment, that the person who benefited from all these circumstances was a democrat. Would you still be willing to turn a blind eye to it? Trey Gowdy's ridiculous investigation and re-investigation of Benghazi not withstanding, is there truly no appetite to Preserve, Protect and Defend the Constitution of the United State?
25
Obviously the answer to your rhetorical question is NO - there is not. Otherwise, Articles of Impeachment would have been presented by now.
3
Democrats hate the Constitution - HRC herself vowed to make changes to the First Amendment because apparently it grants a little too much evil freedom. Obama ignored the fact that the Constitution does not give him the power to rewrite Acts of Congress like PPACA whenever he felt like it. So there is no appetite to Preserve, Protect, or Defend the Constitution on the Donkey side of the aisle.
5
It can't be mentioned too often the very substantial support that Trump's finds among evangelical Christians. These true believers have long since sworn off looking at evidence in calculating what to believe. (Climate change denial, young earth creationism, apocalyptic vision of Jews returning to Jerusalem, check check check). When I see the pictures of Trump surrounded by evangelical preachers laying on of hands, I cringe. Trump's entire life has been a rejection of anything even close to "Christian values" and yet he will give these wealthy preachers whatever they want in exchange for their delivering the votes of their obedient flocks.
18
The Evangelicals are Trump's battering ram. Like Trump they demand the right to "alternative facts", meaning just that if they believe something sincerely, it's equal to empirical proof. Trump's career is built on that. His businesses work by it. He made the mistake of a lifetime taking an oath to uphold actual empirical reality and making himself accountable to it.
2
The House Republicans' failure to act as a co-equal branch of government and instead appear to be utterly co-opted by the White House is very sobering. It's a serious fissure in the foundation of our democracy.
20
Trump must change his strategy, but the fight he must wage is not a constitutional one. The war is about saving the constitutional republic, but Trump must wage it on a different battlefield.
To fight the constitutional battle is to assume as true a false premise—that Mueller & his probe are legitimate.
The Mueller operation's perverse architectonics—a special prosecutor in search of a crime, which has it exactly backwards—proves venal purpose: A conspiracy of Obama-Clinton Ds & never-Trump Rs to weaponize the FBI/DOJ to fix an election & take down a president.
What Trump must do is to ignore the obstruction threat—an unconstitutional red herring—& start prosecuting all co-conspirators, including Mueller.
Time is of the essence. The Ds & deep state are dismantling the republic before our eyes, they are endangering national security for political advantage & they are running out the clock. That Trump's removal by impeachment is a long shot should give him no solace. The Ds don't need a landslide or even a modest win because Trump has already been rendered powerless by the coup, w/ the saboteurs perfectly positioned to seize all power.
An R landslide, OTOH, would rescue the presidency. Trump prosecutions would create the landslide.
Trump fires Rosenstein. Sessions quits.
Trump replaces Sessions w/ DiGenova in a recess appointment.
DiGenova starts prosecutions under RICO.
Trump reclaims his presidency, equal justice before the law is restored & the republic is saved.
5
If Trump first stopped lying, it would help everyone, not just the ignorant who follow him.
6
Tick tock, Marian. Time to face the inconvenient facts. Your "president" is dirty and you know it, otherwise why would he have to lie so much, why wouldn't he just cooperate and get the investigation over? News flash: Rosenstein, Comey, McCabe, Mueller are Republicans who put the law and facts ahead of party politics. Nunes, Gowdy, McConnell, et al? Aiding and abetting crime. What about you?
13
There is so much to untangle in your sycophantic screed, Marian, but suffice it to say that you have it exactly backwards. If the republic is saved it will be with no thanks to the groveling GOP and Trump supporters who look at mounting evidence that Russia interfered in the 2016 election as a matter of no importance, who look at evidence of obstruction by the President himself in the Lester Holt interview on national television as a ‘conspiracy’. So you must mean that somebody conspired to make the president reveal himself on national television. You don’t even believe the president himself when he admits to what he does, allowing him to blind you.
If anyone saves the republic, it will be the special counsel Robert Mueller. Your hyperventilating in support of your hero is a reactive red herring to the knowledge that Mueller and the law are steadily advancing on the White House.
8
After reading this, I would say it's every voter's patriotic duty to vote out Senate and House Republicans. We may not be able to remove Trump until 2020, but we can make major progress if we can stop the enabling of Trump.
31
Shame on the headline writer; this headline fails to identify **which** investigation it refers to -- the one being steered by Mueller or the charade led by Devin Nunes. It's also far too kind to the House Intelligence Committee.
A clearer and more accurate headline would read "Truth Has Never Mattered to the House Investigation of the Trump-Russia Connection."
11
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am hardly desensitized by the steady stream of treachery and deceit vomited forth by this presidency and Republican Congress. I am flabbergasted, astounded, dumbfounded, nauseated and dispirited by it, but I am hardly numb.
To vote Republican now is an act of profound ignorance or cynicism. We face a reckoning. Which side are you on?
32
People do get desensitized by the non-stop barrage of findings about corruption, Trump's tweets, his anti-democratic assault on the media (reporters should be jailed), on the judiciary, on an independent DOJ ("I am disappointed in *my* Justice Department, his contempt for truth, and on and on. It becomes part of the wallpaper and people stop getting outraged. That is a major threat to democracy.
5
DaWill - I can help you: Read some history of political events from Rome to Reagan. In that reading you will either find 1. that your outrage is petty and particular to your own agenda or, 2. You cannot read for content.
5
You have it backward. There is nothing new under the Sun in politics. When you are outraged you become a tool and you become blind. There is nothing to be said about Trump (an historically unimportant president) that was not said about dozens of other Presidents. It's a DNC ploy to create Trump the Evil Monster, following Mencken's warning that the goal of politics is to create bogeymen in the public eye then offer phony rescue. Clinton, Trump, either one is a hack with respect to progress.
1
Please, please, please, Mich. Please share the "already overwhelming evidence of the Trump campaign's collusion with Russia' with the rest of the world. Heck, if you don't want to go public with the goods that you clutch so close to your bosom, how about sharing it with The Editorial Board or some of the NEVER TRUMP tribe in the Op-Ed bullpen You know, Mich, The Ed Bor has admitted several times that even they can't dig up any collusion. Think about that - even The Editors can't twist the Truth crazily enough to make something out of nothing. And, your colleague, Ch. Blow - there is no greater Trump hater in the Milky Way - has resigned himself to the reality that collusion is a delusion. So, Please, Mich. The world is waiting. 'fess up.
8
The word is conspiracy, not collusion. And the verdict, guilty as charged.
6
The now purported collusion happened under the watchful eye of the Obama administration which surely would have been on the look out- -right? Why did they allow it to happen? Why didn't they intervene? Did they not care? Was it incompetence or over confidence that Hillary Clinton would easily win? Has Barack Obama given an excuse?
5
Truth may not matter much in the beltway, where talking points have the same power as facts; a world when truths spoken by a comedian offend 'journalists', but it certainly still matters in the real world of courts and the law. It's when those get degraded that we'll have to start to worry. As the bouffant Trumpeter says, we'll see.
5
Repeat after me, there is no collusion, the questions show no collusion, everyone agrees there is no collusion, therefore, we should stop stop investigating or looking at evidence of collusion. Better yet, blame HRC for any collusion. Or blame her for something.
And please stop paying attention to the man behind the curtain.
6
Just imagine what the Republicans would be saying and doing if it were a Democratic candidate that the intelligence community accused the Russians of interfering in the election to benefit. Just imagine it.
10
I'm imagining. They would have something real to investigate. I don't know if they have any experience in that.
2
What I find astounding is that going into the Republican convention, responsible party leadership had the attitude that nominating trump would be anathema to the party and they contemplated doing anything necessary to block him, yet now that he is president, they will do anything short of selling their first-born to protect him. Sometimes, it seems that even their first-born is not safe.
114
That's what happens after you lose all integrity.
16
That is the one political strategy that helps them win elections - they close ranks and double down on their guys, bar none. Sickening to behold our democracy being flushed down the toilet by these so-called "patriots."
17
Republicans made their peace with the fact that he is an empty suit due to his success in selling their agenda and willingness to promote whatever they put in front of him. Perhaps the ones who are resigning truly detest him, but are not willing to concede that their party which has been lying to their base for years - slandering the press, the Clintons, claiming they had a 'better' solution than the ACA, misleading Americans on where their tax dollars were going and on illegal immigration - is part of the problem. Republicans have been misinforming their voters for so long that when Trump came along and took everything they said at face value (e.g. the ACA is a 'disaster'), what could they do?
13
The only way that change can come is through the ballot box; and we have to want it. First the mid-terms to check further damage; than 2020 to revive again as a country.
In time the ballot box option will likely be taken away too.
10
Uh, no, the Russia investigation has stopped mattering.
5
Because the public has come to accept that the president is a traitorous usurper?
9
Or because the public is tired of a lack of evidence but keeps hearing twits twitter on about Mueller's investigation. Just like HRC was tired of hearing about her failure to keep Ambassador Stevens alive in Benghazi.
Michelle,
Terrific column as usual but need to inveigh against two of your points (1) your use of the "majority party" to describe Republicans - while technically true (for now), it is a misleading term for the reader. Why not use the words "Republican Party" so everyone knows immediately what you mean? Adam Schiff does this all the time and it drives me and everyone I know crazy - I think he is afraid to use the word "Republican Party" because he is afraid to fully acknowledge to himself what they are doing or not doing.
(2) your use of the "Washington Establishment" re the WHCA dinner - let's be real, it is the "Media Establishment" represented most prominently by your newspaper - NY Times, and, drumroll please...Maggie Haberman. Perhaps you obfuscate so you can get along better with Ms. Haberman but it does us dear readers a deep disservice. As Ms. Wolf pointed out, you, in the Media, and this is the 'you' writ large (thinking really of Mika/Joe/MSNBC except for Lawrence O'Donnell & NY Times & Washington Post and other large news organizations generally) helped create the Trump presidency and now you benefit from it financially. This is hardly limited to a putative Washington Establishment.
4
The house intelligence committee is chaired by Nunes, Trump's toady.
11
Since Ms. Goldberg has arrived it seems she has essentially written the same column every week - and still with no evidence. The NYT has the greatest collection of investigative journalists assembled in today's media. Time to put up or shut up about the Trump-Russia collusion.
4
Maybe, just maybe, try reading the column. It's ridiculous to claim that she presents no evidence. Maybe you just don't want to accept it. It's hard to come to grips with the fact that the president (and/or his campaign) colluded with a hostile foreign power, but all the evidence clearly shows it to be the case.
11
I don't think that Trump and his close advisors like Kushner and D Jr even thought about the criminality of taking info from the Russians. They have never served anyone's interests but their own.
It is hard to think about national pride and security when your main function as an adult has been moving scads of inherited wealth around the world to hide from banks and investors that you really are just pushing the same dollar around and around. They produce nothing of any value, learn no lessons and show no empathy.
9
All too common, this tactic. Investigations are concluded when they're conclusive. Your boredom isn't really material to this. Your demand that they stick in a chase scene and some music changes nothing.
How does this matter? Liberals still have Mueller, and he'll fix everything - At least that is what all of my Liberal friends keep telling me.
Oh, and the Blue Wave. That huge Blue Wave 7 months from now...
3
For me, the most damning nugget to be revealed by the release of the Republican report from the House Intelligence Committee is the fact that Donald Trump Jr. made a phone call to a blocked phone number just after he talked to his Russian co-conspirators about the Trump Tower meeting they were setting up. The Republicans on the committee refused to subpoena the phone company records to find out who that call was to. Clue: His father had a blocked phone number at that time. The only comforting thought is that Robert Mueller knows the answer, you can bet on it.
15
Michelle, you didn't mention that Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak attended the republican convention in July 2016 and met with Donald, Jr. at the least. But somehow the Republican Party platform was altered deleting a section critical of Russia with reference to Ukraine. Very curious. And Kislyak keeps popping up, a la Waldo, even in the Oval Office the day after Comey was fired. And according to the NYT, he was told by POTUS "I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job. I faced great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off." What a dope! Little did he know that the pressure was just beginning to build.
The truth still matters to me Michelle and millions of my fellow citizens. Time to clean house and take out the trash this November. Vote like the survival of our democracy depends on it!
15
Since party platforms are just about the most irrelevant inconsequential documents on the American political landscape, if Trump got Russia to swing the election in his favor in exchange for altering a few lines in the GOP's 2016 version, he just might be the deal maker extraordinaire he thinks he is.
1
I get Ms. Goldberg's headline, "Truth Has Stopped Mattering in the Russia Investigation." However, it would be better -- more accurate -- as "Truth Doesn't Matter to Congressional Republicans in the Russia Investigation." (In fact, truth at every level, and in every application, doesn't matter to Congressional Republicans.)
12
An excellent column! Well said : "Under Trump, the central battle in our culture is between truth and power. " Yes, exactly. And power seems to be winning. Never mind what actually happened. The victors get to write the history. The losers are forgotten. The truth is irrelevant. But is it? Not in the long run, because truth and fact are our primary survival mechanism. Ignore them at your own peril. Be mindful of how you treat other people in the world - you may need their help and forbearance sooner than you think.
9
TMI leads to "Who cares?" If the news media, led by the NYT and WaPo, had let the Mueller investigators do their job instead of scrambling for every "breaking news" and "Exclusive!" tidbit they could get from leaks and unnamed sources, maybe the public wouldn't be so emotionally and intellectually exhausted. When people are overwhelmed with information of any kind, they either stop listening or stop caring. By the time Mueller issues his report, it will be "So what?" The really important parts of his report that need congressional action to protect our democracy, from within and without, will be shrugged off. Maybe it's not too late for the media to correct course. See if you can go for a week, even two days, without publishing anything to do with the Russia investigation, including what Trump tweets about it. There's a lot of other important news out here you know.
2
"There's a lot of other important news out here you know." And the Times covers it. I recommend subscribing to the print edition, where it's easier to see and focus on the 95% of the paper that has nothing to do with Trump.
5
The American public, including Donald Trump's voters, already know that Trump's Campaign colluded with Russian Intelligence. Republicans and especially Trump voters do not care. Fox News and the Trump Conspiracy have created an alternate reality for Kochs, Mercers, et al., to bask in power and control as they become ever richer.
The battle for truth and justice is all but lost.
Now what?
8
Michelle Wolf's lewd display at the Saturday correspondents dinner accomplished one thing that was not intended. People are now supporting President Trump now more then ever. Funny isn 't it that it had a negative impact on her and not Mr. Trump.
3
It had a negative impact on those already disposed to side with Trump, and the opposite effect on those who already share her views that the Trump administration is the lowest of the low.
This confirmation bias was amplified by the fact that what you call "lewd" humor was coming from a woman, and many Trump sympathizers have deeply rooted feelings about what kind of language and behavior is appropriate from women.
In other words, no news here.
6
Yeah, how dare she cast aspersions on a man and his administration that have been nothing but paragons of propriety and virtue!
History will be on Michelle Wolf's side.
7
"I can’t help thinking that it would be harder to explain away the Trump campaign’s treachery if we’d been forced to reckon with it all at once."
That's because too many Americans expect complicated issues such as the Russia investigation to be explained and neatly resolved like an hour-long episode of Law & Order. The fact is, these things take time. Nixon's plumbers were arrested in June of 1972, yet Nixon did not actually resign until August 1974. And it certainly does not help that Republicans such as Devin Nunes gladly play the part of sleazy TV defense attorney in their attempt to salvage the Trump Presidency and hold on to power.
10
The people who elected Trump don't believe their choice was influenced by Russian propaganda, so they have no interest in the outcome of this investigation. Period.
What Democrats should be doing, and should have been doing from the start is focusing on Donald Trump's business ties and how he is still keeping them secret.
How on earth is it the case that so many people can believe the Clintons are corrupt for leveraging influence and raising money for a foundation to help poor people around the world, when Trump leverages his position to benefit his own bottom line? Donald Trump has bought the silence of countless people who have worked for him, and who he has wronged. The porn star is the least of it.
We should be DEMANDING that Trump release his tax returns to show the American people that he has not monetized the Presidency. What is he hiding?
15
@ DebbieR: "We should be DEMANDING that Trump release his tax returns to show the American people that he has not monetized the Presidency. "
By appointing Robert Mueller to investigate this entire racket, our government of-the-people-by-the-people-for-the-people is, howevere slowly and inefficiently, doing exactly that.
2
So I would sooner read articles about why Trump's public hasn't responded to what we do know about the way he's conducted his business, the way he misused his so called 'charitable' foundation to avoid paying taxes, the way he declared bankruptcy to avoid paying workers, the way he borrowed so much money he became too big to fail. Why aren't those things part of the daily conversation? Why aren't we forcing Trump to defend his past business practices? Why aren't we discussing the problem of entitled rich men thinking they can get away with breaking the law by paying off people? Not just porn starts. Trump has paid off lots of people. Why aren't we discussing the ethics of non-disclosure agreements that employers force on employees?
There is so much wrong with Trump, but the things HIS voters care about are his self proclaimed business acumen, and his supposed concern for the little guy. None of this has anything to do with collusion. That's a Washington obsession.
It also might be worth a mention that Trump publicly communicated with Putin in speeches and twitter. Trump encouraged Putin to hack Hillary's emails, saying they would be greatly rewarded for this act. And, Trump is constantly echoing Putin's lies about the election interference and disparaging his own intelligence agencies. When a conspiracy is operating in plain sight, why do we discount it?
16
One of the best articles I've read so far on the Trump-Russian scandal. Great work, Michelle
10
Trump and the Republicans in Congress assume all Americans are too dense see through the Trump lies and the Republican cover-up. Latest polls would show they are about 37% accurate in that assumption since that is the percentage of uncaring and/or ignorant voters that still support Trump.
Republicans dedicated a massive effort to the attempt to crucify Hillary for breaking an email server rule. Trump’s treasonous collusion with Russia helped him gain office. Manafort's and Flynn’s illegal dealings with the Russians, Sessions perjury about Russian contacts- these are just the tip of the iceberg. Carter Page, Roy Tillerson, Wilbur Ross, Felix Sater, Rick Gates...it is no coincidence that so many of Trump's chosen inner circle have such strong links to Russia. Russian investors, under Putin's orders, bailed Trump out when no other investors would touch him. Trump is owned and operated by Putin. Trump’s adamant refusal to release his tax returns is admitting that he is guilty of treason by collusion with foreign powers for political purposes.
Since the cowardly, self-serving Republican Congress will never touch Trump, we must depend on Mueller and investigative journalists to follow the money..it is what has always guided Trump's behavior. Of equal or greater importance: patriotic Americans must turn out at the polls to throw these GOP traitors out. Our national security is at stake.
13
"House Intelligence" Committee has become an oxymoron.
7
As long as the GOP is in the majority, yes, that's true.
4
Integrity and the truth must be a priority for our leadership moving forward. We need the press and our leadership with a spine to demand that the truth be the basis of governing and to call out every single lie on all sides and demand accountability.
Our Democracy will not survive without this. I am over the fact that the press and the leadership in this country fell down on the job and did not take the potential of this president seriously. It is now time to fix the damage that has been done as a result. No compromise. On all sides.
16
Didn't we all kind of know where this was going from the beginning and that eventually collusion will be proven, and the Republicans, will then say "so what", no harm - no foul Hillary was going to lose anyway".
Trump has already been pushing this since the election in a way. This is why he keeps pushing that Hillary needs to be investigated, the idea being that "hey, stuff happened on both sides, so its all good". Just like Civil Rights protestors and White Nationalists are both equally to blame, or how its okay that Russian intelligence assassinates police leaders, because or CIA has a past too.
Trump's (and the Republicans) final play will be that Trump cannot be held accountable for any of his multitude of crimes and misdemeanors, because the other side does it too. This is their final defense.
15
Goldberg really thinks she can get away with scamming us. Take a good look: It is Goldberg who has picked a fight with the truth. That is that, after approaching one-and-a-half years of turning every stone and looking under every bed (and in them too), there is still no smoking gun establishing collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Or, if there is, it is the only secret in Washington DC that hasn't ever leaked!
Just consider Goldberg's EXHIBIT A. She says that Kushner and Flynn tried to set up a back channel to the Kremlin through the Russian Embassy DURING THE TRANSITION. Yes, you read that right -- AFTER the election. (PS, I invite Goldberg to deny that previous administrations have set up back channels to the Kremlin).
The House majority makes a perfectly reasonable point that, if the Trump campaign already had a back channel to the Kremlin, there would be no need to reinvent it. Her feeble response is that "new developments would require new communications". Yes, new communications through the OLD communications channel.
But, to paraphrase her, making sense isn’t the point. The point of Goldberg's op-ed is is to obscure reality, not illuminate it.
6
You make Goldberg's point. There is a staggering amount of evidence out there, including detailed indictments and guilty pleas. Republicans just don't want to hear it.
5
The reason for establishing the back channel is that they found out they were being listened to, i.e. the Russian contacts they used were all being picked up on CIA eavesdropping. The purpose of a back channel, in this case, would be to talk freely about their conspiracy and its continuing ramifications without being caught again. They probably have established such a channel. For one thing Putin and Trump are using the same talking points. That is likely not a coincidence, and they have to keep such communication secret now, because they don't want to appear to be working together.
6
" DURING THE TRANSITION"
trump was not the president yet. You can't have 2 presidents at the same time.
The secret back channel was an effort to undermine Obama's presidency and to cut deals with Putin.
P.S. trump was a chronic money launderer, chiseler, con man and all around creep.
Please make an effort to learn real facts.
4
The central battle in our culture is not between truth and power.
The central battle of our culture is between the Constitutional rule of law and a devolution to the lawless tyranny of dictators, Donald Trump being the current iteration in the US. Truth is what is. The "post-truth world" delusion is a genuflection to a dictator, such that his/her declarations are recognized as truth, regardless of facts.
Why are we devolving? There was a period in our history when unrestrained free market capitalism seemed to "lift all boats", and Adam Smith's "invisible hand" replaced other mythical theologies as the American religion.
Now that the same capitalist system is destroying the planet,
recreating the feudalism of the middle ages, and destroying the lives of ordinary people, we have yet to figure out that free market capitalism is the "power", and we are afraid to face the truth that we must destroy it to survive. Truth may not matter in the Trump investigation. Facing the truth will determine whether this country survives.
13
We should just call this the Ostrich report. If they fail to subpoena witnesses, permit executive branch officials to assert non-existent privileges, allow their chairman to coordinate PR stunts with the White house, railroad conclusions without taking into account the opinions of the opposition party and generally interpret evidence selectively and with unapologetic political bias, they might as well have just stuck their heads in the sand, and written the report without bothering to hold hearings.
11
There are numerous adages on the power of lies to permeate the soul of humanity while truth meekly limps afterward. Obviously this reality, well known by our founders, supports a vigorous, independent, free press as a prerequisite for a democracy. Having said that, in this case, more is more, meaning the evidence does not pale but further indicts the traitors involved. It was treason to stand on a stage inviting further attacks on our democracy at a time when we were under an attack as an act of cyber war. That all the other evidence supports what we each witnessed does not minimize it in any way. The only thing being minimized are the remaining shreds of humanity by those committed to their death cult seeking the short term illusion of power for their chiefs and shamans.
Point 1: WH press corps needs to ANGRILY shout questions about lies and meetings whenever the "no collusion" lie is promulgated.
Point 2: Keep the pressure on by expounding on the truth, Michelle.
9
The GOP Base is being fed candy without warnings about how it can rot your teeth, make you obese, NOT give any nutritional value to your body and possibly cause cancer. And the audience clamors for more.
11
It's just dishonest to speak of "the Washington establishment" without getting more specific about your journalist colleagues at this newspaper. Maggie Haberman was at the forefront of the fainting fits over Michelle Wolf's roast with her defense of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who is at the forefront of supplying untruths for Ms. Haberman to normalize. The media is timid and toadying. Haberman has become a sort of gossip columnist looking for her next scoop. I sometimes read the news articles and think I'm watching Joan Rivers on Fashion Police. The Truth Still Matters, and that needs to be a headline on a news page. There needs to be some finger-pointing and name-calling over there, where the facts support a verdict of guilty, colluding, conspiring, acquiescing, ignoring and shirking. Connect some dots, already. Michelle Goldberg is right, but she stops short of laying blame where it belongs. Unchecked corruption will continue. Check it, please!
9
One reason the truth is losing is that the major media organizations like the NY Times care so little about truth compared to access and horse races. Even today, Maggie Habermann had the vapors over Wolfe's comedic criticism of the press and the lies of the administration, as always protecting her access to be able to write "Ivanka and Jared are moderating influences" and "Trump will pivot" and other stenography for the administration while ignoring the truth that the entire Trump administration is totally corrupt and lies about everything.
The NY Times itself still lies about its role in pushing thousands of weak and slanted Hillary email and Benghazi smoke and shadows stories while downplaying and burying the ever increasing flood of facts about Russian involvement and business and personal corruption by Trump going back decades. As always, "balance" at the NY Times is just an expression a the total capitulation of journalistic integrity due to its terror that it will be labeled "liberal." Thus deficits are aalways a horrible danger and the serious people know that the middle class and the poor must suffer to eliminate them while reasonable people can be nazi's or climate denialists or Republicans.
6
Republicans don't understand that the Kremlin and/or North Korea hackers will also turn against them.
They're taking advantage and getting whatever they can done now.
But what happens when the adversaries get the upper hand?
11
Something must change before there is no hope left for a decent democratically free USA. I have been sickened and appalled since this past presidential campaign began. The behavior of the republican party is anti American and treasonous. These hypocrites put their hand on a bible and lied to follow through on the oath they "took". Perhaps less coverage of the farcical lying T rallies, and daily press briefs. It is not news, rather indoctrination, as many listening apparently cannot distinguish fact from fiction. The press normalizes the lies by attending. Where is the courage from the press like during the Watergate years?
13
You mean the Washington Post?
They published the Ellsberg papers when the courts put an injunction on the NYTimes.
They followed the money and unveiled the Watergate conspiracy.
Many of the reporters at the NYTimes, WaPo, Politico, Bloomberg, NY Magazine, Pro Publica, Mother Jones, WNYC (NPR) and many other reporting institutions have been following the leads and unveiling the truth.
3
Its difficult to read this without holding the NYT to account. Numerous times you read articles that are not on the front page that come into direct conflict with what you see on the opinion pages.
It makes me wonder if the NY Times reads its own articles.
You stand on a soap box and pontificate, when if you read the paper front page to back page, you have read numerous articles that that contradict the opinion pieces.
Maybe these back pages should be eliminated and we have a renewed focus on the facts.
If you have an issue with Hannity, then you should have an issue with Maddow and O'Donnell.
There is more than enough blame to go around, but no one is interested in actually having an honest fact based conversation.
News agencies have been told they are a thing of the past for over a decade. They were quickly heading for extinction with the emergence of social media. Now people are getting a sense of how gullible people really are and social media is on the outs.
There is good and bad in both parties, no question.
The people in the middle, those are the ones that suffer and have to deal with the those who support either party blindly while shouting over each other.
I have no idea whether Mueller will charge President Trump. Neither does Michelle Goldberg.
So how can she speak in truths? Maybe listening to Michael Hayden's advice would help: gather information, analyze it, then decide on action.
Not rushing to judgement based on sentiment.
4
The Trump presidency has provided the world with a number of object lessons. 1.) the visceral divisions in the American polity 2) how a whitewashed crypt can hold a rotting corpse, 3) how an ignorant and shallow man lies, cheats, lies,threatens, lies,stiffs, lies, philanders, lies, and lies again to the most powerful job in the world. . .
10
Power is not inherent, it is given by others--and that is our #1 Problem in this cynical and very corrupt nation.
Most of all, it is the lies that are killing our country, literally and figuratively. We are drenched and drowning in lies--no collusion with the Russians by the Trump campaign; climate change is a hoax; trickle-down economics puts more money in the middle and working class people's pockets; banks, corporations, the fossil fuel industry do not need any regulation—"and so it goes," as Kurt Vonnegut would say.
By now, all the individual lies have snowballed into The Big Lie that has taken over and swamped so many Americans' intelligence, critical thinking, fairness, and even human decency--as happens when authoritarianism and fascism infect citizens' minds and spirit and doggedly trample all over democracy, justice, truth, and humanitarianism.
And it is largely coming from Big Wealth, Big Corporate, and the emboldened political right in the form of the GOP and Fox-extremist right-wing media's campaigns of disinformation, misinformation, and divide & conquer.
Long time coming: from Nixon's southern strategy, to Reagan's fairy tale economic and social ideology, to Bush-Chaney lying our way into their "preemptive" wars and near collapse of the Middle East, to our outrageous, incompetent, destructive, self-serving President Don the Con.
We are now at the crossroads in our history. What happens when truth no longer matters, and can we make it matter--again?
12
Michelle Wolfe and Donald are two peas in a pod. The two words, "truth" and "decency" used to form a single phrase. It used to be self evident that stooping to an enemies degraded tactics made us the same as that enemy. Contempt is the tool of those who haven't the wits to engage in reasoned, dignified debate. It always divides, always casts the other as unworthy of redemption. Good comedy pokes fun at human foibles. The worst comedy simply slashes the enemy in anger and contempt, hoping that "being over the top" will stir laughter both at the outrageousness of the comments and toward the enemy. Michelle and Donald are indistinguishable in their tone, tactics and contempt of the "other."
What is more disturbing is that the NYTimes editorial/opinion pages publish this content, when it is a crisis deserving of much bigger headlines. Why aren’t the newspapers screaming? Why aren’t the papers helping? You stand by while Trump and his lying thugs call you “fake news” and you let him get away with everything. Our country, decency, morality, intelligence are decimated more and more every day. The free press is supposed to nail people like Trump - expose them and call them out. You sit by while Trump bullies you - at those ridiculous rallies. I worry we will never be ok again. And for smug Maureen Dowd picking at the Clintons and Obamas, I hope she’s happy now. I don’t feel like I have anyone to count on anymore. Just a bunch of self-serving egoists.
9
Does it occur to anyone that Russia just hopped on the band wagon to steal an election? Their major objectives were achieved simply by Trump's election. There would be no better way to disrupt the West, to minimize American influence, and to weaken our economy than to elect Trump. I would like someone to describe the crime as theft by propaganda and show how we are directed by the process used by Cambridge Analytica. I would also like someone to start naming names of the 1600 plutocrats and associated businesses who have used this method for three decades to reorient this country to an alternate fate than democracy. Of course the next step is to create a method for private security. Brown shirts, anyone?
9
Further evidence that our only hope (and at this point, it is only a hope) is to throw them out of office.
7
The Republican House Intelligence Committee should just pull a Groucho Marx and state "who are you going to believe, us or your own eyes".
6
Michelle Wolfe and Donald are two peas in a pod. The words "truth" and "decency" used to form a single phrase. It used to be self evident that stooping to the tactics of a degrading enemy was to become no better than that enemy. Contempt is not funny. It is the blunt tool of those who haven't the wits to engage in reasoned, dignified debate. It is an expression of hate, not disagreement. It divides, always casting the enemy as the irredeemable "other." The best comedy pokes fun at human foibles. The worst comedy attacks and denigrates. Michelle and her comedic role model, Donald are indistinguishable in tone, method and motive.
Still searching for a way to change the results of the election. Sad.
2
The word "treason" has not been used often enough during the past year.
When low-class losers seek, and get help, from foreign powers who have ostensibly been "enemies" of this nation (sorry Cold Warriors, turns out Russia was okay after all!) the proper term for it is treason.
6
Two points from our recent history: In 1992 Bill Clinton was elected president and in 1996 he was reelected. In 2008 Barack Obama was elected president and in 2012 he was reelected. During the 16 years of their presidencies the republican party did nothing except try to nullify those elections. Impeachment of one and the traitorous meeting on Inauguration Day 2009 when republicans vowed to give him not one victory.
republicans do NOT believe in democracy. They have become the fascist party in America and We the People must send them to the dustbin of history. Or the United States of America will be put on that dustbin of history.
8
I got politically woke in 2003 when all but one Republican and half the Democratic leaders voted to invade Iraq on the premise of eliminating "weapons of mass destruction." We knew it was a lie. We had inspectors finding nothing and had some of the worlds largest protests. We opted for violence anyway.
When my friends, neighbors, ministers, politicians, classmates, co-workers, and family all rallied for a war based on known lies, it finally sunk in that US citizens don't care about facts. It's true for other countries as well. Our all too human response to fear motivates us to perpetuate lies. We will probably self-destruct because too many still lie about climate change which may be our grandest self-deception in history.
3
It seems that a lot of Americans are just as susceptible as a lot of Germans were to the appeal of an autocrat.
As Hitler showed, all an autocrat has to do is win enough votes, even if not a majority, and have a compliant political organization behind him.
Of course, Hitler didn't have a revered Constitution to contend with, but Trump and his craven Republicans are so far making a pretty good fist of undermining the one the Founding Fathers created.
What will the harvest be in November and beyond?
13
Amen, sister
4
I'm sorry but truth has stopped mattering everywhere, not just in the Russian investigation. Right now there is a small life-and-death matter of another looming War of Choice fully enabled by the NYT.
Dissatisfied with having failed to expose the lie of Iraqi anthrax the NYT is now publishing articles presenting Netanyahu's claims about Iran's nuclear programme as 'facts'.
Could it be that the NYT's deference to Neocon-Zionist goals outweighs its justified hatred of Trump?
Why else would the NYT give prominence to Netanyahu's clear propaganda display of Iran's alleged nuclear 'lies', without having sought and obtained independent verification beforehand? Or failing that, why didn't the NYT emphasize the propagandistic lies behind the Iraqi invasion, in order to place Netanyahu's 'performance' in context? (He had, after all, claimed hilariously for 25 years that Iran was "less than a year away from obtaining a nuclear bomb").
For all we know, all those displayed videos could have been blanks or included footage of Trump's romps in Moscow, about which he consistently and evidently lied. It seems liars make good bedfellows.
12
Remember when Netanyahu testified before Congress in 2002?
He said that Saddam Hussein had centrifuges as small as washing machines all around the country.
And that taking out Saddam Hussein would bring great benefits to the region.
3
Fox, Rush, and the rest have long since demonstrated that the right-wing masses of America much, much prefer endless lies and spin to truths they cannot handle. Trump merely brought that reality to the White House itself, and has capitalized on it ever since. Sure Hitler was bad, but the German people who simply adored him were worse. The same is true now in America: our Disneyespque version of a "Fuhrer" is a truly terrible human being, our "father of lies" in the old phrase for Satan. Yet the masses who worship him for giving them the nonstop lies they crave are even worse. Trump voters are not victims; they are the real culprits.
11
Well, they've found a "leader" who agrees with their gut feelings; in fact, you may accurately say that they've found a mouthpiece for themselves. And, lo and behold, experts on TV (FOX and fiends) support their views and add fuel to their fire. Is this fortuitous fate, or what?
It's a breakthrough: the end of times, they believe. And standing with their political savior is essential, no matter what the forces of evil throw at them. It's a Morality Play in one act. And we're all invited, like it or not.
1
"there's already overwhelming evidence of the Trump campaign's collusion with Russia." Well where is it? What alternate universe are you and the NYT editorial page living in?
4
Truth has never mattered to any politician.
It is of no advantage and isn't found in any dictionary they use.
Our nation is run by liars.
Too bad we are such fools.
4
When your philosophy is based on a total disregard for the truth Trump is what you get. He is simply the natural progression for a philosophy based on lying.
The con movement has a central theme in the US. Push the 1% ever forward. That's it. The usual method is tax cuts.
Trump as the new Reagan is simply trading an actor for a griftor/shill/reality TV star. Reagan was stupid and Trump is a moron but the premise is the same: the 1% is all that matters.
8
You know what Michelle Wolf got right and the media cowards at the correspondents dinner got wrong? You don't normalize liars and racists, you put your foot on their throats and never let up.
14
We have lived in a world of propaganda and lies for decades, if not centuries or longer. All for the purpose of controlling others and most often, for greed and power. STOP even covering Trump -- give us all a break! Shut his messaging machine down -- aren't you even slightly ashamed about how you have been manipulated? Start covering what he and his staff are doing behind the scenes to our Country by decimating our laws and safety nets. Why does the press continue to perpetuate this farce? Oh, that's right -- $$$$$! You have failed us Fourth Estate! DO BETTER! RESIST!!!! VOTE!
7
It is way past time to call this what it is...treason & an illegitimate POTUS. it is unimagineable that republicans would not be calling it that if Hilary had any of the numerous contacts with Russians.
5
If the truth mattered, this investigation would be long over. Comey knew that there was no evidence that Russia changed even one vote. Does anyone believe that someone changed from Clinton to Trump? Comey testified about this before congress. He knew this but wouldn’t release it. Instead he prepared secrete notes to give to a friend to leak to the NYT. According to the NYT, Mueller has brought over 100 charges against 19 people. Thirteen of those are Russians. They will not be able to take their kids to Disneyland this year. Oh my! Gates and Manafort for business dealings going back to 2012 and no connection with 2016. Those were investigated by the Justice Department, who did not press charges. Mueller is now going to a porn star to give validation for his continued investigation. Oh my! As far as Russia influencing or blackmailing , Trump has already imposed sanctions on Russia twice. The NSA, under Obama, agreed to pay some Russians $1 million for things including information about Trump. After they had paid $100,000, they shut it down because the information was unsubstantiated and fabricated. The DNC and Clinton paid an ex UK spy $100,000 to get in touch with some of his Russian contacts to dig up dirt they could use against Trump. Thi spy’s was part of the UK agency that guaranteed Saddam had WMDs. I’m not sure why that isn’t collusion. In any case Trump didn’t need anyone else. He had Hillary. That is validated by Donna Brazil’s and another book, Shattered.
3
Get your facts straight before you spout off - first of all, the GOP were the first ones to hire Steele, supposedly, the Jeb Bush campaign, and when he went down, that's when the DNC took over - the dossier is approximately 70-80% verified. Anything Trump does re Russia is checked with Putin himself, as he has an obvious hold on him for several reasons. The blatant lying from Trump on a day to day basis is not the words of an innocent man. Bob Mueller is very methodical - his track record proves that - it takes time to round up traitors, not only in the Trump administration but in the GOP itself. The people of New York know Trump for what he is - a common thug, who has skirted the law for years, aided by sychophants such as Giuliani. He certainly is not going to change now, for you or anyone else giving him the benefit of the doubt. Any validation by Donna Brazile isn't worth a grain of salt - she showed America what she is - a hack who got caught and someone who couldn't run a Presidential campaign to save her life - The US will be better off without Trump - we, who have patience and believe in the rule of law, welcome Mr. Mueller's findings.
6
You'll have to take up facts with Donna Brazile as well as the authors of Shattered, etc. etc. etc.
Sticks and stones may hurt her bones but your name calling will never harm her or the truth.
I have brought this up here many times, but the comment has always been censored:
Perhaps now Americans can begin to understand how Hitler came to power. It was not that the German people were inherently evil. They were just disoriented in a similar fog and the longer the fog persists, the longer it will take to find our way out of it.
Perhaps the good thing that comes out of this will be the realization that Germans and Americans, in fact, most of the people of this planet, are not so different after all. While there is still some way to go before we reach the extreme malice Hitler brought upon the world, the path is already marked. Hopefully, we can reverse course in time.
8
In the end, it just has to be hoped that truth matters to enough people in enough locations who are not true orange Trump apologizers to get off their usually lazy bums and vote this November (and all the Novembers after that).
If not, then it truly may be time to consider that apartment in Toronto or that little bed-and breakfast on Prince Edward Island.
3
I devoutly hope, Ms. Goldberg, these forebodings prove wrong. And they might. They might.
Do you listen to Requiems? No? Well--not altogether my own cup of tea.
But you would probably recognize Verdi's slam-bang rendition of the Dies Irae. The tympani pounding away for dear life--the strings rushing upwards with terrifying urgency--and then the chorus comes in.
"Dies irae, dies illa
Solvet saecla cum favilla"
"The day of wrath--that day--will burn away the ages."
THE DAY OF WRATH!
I am afraid, Ms. Goldberg, I am not thinking of the REAL Last Judgment. You know. As depicted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. And elsewhere.
I am thinking of Mr. Mueller and his people.
'Cause you make your points with perfect clarity. OF COURSE--the Republicans in Congress (and elsewhere) propose to twist--soft-pedal--palliate--obfuscate FOR DEAR LIFE! They have attached themselves to this man--our President--as with a ball and chain. Their fortunes are indissolubly linked. If he goes down--THEY go down.
They understand this. Perfectly.
So do we.
Which is why we millions await that final report with bated breath.
That'll really BE--like the Last Judgment. A reckoning delivered "without fear or favor." Stern--implacable--FINAL!
(Then, of course, there's the November elections.
But that's another story.)
1
I am ashamed and embarrassed by the G.O.P.'s role in this. It reminds of the historians phrase characterizing Hitler's inner-circle as a group of "fawning sycophants". Surely the party and our country can do better!
6
I certainly take your points. But we should always consider that (bludgeoning aside) a large majority of the people in this putatively-democratic republic strongly wish that this ridiculous, corrupt idiot were not its fake president. It's his ILlegitimacy that is self-evident, nothing can or will ever change that, and they should all have it told to them constantly. It's beyond his "historically low poll numbers"; it's that the country dearly wishes this nightmare had never even started. And every reporter's question should start with words to that effect -- to him; to all his filthy lying handpuppets and surrogates; and to every Republican. Relentlessly, incessantly unwanted, unwelcome, and asked to leave, like the blight that they are. We could and should be doing a much better job, as far as that goes.
4
Apparently, what Nigerians call "anyhowness"-- infidelity to high quality, or anything goes-- has taken firm hold at the NYT, possibly an effect of decimating it's copy desk recently. The headline on this story is just terrible. How about, "Truth No Longer Matters in the Russia Investigation." It also is shorter.
2
Last night in a debate for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, current Congressman and candidate Todd Rokita ranted about the Mueller investigation. He alleged that Mueller had found out nothing, had accomplished nothing, and the only criminals were Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party. He said he would introduce a resolution to shut down the investigation. He failed to mention that Mueller's team has obtained four convictions and indictments of Paul Manafort for a host of offenses including money laundering and tax evasion that have survived motions to dismiss and are set for two trials in two different districts. Despite the outright falsehoods, neither of the other candidates challenged him on this. Instead, we got mostly substance-free blather about who is the true conservative and who is the biggest Trump supporter.
8
I think he is also the one that said "it is well-proven" that tax cuts boost the economy! The three of them (Rokita, Braun, and Messer) reminded me of a very dark, but nonetheless hilarious, Three Stooges episode; hitting each other over the head as they fought over which one is the MOST CONSERVATIVE! Sad. However, I am hopeful that the damage they inflicted on each other will be more than enough to get Joe Donnelly reelected!
Column after column leaves me furious, but more to the point, I also feel helpless. This morning's story about the questions Mueller has for Trump leaves the impression that Trump is absolutely dirty. I'm sure he is. The word innocent has no part in this slimy affair.
13
Truth matters more now than ever. But the central truth that it matters little to the current Republican party, except as a punching bag for their propagandized version of the world has become self evident. The only remedy for that is the courts, where at least for now, the truth can still be established within a framework of something resembling logic. However, they are also under attack by the same people who once liked to call themselves the "law and order" party. They are no such thing any longer. They have created chaos and ignore the law and those who represent it at every level.
7
America is not so very different from anywhere else. Follow the money and count the winners and losers. The truth is that America has always been driven by $$ vested interests. And at different times in our history, like now, the plutocrats gain ascendancy and work untold misery on the rest of us. Follow the money....
3
Mr. Trump, show us your taxes.
MASA - Make America Smart Again
9
Ditto that. MASA. Make America Smart Again.
2
Putting Rep Nunes, a member of Trump's transition team, in charge of the House Intelligence Committee to look into possible foreign meddling in our elections, was already inviting trouble. Mr Nunes should have recused himself. Instead he has behaved in a wholly partisan manner and àcted to protect the president. These measures would be completely unnecessary if there was no wrongdoing on Trump's part.
I look back on the contentious 2016 election year when I watched and read the coverage of Trump and Clinton battling it out. It was so obvious to me that one of the biggest stories was what an intransigent liar Trump was, but no one was covering it or warning the electorate.
Today my comfort is that history will judge the corrupt behaviors of those who could have made a difference and chose not to.
8
Goldberg cannot accept that there is nothing there on Trump-Russia. They could barely "collude" with themselves to get coffee.
The actual "collusion" of which there is admitted evidence is that the DNC and the Clinton campaign paid for information, probably kompromat, from Kremlin-associated agents to a foreign national former British agent in the employ of an opposition research firm with strong ties to Russian agents. The DNC and Clinton campaign failed to report this paid relationship properly to the Federal Election Commission. Because of the amount of the payment, it is a criminal violation of election law.
The Clinton campaign also colluded with the government of Ukraine, a long and sordid tale, for which the Ukraine government struggles to make amends to the Trump Administration. This was also a criminal violation of FEC law.
We also see the intervention of foreign national diplomats and their intelligence agents from Canada to Great Britain and Australia. Who else might have been trying to curry favor with Clinton?
John Brennan was raking it in, passing it on with relish, and apparently leaking like a sieve.
He and Clapper retain their security clearances while being paid as "expert" Trump haters by CNN.
I too can look at Picasso paintings of a man with both eyes on the same side of his nose. But I also understand that someone like that has no chance of discovering a balanced picture of reality.
2
George Orwell published his masterpiece "1984" in 1949 and in just the short period of his presidency Trump, his voters and the GOP have made unbelievable fiction into stark and terrifying reality. The anti-Trump movement should send a copy of "1984" to every Senator and Congressperson, both Democrat and Republican, with the hope that enough will read it to recognize the terror facing our nation.
8
Problem is they don’t read and they don’t care! Only solution, vote them out!
1
Truth starts by looking into one’s own heart.
Voters and media need to ask themselves, do I get more gratification and money out of titillation, or facts?
Once we admit our own truth, we will have more courage to face down the lies of those who seek power for the wrong reasons.
We will be more clear in our minds about what really mattters, and more able to resist titillation.
I encourage all members of the media to read the recent article in New York magazine about how Roy Cohn used the willing media to build up Trump’s power through titillating lies. Ouch, but helpful.
2
His loneliness Trump is the Guru of so many disciples, the biggest number ever,
He can’t be wrong, he always speaks the Truth, he speaks in tongues surely,
A truth that does not need any grounding because he is beyond lies, thousands and counting,
Thou shall give up all critical thinking and worship the idol or be accused of witch hunt,
Soon he will be anointed noble (Nobel?) Emperor, leader of the valiant fools,
And all his good friends in the 1% will praise his magnanimity and tax generosity,
And he will soon preside over some beautiful war as nobody loves soldiers more than he does,
God bless Americans, and all the World really
Seems like you can stick a fork in the U.S. government. We're done.
2
Michelle Wolf is a left-wing comedian who hates the Republican Party and specifically President Trump. Her performance at the correspondents dinner on Saturday night was not only boring but tasteless and disgusting. Her comments against Sara Huckabee Sanders and Kellyanne Conway were way out of line to say the least. She may not agree with these two women's politics (obviously she does not) but to attack these two women in this filthy manner was horrendous. Just when you think things cannot reach a new low they do.
I noticed that her routine fell flat and very few were laughing at these vulgar and crass jokes. Even the liberal journalists in the audience did not find them funny. Many of them were severely critical of her antics and expressed their disapproval after the dinner had ended. Good for them.
I felt sorry for those in attendance who had to sit through this dull performance. The television viewers at least had the option to turn the dial. Her jabs were mainly at the conservatives who showed poise and dignity while listening to this filth. I hope we have heard the last of Ms. Wolf but unfortunately probably not. She is a disgrace to the decent and talented comedians and they should distance themselves from this horror.
1
WPLMMT's comment is silly. This is the most corrupt, dishonest and indecent administration that we have ever had. Ms. Wolf simply gave us the truth, without the proverbial spoonful of sugar. The real question, WPLMMT, is, "why does the truth give you such difficulty?"
"WPLMMT" wrote:
"Michelle Wolf is a left-wing comedian who hates the Republican Party and specifically President Trump. ..."
2
One hears more hate, vulgarity and tasteless comments from a typical Trump rally than what was heard at the last WH Correspondents Dinner.
2
You are exactly right: Michelle Wolf is a COMEDIAN.....! Trump is the President; so when he makes appalling comments about a woman's appearance or mocks a disabled journalist, that is exponentially more reprehensible! If a comedian isn't funny, they likely will not become successful - at least not for long. Unfortunately, we have to suffer Trump's lying and hateful tweets with little recourse.
3
We once said 'My Country, Right or Wrong, My Country!'
Now, for Republicans at least, it's 'My Party, Right or Wrong, My Party!'
4
How about a nation day of protest in support of Mueller's investigation and finding out the truth about Russia's interference with our democracy?
Just sitting on the sidelines while the shameless Republicans continue their coverup for the president is making us feel helpless to the disgrace of the industrial-evangelical complex.
3
There wouldn't be a so-called witch hunt without a witch.
Michelle, your insightful and brilliant journalism makes my news day right.
Thank You.
8
Republicans are cowards. And they can't govern. And they support Trump, the most venal, corrupt, unhinged person to ever occupy the presidency. Why they want to be on the wrong side of history just to make a few more bucks while they are alive is something I will never understand. I cannot understand.
Can't wait til November. If the R's remain in power (somehow, election rigging most likely with help from Russian hackers via the NRA), this country does not have a chance. This all must come to a screeching halt in November. VOTE BLUE ALL THE WAY!
20
Fascism is already here. The question is, will the American people stand up to it.
13
There is always another possibility: House Republicans really are this stupid. That report might actually be a fair representation of the logical functioning of their collective brains. This might explain why they're so paranoid and capable of such oxymoronic policies as tax cuts for the wealthy that, in their heads, will help the working class.
8
It's definitely a fact that the Republicans have, for some inexplicable reason, decided that they will just stand with this 'elected' moron, and give up ANY principles they have lurking deep in their souls ! There has been lurking in my mind for months the thought that there is something really disgraceful going on here which seems to have roots in racism & pushback based on their meetings & declared 'never again' response to the country's choice of previous president. There is a conspiracy afoot to try & prevent 'those others' from getting any further power via a free & fair election, and the reason Russia is involved is because they were so desperate to get their ambitions invoked, that anything became possible in that attempt. They have literally tried to accomplish their goals by allowing the enemy to 'help' with their stated ambitions - they willingly cooperated because of their determination to make sure the 'rigging' they desired would get done. What is the score for the next election, are those manoeuvres going to be repeated? It would seem likely, since they view the alternative as too dastardly to contemplate - 'those others' gaining ground & ruling those they consider the 'chosen' ones ? The desperation is on display for all to see.
8
Trump could admit to being a Russian spy and it wouldn’t matter to his cultists. In their mind, he’s doing the important work of attacking black football players who take a knee during the anthem and attacking Mexicans.
The only ones left supporting Trump at this point are the racists and sadly that overlaps with majority of the all white Southern fried GOP.
13
There may be no other group of elected national officials in our history more corrupt and dangerous than this shameful bunch of tyrants. The well-being of our country means nothing to them, just the survival of their man in the Oval Office and maintaining a partisan chokehold on Congress. And when did any right thinking citizen really believe that this group had the slightest interest in truth seeking? From day one, they have abused the public's trust and their constitutional oath to protect America. Many citizens feel compelled to express a degree of outrage in particular for some disappointing TV news coverage beyond the obvious Fox & Friends propaganda machine. There is no "fair and balanced" analysis of this danger. You don't really have to have "both sides" represented to reveal the truth. Pearl harbor, Nazi atrocities, the Birmingham church bombing, and 9/11 had no other side. There is no explanation for evil.
16
Apparently if the name isn’t Clinton and the place isn’t Benghazi, it’s all water under the bridge for Republicans.
13
It is bad enough that the invertebrate Republicans support an illicit president, but it is even worse that they are now denigrating our agencies like their appalling leader.
7
Michelle Goldberg:
Truth stopped when the Left began lying and exaggerating about the President of the United States in a constant attempt to destroy him.
1
No.
When people refused to accept that Trump may say what sounds good but was untrue. Trump played them and they did not care.
The verdict is in. The Times did everything it’s power to elect Hillary. But I guess the collusion was not enough. Too bad.
1
You mean your verdict don't you? No comment on all the evidence against Trump and his crime family? Nope because you didn't even read the article.
1
The truth? We can't handle the truth! (At least, not straight up, no chaser.) I remember when our oil oligarch president - King Bush II - told his subjects that "we're addicted to oil."! Bush forgot where he was for a second and told the truth. How did the world respond? Nothing. Crickets.
I'm having an eerie deja vu. Remember W.'s stand up routine back in 2004, at The Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner; "Let's see...no weapons of mass destruction here...no weapons here...". Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha.
Bottom line to all of the lies, deflection and cover ups, in my opinion - we're still addicted to oil. Now let's have a Roast!
5
Ms Goldberg has no command of logic, much less facts.
If Mueller's investigation into alleged Russian collusion theories - based on an ex-Brit spook's made-up fantasies - had actually turned up anything, there would be no need for Mueller to search warrant Trump's lawyer's interaction with a porn queen. The Russian theory is a dead end, always was.
Here's what happened. Hackers allegedly paid by Russia broke into the DNC's email system and handed emails off to wikileaks. These emails allegedly showed the perfidy of the DNC with respect to Bernie Sanders and with respect to the American Presidential debates. Instead of getting upset over the DNC's clear behavior of acting like drunk teenagers, Goldberg and her crowd rant and vomit about Russian conspiracies. Goldberg also ignores the fact that the ex-Brit spook was hired by the Clinton campaign to dig up (or in this case, invent) dirt on Trump.
Goldberg shows she has no ethical compass pointing in a direction of "good".
2
The truth has stopped mattering? Maybe to Trumpists, but not to me. Has it stopped mattering at the NYT? Was Ms. Wolf a little too close for comfort in her comment on the press?
Yeah, in Trumpworld you have to work really hard to support the truth and value it. Constant daily assaults can not allow people to become complacent. If we value truth, we need to fight back every day to "seek truth to power".
3
With the publication of the Republican Majority Report:
It CAN happen here.
It IS happening here.
Trumps appearance Saturday at a "campaign rally" looked very much like 1933 Germany. attacks on the press brought forth howls of delight from his supporters. Destroying the free press is part of Goebbels playbook.
Make no mistake...We are on the brink of fascism.
7
Republican Party:my party, right or wrong.
Despicable.
3
The word truth is going to have to be removed from the lexicon and Webster’s dictionary . Trump , Sanders , Kellyanne , Mulvaney and the rest of them have obliterated the “ truth “ !
4
Republicans members of House Intelligence Committee -- Russian assets all.
4
Fascism 101:
Delegitimize the free press – “the enemy of the people,” “fake news,” so your lies cannot be distinguished from truth. Check
Delegitimize political opponents as criminal (“jail her”), treasonous or both. Check
Demonize a visible but somewhat unpopular minority to blame for all our problems – “build the wall,” “ban all Muslims.” Check
Create a cult of personality around a bellicose strongman Great Leader who can solve all problems – “I’m the only one who can fix that,” and can do no wrong, “I could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and my people wouldn’t care.” Check
Delegitimize the judiciary as biased against the Great Leader so that the courts cannot (or dare not) be used to challenge his actions, or at least so that the results will not be accepted by the GL’s followers). Check
Having completed Fascism 101, you are now ready for Fascism 102. In this course (available starting in the summer semester) you will:
Identify a threatening event that you blame on the unpopular minority identified in Fascism 101 and use that event to demand increased power, which you will use to muzzle the press, suppress public demonstrations, outlaw opposition political activity, and reorganize the police and courts under the control of your core supporters.
This is textbook stuff, folks.
13
Every admin since LBJ has had a back channel to Russia. And even if they didn’t the author never revealed what information they obtained from this back channel. Plus almost all members of the Trump ampaign she mentions are low level members. Oo some more reading before you think most reasonable minds reach your biased conclusions. I suspect you must think only the deplorable would disagree with you.
Truth in politics died long ago. It is the players who are different, not the deception.
1
Trump is far from the only Republican politician in Washington actively obstructing justice. "Loyalty" to an ignorant, anti-democracy authoritarian?
"We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately"
Benjamin Franklin must be turning over in his grave.
7
The Republicans who participated in this sham are fools. They have come to prize political power and money to get and to keep it worth sacrificing both liberty and government limited by law. They are undoing the fabric of our political system that allows us to live in a free and secure country. Without law and government providing equality before the law, force of violence becomes the arbiter of people’s ability to live as they want rather than being obliged to serve people who could and would force them to comply to their will by force.
4
The truth never did matter. From the beginning it was a hit job emanating from Democratic Party HQ. I'm aware that for the vast majority of the readers of the NYT saying this is heresy, but it's just the truth, as more and more people are coming to realize. Just wait a month or two and you'll be sadly nodding your heads.
1
What would you be saying if all this same had been Hillary?
Republicans would have impeached her the first 6 months.
As to getting the truth, I only hope you remember your words when the time comes.
For eight years, the NRA told all my friends that Obama was coming to get their guns. Never happened. And they never look back and see the NRA was lying.
It's only been 3 months since Hannity promised us over and over that the Nunes memo released in February would "make Watergate like stealing a Snickers bar from a drug store.”
But there was no there, there. And Fox News audience doesn't look back and see they were lied to. Again.
1
"I dont recall..." will go a long way to eviscerate Mueller's questions and stop him getting at the truth: As it did for Sessions last year.
3
The report referenced by Ms. Goldberg is over 200 pages and her characterizing it as shoddy and cursory is pure partisan baloney. No one, after 15 months of investigation has shown any connection between Russia and Mr. Trump. The story persists to further the agenda of the never Trumpers. They can't get over the fact that the smartest woman on the planet was rejected by the American people. Mr. Clinton broke new ground in his mistreatment of woman but somehow, Trumps' consensual relations are too much for the liberals to take. Given the choices on election day America got it right, lets see what happens in the mid terms, not ready to rely on those blue chip pollsters again. It didn't work out so well last time, did it?
Of course the steady drip feeding the Trump swamp becomes an everyday common thing eventually. But what buoys Trump is the clarity with which his opposition continues with platitudes and homilies, not clear programs addressing real issues everyone is dealing with.
2
If this had been Hillary instead of Trump, Hillary would have been impeached in the first six months.
6
Truth stopped mattering even long before the presidential campaign, for example when Trump and others kept spouting the long-discredited birther story about Obama, among other conspiracy theories (Pizzagate etc). This is merely another log on the funeral pyre of truth and fact.
I don't think a large swath of our citizenry has the ability, or likely even the desire, to think critically about what they read and hear anymore. They believe what they want to believe because it it conveniently fits their worldview. If you want to believe that immigrants are flooding over the border like locusts to rape your women and steal your jobs because Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, Steve Bannon and Donald Trump say so, a column in the New York Times (or any other respectable media source) will not change your thinking.
We are living through a time when 35% of our nation has chosen to be stupid because it is easier for them than accepting and doing something about some hard truths, about themselves and how they respond to a changing world.
6
Watch public testimony for the House Intelligence Committee. What we've learned is House members are a bunch overpaid partisan incompetents that are trying not to look foolish on camera but failing miserably. Take Chris Stewart for example. He's supposed to be this patriotic military hero. In reality, he's a bumbling yes-man that can't take criticism from his constituents. He doesn't actually represent his constituents anyway. He represents the GOP hierarchy. If not for gerrymandering, he would be out next election cycle. He might be out anyway. If the Independent Redistricting Commission Initiative passes the ballot, he's out in 2020 regardless.
That brings us back to the real reason Republicans are making excuses about the Russia inquiry. They are about to get absolutely destroyed in mid-term elections. Every Republican representative is desperate to drop what they are doing and get home to campaign. This is really what their tax funded salary is intended to reward. Look busy in Washington but paid to simply hold a majority. If you do those two things well enough, you get to be Paul Ryan. I heard he's retiring by the way. That should tell you something about Republican chances.
3
Where are the Republicans that care about the truth, instead of defending their party at all costs?
5
They're all retiring.
"Try to remember, if you can, how astonishing it was on Jan. 6, 2017, when America’s intelligence community made public its finding that Russia had intervened in our election to help Trump."
Well, first note the date, the "finding" is being made in the last days of the Obama Administration. Apparently, Trump and his minions, who are otherwise bumbling idiots, outwitted the entire intelligence community throughout the campaign, but the Obama Administration discovered it just in the nick of time.
Second, a "finding" is not a fact, it is an opinion about the significance of facts known to those issuing the finding. In this case, the public does not know the overwhelming majority of the "facts" that drove this finding. We have little basis for accepting (or rejecting) the finding.
Third, the idea that the entire intelligence community concurred in this finding is to put it charitably misleading. It was fake news that 17 intelligence agencies concurred in the finding, a claim the NY Times later retracted. But even the idea that three agencies and the DNI concurred in the finding is misleading. Ultimately, the finding was issued by Obama political appointees. Most of the thousands of people in these agencies had no hand in the finding.
Finally, you can stipulate that Russia wanted to disrupt our political processes, without ascribing any skullduggery to the Trumpists. The Russians were probably backing whomever they thought was most disruptive, including Bernie Sanders.
Got to hand it to them for their turning away from the American Experiment. Maybe the patriotic GOP would have held the door wide open to Stalin in he came bearing low taxes for corporations and “religious freedoms”...
2
Yawwnnn...another opinion piece on the absurdity of our present situation that fails to place responsibility where it belongs. The fourth estate wanders aimlessly through thicket after thicket of obfuscation and misdirection when they should collectively and endlessly shout from the highest mountaintop that the Republican party has morphed into a criminal enterprise the primary function of which is to maintain a crime family in the White House at all costs.
4
Power is winning! That is what most of the 37% do not get. The Donald has turned truth into a quaint anachronism. Most of the 37% rely on Fox for their info - the truth cannot penetrate the Fox bubble.
Once the free press is compromised, our very Democracy is at stake.
Our only hope is that TD and his minions are so incompetent at getting things done, that their damage to our Nation will be mitigated by that very incompetence.
1
Truth is certainly a tricky thing.
Economics is also tricky, and it is economics that has helped turn America into a liar's paradise.
People around the world are justifiably worried about their lives, their standard of living/quality of life. We've created the monster of concentrated wealth, income, property and power. This monster needs poverty and masses of cheap laborers to survive, and this is eating our souls and planet.
Trump, the serial-liar, is no leader. He's a fake-Christian, bully, greedy, narcissistic, adulterer, draft-dodger who 'calls out'(?) McCain and POW's for having been captured. He's the very worst humanity has to offer.
That's the truth.
3
BREAKING NEWS!
It's been confirmed by numerous sources that Don jr. did immediately tell his father about the June 9th meeting, and the president was delighted responding that we need to take all possible precautions to prevent it leaking that we are going to accept their help in influencing the election.
More breaking news:
Thousands of people went outside today looked up and declared "The sky is blue!"
3
You have to wonder: What do the Russians have on Republicans in Congress?
4
Not one of the so called examples you quoted proves that DT or the campaign was cooperating with the Russians. Even if you put all of them together it proves nothing
As far as the so called comedian is concerned, it was a vicious, unfunny undeserved name calling attack on our duly elected president and his people.
I expected better from the NYT
1
Yes, the "drip, drip, drip" of shocking revelations (and indictments) over the last year has a cumulative numbing effect. There is so much smoke from the multiple, raging fires of skullduggery in Trumpworld that it acts as an effective smokescreen - making everything hazy, relative and simply impossible for We the People to keep track of.
But what has been worrying me even more over the last year is the "drip, drip, drip" of Trump's daily outrageous behavior becoming "normalized" (for both his rabid supporters and his staunchest opponents).
In particular, I worry that for each day that Trump remains in office, he accumulates inertial legitimacy as "the real president". When Mueller finally presents a devastating bill of particulars that demands impeachment by any and all standards of American history - Congress won't have the stomach to act because they'll fear the rage of the 35% of Trump diehards - many of whom would feel justified in "exercising their Second Amendment remedies" to stop what they'd see as a coup d'etat by "the Washington Establishment".
I understand that Mr. Mueller needs time to build an airtight case. But with such a "target-rich environment" of obvious malfeasance (all that smoke), I wish Mueller had cherry-picked the most damning 20% to nail Trump to the wall six months ago and left the other 80% to be swept up by the historians.
In summary, every additional day Trump remains in the Oval Office makes his eventual extraction increasingly problematic.
161
Personally I find the worries about "Second Amendment Remedies" a bit overblown. Most die-hard Trump supporters are old men who find the trip from the couch to the refrigerator to be exhausting.
11
Don't worry about a thing. It will be a pleasure to kick him out screaming.
8
Maybe a national march for truth is in order. ?
3
"Under Trump, the central battle in our culture is between truth and power. The truth hidden among the propaganda in the House Intelligence Committee’s majority report is that power is winning."
Except that in the long run, it won't. Power built on lies -- as most GOP economic and environmental policies are -- will eventually have its legs cut from under it by the truth.
3
Cry wolf on truth for years. Pay the price.
It is revolting that an identity politics cultist at last finds truth convenient.
Imagine if we'd known as much about the Russian meddling as we knew about Hillary's e-mails before the election?
1
Truth has certainly stopped mattering to Ms Goldberg in the Russia investigation. Clearly since Trump hasn't been indicted or impeached Ms Goldberg believes the truth is still out there, somewhere.
Go out as Scully and Mulder and find The Truth. Because you clearly must know where it's hiding.
Some truths:
- The DNC marginalized the Sanders campaign
- The DNC handed HRC the questions she'd receive in the debates
- HRC willfully read the info from the DNC
- The Clinton campaign intentionally hired Ex-Spook Steele to come up with dirt on Trump
- Ex-Spook Steele invented complete fantasies about Trump and the Russians
- Goldberg blindly believes whatever anti-Trump information she comes across
- Mueller has found no solid evidence of any Russian collusion with Trump
1
So, let's see...Trump is connected to so-and-so, who once met with a Russian, and the Russians got Trump elected through their funding of 80 Facebook trolls in St. Petersburg, and therefore, voila! Trump colluded with Russia to fix the election! No wonder Goldberg is on the opinion side, and not on the news side!
2
Republicans consider collusion with Russia to be a horrific offense to America... when they are falsely accusing Hillary Clinton of it. When they are defending Trump against it, they brush it off. Their situational morals are the hallmark of either sociopaths or of brainwashed fools. So let’s hear it for the record, Republican readers; Is colluding with a hostile foreign power to win an election an impeachable offense or not? Imagine this applies to Hillary and answer the question. THAT’S the only answer you get to give; you don't get to change it when the name changes.
4
Truth always matters.
2
Nunes, McCarthy, and a few other apple polishing republicans are guilty of obstruction as well. When the dems take back the house and now more and more likely the senate as well, the republican traitors are going to pay a huge price.
3
The GOP is not about “power”. It’s about doing what it’s told by a few wealthy wackos. It’s called venality.
Unfortunately, the billionaires the GOP has decided to let call the shots are bonkers.
4
Truth has never mattered in the Trump White House.
2
Much of what has been said about collusion would probably be treated with greater seriousness if the NYT and other media outlets had not initially claimed that the Russians "hacked" the election.
That was a falsehood that the New York Times, CNN and a whole host of other organizations deliberately spread, creating the impression that voting machines were tampered with by the Russians. That was never true, yet it was reported as if it was.
Ms. Goldberg, truth has stopped mattering in the Russia investigation because it never mattered to journalists like you to begin with.
1
It is starting to look like the most honest person in DC is Michelle Wolf...
The GOP to a man (and they are mostly men) are traitors. No one with any integrity plays games when a foreign government attacks their electoral process.
3
Ridiculous. The truth died in the Russia investigation when the FBI initiated the investigation based on (so FBI says, although the timing is ridiculous) their being informed about the drunken ramblings of Papadopoulos re he knew the Russians had dirt on HRC. At the time everyone and their dog suspected that foreign guvs must have hacked HRC's forbidden email server, so speculating Russia had hem was what everyone believed. And Pap bragging he knew? Big deal. No plausible cause for the FBI to immediately launch a counter intel action. Makes no sense.
Truth died when Comey gave HRC a pass.
Truth dies every time a lib columnist asserts collusion with no evidence. If there were evidence, we would have had a leak. Comey would have put it in his book and Mueller wouldn't be off on tangents unrelated to collusion. He's never even interviewed the Russian attorney who Trump Jr. et al met with in Trump tower.
Truth dies every time someone asserts Putin did it to help Trump win. IF the Russians hacked, they did so before Trump even announced he was running and certainly before he was the front runner.
Truth dies every time a columnist talks about Russian collusion and ignores the Steele dossier paid for by HRC and DNC -- dirt on Trump from Russia with love.
Truth dies every time someone asserts collusion but can't even offer a theory as to why either side would collude with the other.
Collusion is just a lib fantasy, hoping to overturn the 2016 results.
1
When Michelle defends Michelle she loses me. If Michelle Wolf obnoxious, not funny and mean spirited carries the flag of truth for the Democrats it better be at half mast.
1
Russia has a bunch of oligarchs. We have a Congress with a whole bunch of wannabe oligarchs. What’s not to understand? “Intelligence” means something different to wannabes. It has little relationship to truth, and is largely constituted by ambition and the worship of power. Fact is, they’re afraid, like Trump, and they feel the need for more and more power—to keep the fear at bay. Every time they lie, remember that they’re afraid. And they should be.
2
Mueller has over 20 indictments including the former National Security Advisor Flynn .
Think about that:
the former National Security Advisor admitted to lying about his dealings with Russia, a country that overtly and covertly threatens our very foundations .
And we are debating whether Trump and his mob are being unfairly subjected to a witch hunt by the deep state. The GOP controls all branches of government so where is this deep state hiding?
Mueller has been able to win indictments in such a hostile environment because the preponderance of evidence is simply undeniable. Trump has no recourse other than to destroy the government . The GOP will not do anything about it because they are cowards; they want Mueller and the voters to rescue them from their deal with the devil.
I believe Mueller and the voters will save us but the GOP will not be spared.
Ryan fled because he is a coward and wanted to make some money in the private sector before returning to "public service".McConnell is just a snake quite at ease hiding in the grass.
3
I miss the days when the Republicans respected the FBI and mistrusted the Russians instead of the other way around. This shows just how low the Republican Party has descended and how that puts our republic in peril.
3
“Possible Russian efforts to set up a ‘back channel’ with Trump associates after the election suggest the absence of collusion during the campaign, since the communication associated with collusion would have rendered such a ‘back channel’ unnecessary.”
Typical Republican "logic," more twisted than a pretzel.
This explanation says: "There was no collusion because the RUSSIANS tried to set up a back channel."
First, this IGNORES that fact that Jared Kushner ASKED to set up the back channel.
Second this event occurred AFTER the election was over, in December 2016.
Evidently, the meeting with a Russian lawyer, who we now KNOW is close to the "Attorney General" of Russia at Trump Tower with Donald Trump, Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort on June 9, 2016 was a "nothingburger" according to the Republicans. We also know now that Donnie Jr called Emin Agalarov, then a blocked phone number, and then Agalarov again, in quick succession around the time of the meeting in Trump Tower. Donald John Trump is known to have a blocked phone number, but the Republicans did not want to know what blocked phone number Donnie Jr called, so they never inquired of the phone company for records.
He must have been phoning his favorite pizzaria, a very special one, for an extra special pizza. Of course, what else whould he have done?
I would hope that Special Counsel Mueller will get that information, by subpoena if necessay.
3
At the conclusion of his investigation, Mr. Mueller could present videotape of Donald Jr. passing a bag of cash to Vladimir Putin And Trump supporters would shout "fake news".
1
Now you know how people felt when they let Hillary off the hook for knownly violating her security clearances. They are both crooks and a pox on both sides who pretend corruption and cover-ups are just the other parties problem.
It would be worthwhile in following the money, to take a hard look at how much and how deep Russian money is in the pockets of which members of Congress. This could be a good indicator of who needs investigating there, and in helping the American public better understand the lay of the land as regards the scope of the problem we are confronted with. That problem being that our electoral political process has been severely corrupted and compromised by the allowing of vast sums of money into the process by unknown and known actors, and that legislators are beholden to have to raise vast sums of money in order to get elected. This is a broken system that encourages influence peddling and one that is resulting increasingly dubious candidates.
Further complicating matters is the onslaught of social media propaganda foreign and domestic, engineered to be divisive by misinforming a public - already being under-informed by the mainstream media whose priorities are ratings rather than on how good a job they are doing providing the public with sound in-depth information of what is behind the "news" they broadcast.
Trump is the tip of the proverbial iceberg here.
1
Trump's support has not changed, thanks to 30 years of right wing propaganda. Over our public airwaves. That audience has been programmed for a generation. Over our public airwaves. This doesn't happen in the UK, where I spend much time. They won't allow it. And neither should we. Reinstate the Fairness Doctrine now or this will just continue until the point of no return.
10
The truth lies in the fact that there has been no collusion between Russia and the Trump administration at any time. I know this is difficult for the Democrats to accept but they at some point must accept this fact and stop this expensive and wasteful investigation.
President Trump is our legitimate president and was elected by the people through the electoral college system. Hillary Clinton lost because the people did not want her to serve as our president. The people still support Mr. Trump and would vote for him again if given the opportunity. The Democrats candidate lost and it still hurts them to accept this reality. They will never accept President Trump as our leader. Never.
2
Why are you writing in the NYT if you don't bother to read any of the news articles it publishes? Not only was the Trump team looking for dirt on Hilary, there was also the systematic voter supression effort by Republicans, which is slowly getting overturned by the courts, as well as gerrymandering. Trump won a few states by a few thousand votes - more than enough to attribute to voter supression efforts by republicans. And if you don't want to think about that, than let's think about Trump and the emoluments clause - no one in his right mind can say this president is not making private money off his public office. And don't evade - no other president has taken advantage us like Trump - NO OTHER Prez! We don't deny he is legit prez, we just want to investigate the details of our process, and see where obvious corruption is influencing poltics. Lastly, Gorsuch. Need I say more.
6
Why would anyone intelligent person want to accept a liar, who lies and lies and lies, as "our leader?"
4
We've been at it too long. It's normalized. I thought at the outset we had a year to clear him and his malevolent cabal out of the halls of power.
Epic fail.
Mueller may be conducting a thorough investigation, but it's taken too long.
I think he should have bundled a set of major charges on the main point of the investigation sooner than later, even if it left Trump out of it for the time being, then gone after the details of financial crimes and obstruction in a series of rolling indictments.
As it is, with only a few low-level guilty pleas, the GOP is successfully slow dancing the Mueller probe into the gas chamber.
2
"Under Trump, the central battle in our culture is between truth and power."
This is true, but it belies an even bigger truth: we are in the middle of a civil war. So far the war has been non-violent. But how else to define a state of being where millions of people in this country, including many leaders of one major political party (GOP) and the President himself, are no longer concerned with truth? When reason disappears from political debate, normally that's the moment in countries when people pick up whatever weapons they have access to and take to the streets. I do not advocate or condone violence, but sadly it might have to come to that before things get better.
8
Fascism is coming. Reread Madeleine Albright in these pages. There is an outstanding individual who lived through that era. She recognized the same tactics that are being used now. And what did Bejamin Franklin say? "A Republic if you can keep it." This Republic is slipping away.
,
1
Never once has the president suggested that there was no Russian interference in the election, only that there was no collusion. Giving him the benefit of the (not a bit of) doubt, assuming there was no collusion, doesn't diminish the problem of interference. The investigation should continue full on.
9
Trump repeatedly doubted that Russia were involved in interference in the face of all evidence. Appreciate it's hard to keep track of his shifting and contradictory positions, but this was his standard line for a long time.
6
"Never once" except for the Trumpian theory of a 400 pound guy on his bed somewhere in (Jersey?). He has fought every step of the way of the increasing evidence of his regime's guilt (much of which is nicely described in Goldberg's commentary).
1
There is more than enough evidence of treason to impeach Trump, right now, without any more evidence surfacing. If we can't impeach this guy right now, we have completely given up on rule of law in this country. I know we've never really gotten rid of a president before, it's hard, blah blah. He deserves it more than any president we've ever had. If we can't impeach Trump, then any president in the future can literally get away with anything.
9
This is exactly the test to our Democracy that we as concerned Americans face for our future life in America: elect a corrupt, immoral demagogue for a president like Trump who will attack the free press and our justice system when it doesn't back up his lies and cover-ups of financial gain.
To all you Trumpies who refuse to question anything about him: why does Trump refuse to disclose anything about his financial investments in Russia and his adamant refusal to this day to admit Russia's involvement in our election process let alone his staunch defense of a despot like Putin who murders his critics?
Donald Trump just does not act like a innocent man picked on by the free press and Mueller.
1
Denying the vulgar and evil and treasonous activism of all things Trump by Congress and his supporting US citizens is beyond perplexing.
In the South, we love to hide from unpleasantness and confrontation, even as doing so diminishes our very lives and endangers every single one of us. Trashing democratic values certainly appears to be a country wide problem, an American horror not specific only to the South.
8
Truth matters to me. I am tired of the dishonesty and chaos that passes for a presidential administration and Congress these days. You leave those of us out here in middle America--probably all over America who are not in Trump's thrall or booing minorities at his propaganda-filled rallies--out of your equation. We are sick of it. We are tired of the constant lies and confusion. We have had it with the racist doggerel promoted by Trump and spread far and wide by a compliant bottom-line-driven media. I never will vote for a Republican again, but I will vote for Democrats and Independents who will really drain the swamp, vote for impeachment, rescind the bogus tax bill and put fair judges in our courts. Many of us are angry out here--I'm one of them.
19
When will the press stop using euphemisms for Trump's statements. There is no "fake news." There are no "alternative facts." There is only one "truth." Call Trump out for making unabashed, outright, in your face lies. Because he has no conscience nor concern for his ultimate historical significance he is not afraid to use propaganda (defined as presenting misleading facts to promote a political view) in a manner never considered by prior Presidents. Unfortunately, I predict that future candidates who as devious but far more intelligent than Trump will learn from his presidency and drag the nation away from democracy to an even more frightening degree.
16
Michelle Goldberg writes: [in] the November 2015 email exchange between Felix Sater, a Trump associate and convicted felon with ties to Russian organized crime, and the Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, recently the subject of an F.B.I. raid. Sater boasted, “Buddy, our boy can become president of the U.S.A. and we can engineer it. I will get all of Putin’s team to buy in on this.” We still don’t know what Sater meant by this." We don't , but we now know that Sater was working as an FBI informant while an associate of Trump and his family and also claims to have worked for US intelligence. So the mystery deepens.
2
This is only partially good. The gop report found no collusion or even I think a desire by Russia to elect trump. We need a point by point rebuttal of those lies. Perhaps the dems did. But I wanted to see that in this column. But didn’t
1
Why I, who more than a year ago had different feelings about James Comey, have come to admire and respect him as a human and as head of the FBI is because of his loyalty to this country and his dedication to the truth. It hasn’t been easy for him on his book tour to be held to a higher ethical standard than Trump. Comey has fidelity, consistency, and respect for truth even as he has been rapidly fired upon in accusatory tones by Jake Tapper, Anderson Cooper and Bret Baier as well as by Meghan McCain.
Trump should be the one answering the questions under oath and in front of the American public, not Comey.
Now with Rudy Giuliani’s leaking of Mueller’s questions, Trump and Friends, with Putin holding the strings of the puppet, are attempting to obstruct justice again.
What comes out of Trump’s mouth is the antipodes of Truth.
To tell the truth is to say that Trump and his supporters have suborned the Russia Investigation. He and they are guilty of treason acting on behalf of Russia. They must be stopped and truth must prevail.
7
No one with so many ties and such financial vulnerability to Russia, a power hostile to our country, should be in the presidency.
The presidency is not a right. When vetting people for any WH positions, we eliminate those who might be too strongly tempted; we don't open ourselves to that likelihood.
Trump hid his ties by not exposing his finances. But given the number of ties, secret meetings, etc., that have come to light since the election—things that Republicans made efforts to lie about and hide—he should not be in power.
The fact that all this was hidden and lied about is enough for it to be suspicious and actionable. Trump did not win the popular vote, he lied to Americans, and he's in hock to the Russians up to his neck. He should not be allowed to continue in a position that requires the highest trust.
7
There can be no serious argument that Mueller is going to confirm that Trump, his team, and very likely the GOP, the NRA and others, committed crimes. They committed treason, they violated RICO, they laundered money and evaded taxes.
What's crazy to think is that the ~35% of the population under the spell of Fox News isn't going to care.
Thankfully, the rule of law persists, and these fools are about to get their day in court.
6
Wait until you see the treason that gets pull over on you in 2018, Todd.
#calexit - its over.
In a true democracy, solid evidence of collusion with a hostile foreign government to subvert our election(s) would be seen for what it is: TREASON.
9
The republican report is clearly an obstruction of justice, using the identical approach that Trump uses. Attack the investigating bodies. This has the purpose of preventing the truth from coming out and thus, obstructs justice. The committee members that voted in favor of the report should start lawyering up.
6
I am old enough to remember when Republicans were anti-Russia and pro-FBI.
That seems so quaint and a long time ago.
9
The Steele dossier is blamed on both parties as traditional D.C.-NYC insiders went to war to keep Donald Trump out of the White House.
So What? We always see opposition research - even sports teams do that. But what made this mess into an attempted coup d'etat was when hack political soldiers mistakenly put in charge of the ntional intelligence agencies by the Obama administration decided to publicize this completely fictional report.
FISA judges are accustomed to hearing evidence put together by our spies overseas and checked constantly by the intel agencies as the FBI requests permission to spy on Americans.
But this work of fiction was represented to the judge as verified date with credibility by FBI types who KNEW it was not at all true.
That is why Clapper, Brennan, Rosenstein, Comey, Strzok & Page need to be indicted for their involvement. No wonder one snagged a job at CNN: he knows thqat lawyers cost a LOT.
1
Unless you were on the inside and saw the FISA application to the judge you have no idea what you are talking about. For the warrant to be issued much more evidence had to be shown to the judge. Therefore, your assumption lacks merit.
2
There certainly appears to be "more" more there...my sense is the Republicans are neck deep with Russian collusion, or something just as bad, and are all doing desperate acts to protect themselves...Donnie is just not worth enough to protect like this, so fears driving this must go deeper, much deeper...no other way to explain this...this farce simply can't just be about loyalty to party, or president...
3
The headline -- "Truth Has Stopped Mattering in the Russia Investigation" -- seems fair enough for the report by the Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee.
But the headline is too broad.
Truth matters in this investigation. For me, for you, for Mueller, for the USA.
8
So the intelligence community lacks proper "tradecraft" in their investigation, but the duplicitous House Committee under milkman Devin Nunes does it correctly? This is patently absurd.
8
The truth ah yes. The politicians of both parties are to blame, however the GOP is the leading liar. Recent history is what counts The tax cuts for the rich sold as for the middle-class. The Iraq war a lie, but congress went along, didn't want to be wrong. Now Trump the quintessential liar, says he for the little guy, but all he could do was pass a tax cuts for the wealthy.
4
Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. After 70+ years of messing into other nation’s elections and governing systems, including the HRC highjinks in Moscow, “turn about is fair play” seems to be a lesson of great surprise within I-495. Trump’s classic campaign comment: “what, you think we don’t do it” cuts right to the kernel of the matter. Isn’t much fun when it’s your candidate, is it?
Amid everything else one could name, once the history of the Republican Party is written following its demise, there will be three things it should be remembered for: the Iraq War, the refusal to consider a sitting president's nomination to the Supreme Court, and their blind devotion to Donald Trump.
Not a pretty picture, is it?
6
Truth stopped mattering in American politics some 30 years ago. Somewhere between the emergence of Rush Limbaugh and the beginning of Fox News. We keep pretending that we can appeal to objective standards or to the integrity of Republicans...decades after those things died. We're arguing with liars and criminals, while they rob us blind.
7
Is that bombshell "intelligence community" finding that Russia intervened in the election to help President Trump the same intelligence community blob that gave us the finding of Iraqi WMDs?
What stopped mattering is the House Intelligence Committee, an oxymoron if ever there was one.
2
Given:
There is such a large mountain of evidence that no reasonable person can possibly doubt that Trump, his family and colleagues have been and continue to be in a treasonous conspiracy.
~~~~~
Now, Consider:
(i) Virtually all Americans have lost confidence in Congress.
(ii) About the only Americans who still trust the Trump are white supremacists. public.
(iii) Confidence in the Supreme Court has been declining since Bush v. Gore, Citizens United, C.C. v Heller, and the manifestly corrupt investiture of Neil Gorsuch.
(iv) Republicans and other right wingers have no confidence in government and consider it an enemy that must be fought off with "Second Amendment" arsenals.
~~~~~
Then Recognize:
IF the Mueller investigation fails to either indict Trump (the Department of Justice "findings" plainly are self-serving deceptions fabricated by shysters to protect two previous sitting presidents from their crimes) or expressly recommend impeachment, then America's Democrats also will lose what little confidence they still have in American government, especially our "checks and balances" and Constitutional rule of law.
IF, the vast majority of the Americans have no confidence in the federal government and constitutional democracy, it will be less than a generation before the United States becomes a tyrannical failed state similar to contemporary Russia.
1
Yes, nothing good is coming, BT. So why not actually propose a solution?
#calexit - it's time to get out.
1
The movie will be named "The Monster That Ate Washington."
People like to reference Cancer as the metaphor to describe the metastasizing of the most corrupt administration the country has ever witnessed. Perhaps a more apt metaphor would be the AIDS virus, which, as we know, attacks the human immune system. Starting its killing spree circa 1979, it killed hundreds of thousands of people here in America until, finally, the voices were heard and the medical community stepped-up.
The Republicans, led by Trump and aided by a small band of sycophants, namely Devon Nunes, are eating through the blood stream of our justice system, and the rule of law in general, which, when you think about it, serves as the country's immune system. It's all we have to distinguish between good actors and bad ones, and which, hopefully, ultimately holds the bad ones accountable. It's never been a perfect system...it's fragile at best, but it's our very best defense.
Trump is a Monster. We saw it during the campaign where we watched him eat his competitors alive. The system we have, including the media, have not figured out how to stop him. All around him, his minions drop like flies as he flips on them and destroys them: witness the National Enquirer and Michael Cohen.
Hopefully the voters will intervene in November and start to rebuild & protect the country's immune system. If they do not, the Monster will continue, unabashed, eating us alive, and the country will suffer for a long, long time.
4
The earth is not flat. Species evolve. 3+5=8. Putin worked with the Trump campaign to elect his puppet. What else is new?
The United States we knew no longer exists
1
It's sad when our republican Congres has more faith in the Russians than their own intelligience agencies. They don't even agree that the Russians hacked our election, never mind were in collusion with trump. Vote Blue in 2018.
1
The GOP has just simply rented out their “R” to the highest bidder.
2
Our political disease is at its most virulent, now, stoked and facilitated through Trump's venality and incompetence, paired with the GOP's surrender to him. Two, simple solutions, ASAP: 1) Meaningful term limits; and 2) An amendment to the Constitution barring money as speech, with appropriate limitations. The only way these two probable cures have a prayer is through electing fair-minded and convicted Democrats, at first, then in both parties. Sic semper tyrannis!
1
I read this while watching season 2 of The Handmaid's Tale. As someone who works in the arts, I always hope that art is more gut-wrenching, more provocative than life to make a point. Nothing could be worst than to watch this pack of deceitful, dishonorable, treasonous cowards, both elected and electorate, look the other way while the piece of garbage they put into power undoes more than two centuries worth of progress. I cannot wait for the end of this horrifying novel, while fearing that the ending is going to be unimaginably awful.
Up is down, Black is white AND truth is " fake news ". Trump is the logical endpoint, and result, of the decades long GOP plan to dumb down America.
And, it worked. And now the " uneducated " that HE claims to " love " are his only supporters. They terrify the Congressional GOP, so the collaboration continues. What's the solution ? Vote THEM out, in November. It the only way to contain the great Pretender. VOTE.
Connect the dots? Who can even count them all?
1
Truth always prevails, it just takes more time than we would like. Trump is an illegitimate president, a fraud and so are his enablers in congress.. We need to remove them from power starting in November.
1
No better example of how deep in the tank congressional Republicans are for Trump than Devin Nunes and the House Intelligence Committee. Of course, they finished their work with a "nothing to see here" conclusion. It's hard to see something when you're not looking for it and you have your eyes closed.
It's been reported that Nunes is facing a tough re-election battle. Poetic justice would be served in draining the GOP cesspool, even a little bit, by booting out this shameless, sycophantic hack.
1
The big hope is rejection of the GOP come November. Don't hold your breath. It was a shock when Trump won the election - who would have thought this unprincipled clown blowhard would win? It is beyond imagination what has happened to our country. If there really is a God, She would not have let Trump the Ruiner to win!
When Kushner, Manafort and company met with the Russians to discuss getting "dirt" on Clinton that was collusion. Anything beyond that is just further evidence of it.
3
I am always surprised and a little depressed by the enormous deference shown to Trump by the press. I know he’s the president but he is also vulgar loudmouth, a man entirely unfit for public office except, as Garrison Keillor once said, to be mayor of Toronto. The transcript of the interview with Trump by G. Baker of the WSJ should be used in journalism school as an example of unprofessional fawning and cowardice. The policy of the Times interviews seems to be to give him enough rope to hang himself. So he is allowed to spout the same endless lies. He lives in a tabloid world of total self- delusion. We shouldn’t leave it to comedians. I am really missing Christopher Hitchens.
1
A ten year old child looking at the world might think that adults have a big problem with understanding the difference between right and wrong, good and bad, true or false.
We need to sort this out quickly with debate and compromise like Sen. McCain says. This is not the social climate to bring up kids in, one dominated by lies, bullies and brutalities.
The kids need their current fears assuaged and their education taken care of or else we are in trouble.
Remember it is not about you it is about them.
111
We must also consider our men and women in uniform. This all must be excruciatingly demoralizing.
10
Truth does not matter and it never has. What matters in politics is what is called “narrative truth”: the ability to integrate relevant facts in an appealing and powerful narrative. Whoever spins the better story, wins. Trump understand this; the Democrats don’t. This is why I am highly skeptical of the coming “blue wave”. This is why if presidential elections were held today, Trump would win. It pains me to say so because I am opposed to this administration’s policies but unless the Democrats stop engaging in self-righteous hand-wringing and start doing some realpolitik, they are going to lose even more.
9
"Its real message was that, for Republicans in Congress determined to protect this president, evidence is irrelevant."
We Americans have a choice: We can continue on in this vein of "fake news", deflection, obfuscation and outright lies on the part of the Trump administration and the Republican majority or we can truly "clean house" in the upcoming mid-term elections and then, assuming control of the House of Representatives, begin a true "draining of the swamp". It will also require a major effort on the part of the MSM to re-establish the perception by the general public that they truly speak for the people and not their bottom line. This country, with its societal, economic and political divisions, is teetering on the brink of disaster if we don't return to a belief in a government "of and for" the people and for the rule of law.
1
Empires typically crumble from within and this is happening to the US right before our eyes. The rampant corruption amongst the Republicans and the public indifference to the flouting of norms and the rule of law will combine to destroy the republic . It may continue to exist in name but I fear it will never recover from this administration.
Russia is gleefully watching its handiwork in action but it surely knows that a strong democratic country run by people with integrity would never have succumbed to Russian meddling on the scale that the US has. Do the "win-at-all-costs" Republicans know that the price to pay for their hold on power is the sacrifice of real democracy? I think they do and I believe that they just don't care.
12
The history books are not going to be kind to this period of time. We've allowed a party to bully everyone anytime suggests they are anything less than patriotic, while they dismantle our democracy. The same people who demand the ability to say anything they want couldn't be told they were destroying our nation.
beyond this investigation, we have to ask ourselves if the truth matters in any US court. the winning side is the one who spins the story that the judge and jury believes, regardless of whether it is the truth. the system is overdue for an overhaul and the first order of business should be to restore humility among lawyers, and respect for each person. Both are missing today and have been since at least Watergate.
3
It is hard to imagine that a proud country that routinely and consistently survived and rallied to attempts to subvert everything that was meaningful for it for over 240 years is facing it's own Armageddon. is it possible that the reason is so simple as to be thoroughly missed?
We simply did too much talking and not enough listening. Listen for a change to the "babble" of our politicians. Listen to what the president is saying to learn how deeply our once beloved rule of law is being shredded.
Then also listen to the women, the poor and the people distressed by it all to get an understanding of what low imagery we have finally descended to.
We have always been a proud nation but we have allowed "sloganeering" like Make America Great Again to divert us from "our dirty laundry.
7
“I can’t help thinking that it would be harder to explain away the Trump campaign’s treachery if we’d been forced to reckon with it all at once.”
Vive le truth! Let the fourth estate shine the illuminating light of truth across its pages and screens for all too see.
3
You write that there is "overwhelming evidence of the Trump campaign’s collusion with Russia." Actually, after nearly two years of worthless investigation, even Mueller doesn't think there was collusion, which is why he is off on a goose chase elsewhere. The hatred of the left blinds it to the facts. It also blinds it to the enormous loss of credibility the media have experienced.
7
There is a difference between evidence and proof. Evidence is abundant; whether we will ever see a smoking gun is partly dependent on the outcome of Mueller's investigation. Even if there is a smoking gun, "collusion" is not a legal term. If crimes like lying to federal investigators or obstruction of justice arise out of Mueller's probe then nearly two years of "worthless investigation" will have confirmed what most people -- Democrat or Republican -- with eyes and ears already know: this is the most corrupt Presidency in modern American history.
MFW: Look in the mirror. Spending over a year of a worthless attack on Clinton over Benghazi was worthwhile while a long and carefully done investigation by the FBI about Russian/Trump collusion is a waste of time. It is very disturbing that you and other Trump supporters not only haven't even read the US Constitution but you are eager to destroy it.
True statements, MFW...
Which brings us to the conclusion that author Goldberg has proven that "Truth Has Stopped Mattering" in opinion columns...
Not that "truth" ever mattered in them in the first place.
Ms. Goldberg is become a valued member of the "hang'em without trial" contingent of the liberal elitists.
1
Like a reverse-Midas, everyone whose career Trump touches turns to ash (Jackson and Tillerson being only the most recent examples). The Republicans who have sacrificed their moral core to hang on to power via Trump will find it's a hollow bargain in the end.
The treason of the House Republican committee members who wrote this odious report will be remembered long after their fleeting power is forgotten.
10
This has been and will continue to be a strange war - between Trump's team and Mueller's. Mueller is stealthily pursuing truth and facts, saying little, and Trump is making up propaganda-laden fictions and screaming them from the hill top.
I fear that this might devolve into one of those ancient Arab battles where each side hurtles threatening poems and epithets at the other, the winner decided by who is most creative. Facts are never particularly creative and crowd-pleasing, so Mueller has a bit of a disadvantage there. On the other hand Trump is terribly inarticulate and childish in his retorts, so he'll never win on creativity.
If the GOP didn't have such a strangle hold on the government, from legislative to judicial, Mueller would win hands down. But in this political climate, it'll be a toss up and run down to the wire.
6
The Intelligence Committee says that if the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians they would have used a back channel so that they wouldn't need a second back channel during the pre-election period. Ms. Goldberg says that is nonsense. But it isn't. It makes perfect sense.
Imagine for a moment that it was Hillary Clinton and her campaign that had done a fraction of the things itemized in this article. There would be hearings that would make Bengazi look like a picnic. Articles of impeachment would have already been drawn up. A special prosecutor would be hailed by the Republicans. The amount of hypocrisy in all this is staggering. And all the while, Rome is burning.
12
The recently published questions Muller wants Trump to answer have little if anything to do with collusion which implies even Mueller no longer thinks there was any.
2
Cool, so just obstruction then? Well, MAGA! Anyway, what you're saying is not true. Maybe Mueller doesn't need the President's* testimony for the collusion charges. Maybe Mueller has ample evidence of collusion on the part of others on the campaign, but not enough to implicate Trump himself (which of course would mean there was collusion). He could also just think he has a better shot at Trump on obstruction, which would make sense...in that Trump has admitted to obstruction, in public, many, many times. So y'know, lots of possibilities!
Now, Congressional Republicans are the intelligence experts, self-appointed to oversee the FBI and the DOJ and to evaluate intelligence reports as they were experts. Suppose FBI agents decided to assume the duties of lawmakers and Congress and tell how to legislate. FBI agents are trained law enforcement officials and intelligence experts and Republicans should allow them to do their jobs, even if their conclusions cast the president in an unfavorable light.
The president’s involvement with Russia is like a centipede, with one hundred arms or tentacles crawling in different directions. Robert Mueller’s investigation therefore must be thorough instead of the slipshod probe the president’s supports hoped for. With each new revelation or indictment by the Special Prosecutor, the Republicans counter with a memo or report that exonerates the president from any wrongdoing.
Vladimir Putin has created a civil war in America that threatens permanent damage for the republic far more than the Civil War of 1861-65 ever did. Unrest in America is the order of the day.
5
the truth and nothing but the truth--like a safari for unicorns in this era. I believe that when more of the truth is finally revealed, it will be the hideously painful fact that trump was installed--top to bottom, start to finish--by putin, and that the republicans knowingly played along. traitors--all of them. I will not live to see the whole sordid story declassified, and I am glad for that.
4
It is simple.
Washington was a big ugly swamp that Trump promised to drain. Instead he added a new level of toxic potion to the already putrid waters.
The stench can now be detected in every nook and cranny of America and well beyond our borders.
It's such a mess that it sent Paul Ryan packing as he chose to abdicate his untenable princely seat and to abandon any sense of duty he may have had to his Wisconsin constituents and his GOP brethren whom he claimed to serve.
The clean-up chore will be so daunting and expensive that not even the EPA in its finest moments would be up to the task.
The political and social smog and accompanying carcinogens are eating away at our body politic right before our eyes.
5
Why are Republicans so eager to ignore any evidence of the ways in which the Trump campaign was associated with Russian agents and the extent of Russian influence to secure his election? Isn't is possible to be a supporter, but still want to know the truth? After all, they accept the truth about his lies, his womanizing, his crude and insensitive remarks, his calls for revenge against his enemies. They revel in all his less-than-attractive aspects, and they love him in spite of them,or even because of them. So, why is this one issue so bothersome for them? Why don't they say, "sure, he accepted Russia's help to get elected. So what?" It seems there's nothing he can do that will make them love him any less, so why would the revelation that Trump is a Russian stooge make any difference?
7
Trump's greatest defense against America seeing him for what he is is that he is President of the United States of America. It is mentally dissonant to see someone like Trump killing truth, mocking his opponents in the crudest terms, going off on irrational rants, making appointments and policy on a whim, kowtowing to Republican idols and try to grasp that the man is President. We need to remember always that there is the office and there is the man. We honor the office this man disgraces and hides behind.
3
"A toxic fog of denial has descended over much of the country."
It certainly has. Republicans bend over backwards to interpret each new piece of evidence regarding Trump's Russia connections in his favor.
Meanwhile, Trump continues to operate his businesses in an opaque manner, and may be on his way to becoming an actual multi-billionaire, rather than a pretend one.
The Trump administration is an unmitigated disaster and a travesty.
9
And liberals like Ms. Goldberg bend over backwards to view anything Trump in its most unfavorable light.
It is equally true to suggest that the liberal's approach to managing the Trump years is teetering on the edge of catastrophe as the only thing that they appear to have to offer is "not Trump".
And, while t hat might sound encouraging to the liberal, it is not the "liberal" vote that the "liberal" needs to prevail at the ballot box...
That vote belongs to the "moderates" and "independents" who may want something more meaningful than a return to the lackluster policies and programs of the Obama "liberal" wing.
1
I must admit "not Trump" sounds like a good first step.
I feel this all started with the blatant stealing of a Supreme Court seat by Mitch McConnell and we have been slipping steadily into the sewer ever since. It seems that America has run out of outrage.
8
Please cite for us the laws and rules that suggest that a nominee for the Supreme Court is entitled to a vote by the Senate or for even a hearing...
The Constitution only requires advice and consent for seating, and a refusal to vote or to give hearing is clearly establishing the advice that the candidate is not acceptable.
The Constitution also grants the Senate sole and exclusive rights to set their own rules. Nothing in the Senate Rules specify that a nominee be granted a vote, and nothing in those rules require that a hearing be held other than if a name is to come to the floor, it must be passed out from committee.
So...Where is the "theft"?
Without some law or rule being broken, there can be no theft.
So, please dig deep and enlighten those who have take the time to read the Constitution for what it says and the Rules of the Senate for the same, just exactly is the basis for your claim?
No basis, eh?
No theft.
Custom and precedent is one foundation of our system. By that definition, we were robbed of the traditional hearing. The GOP fear was that obama nominated such a squeaky clean white guy that public hearings would have forced the right wing Senate to consent or show themselves so Out of the mainstream by saying no.
Excellent piece, Michelle. You have brought it all succinctly together. Thank you. Yup Michelle Wolf gave them a fainting fit.
6
Putin made a calculated risk that he could not only interfer in the 2016 election, but in the process, subborn the Republican party. He knew the Republicans hated Hillary Clinton as much as he did. Even more significant, the House Republicans demonstrated that they would be more than willing to be co-conspirators by their never ending attacks on Clinton via the Benghazi investigations. Of course the GOP, and Fox viewers who tuned to Trump TV for Russian-tainted information, will never admit that Trump and his family are not just guilty of conspiracy, but of treason by working with an enemy foreign power to subvert are liberties. Most Republicans who support Trump and his fake news claims don't realize that they are being played for suckers. When, and if, they realize that have been had, then the payback will be brutal not just for Trump and his inner circle, but his erstwhile Republican enablers in Congress.
7
Of course, on learning of the Russian interference, Obama stern warning to Putin "Cut it out" was monumentally effective.
1
And you are forgetting, or selectively forgetting, the following sanctions that Obama imposed and the efforts by Flynn and Trump to negate them secretly with their Russian masters. I just love Republican snowflakes once they are confronted with unpleasant truths.
not quite. Truth does not matter to House Republicans
and they are doing their best to hid the truth from
the people.
Their intel report was such nonsense that it was
treated as such.
Facts? Trump? Math? Science? Expertise?
HAH
4
My thanks to the Times for adding Michelle Goldberg’s clear and articulate writing to the paper. She does not get lost in the grass that’s grown so tall in America.
7
Same party that impeached a president, after seven years of a witch hunt, for fibbing about a private, consensual affair, and then spent three years on an investigation of the wife of that same president over a terrorist attack in Benghazi...rather than rallying behind the president and country after a terrorist attack as Democrats did Pres. Bush after 9/11 (which Republicans were also reticent to investigate), and who are still demanding further investigation and even imprisonment over a legal, private email server (while Trump blabs away on his personal cell phone). Bottom line: this is America under Republican rule. In short: corrupt.
10
Well weren't they supposed to be finding out why we didn't know any of this before the election?
What were the blinders that made the F.B.I. concentrate so much on a couple of acronyms in Clinton's emails while totally ignoring the potential treason of the Trump campaign?
Aren't the Intelligence agents being paid to be suspicious of foreigners attempting to harm the United States? Whatever the final determination about Trump and his culpability, the so-called "Deep State" intelligence agencies helped him get elected by not sounding the alarm.
1
I've reached a point that the only thing that is hopeful now is Trump leaving the Presidency as one of our failed experiments in democracy.
2
This is just the latest move by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee to protect Trump at any cost. Republicans were always going to use their report to justify Trump's criminality. Devin Nunes, via his memo of February 2, already led a Republican effort to derail and discredit the intelligence community by falsely stating it had overstepped its surveillance of Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page. Nunes wanted to depict the Intelligence community as biased against Trump and to discredit the work of Special Counsel Mueller. No surprise, the Republicans now use classic Russian Totalitarian Disinformation to continue gas-lighting us. It's why Republicans deliberately contradict all the evidence in pretending that America's intelligence community failed to use "proper analytic tradecraft" when correctly concluding that Russia wanted to help elect Donald Trump, and that there was evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. The use and goal of such disinformation, also known as "active measures" in the KGB/FSB jargon of Vladimir Putin, has always been to weaken America. It certainly succeeded. It found a perfect vehicle for transmission in Trump, who, because of his temperament, immorality, insolvency, and pervasive criminality, has been in bed with Russia, Russian gangsters, and Russian financiers, for decades. Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee are now continuing Putin's and Cambridge Analytica's fine work of destroying American democracy.
3
Some truths have been known for a long time”
“By Doubting we are led to Enquire, by Enquiry, we percieve Truth” – Peter Abelard
“… in truth, what difference is there between a man who will not, and a man who cannot be informed?” - Chesterfield
The GOP would have us not enquire. It is the party of the willfully uninformed.
1
Do you really expect a party to injure its standard-bearer even if charges are true?
No matter the division of House seats, these committees should have the same number if members on each side - ir laid to rest, with the job given to Branch 1,5 - a Department of Justice protected by not only the Executive Branch but from Congress as well, divided into agencies for the prosecution and a brick-wall-encapsulated department guaranteeing those who cannot afford high/priced law firms in cases requiring them, and providing the plaintiffs lawyers in cases charging the federal government, or big corporate USA from things illegal discrimination or manufacture of dangerous products, from makers of shrapnel-throwing airbags to polluting cars and trucks, or the FDA, for refusing to close down snake-oil sellers of homeopathic and herbal remedies.
Just for example, a senior lobbyist for the above, after she regained consciousness because her “Chinese druggist” had almost killed her with prescribed “alternative medicine” explained to me that homeopathic remedies, a bottle if which contains a 1::10,000 of having ONE molecule of a pharmaceutical, works because any contact with that molecule, when tens of thousands of gallons of water are mixed with a fraction of a grain of a med “pick up the characteristics” of that molecule, because it changes the water’s “vibrations”. “it works just like a vaccine” she said, something proven impossible CENTURIES ago.
Given the breathtaking scope of Trump's offenses as reflected in Mueller's questions (and this doesn't include the documentation on money-laundering that he probably has in his possession) I am confident that in November, voters will do what is necessary to end this nightmare.
As we used to say in Brooklyn: "Throw the bums out."
2
The article is so on point. I hope the American people realize that there democracy is under attack not only by Trump and the swamp administration but by there own representatives. These people are un-American and in the old days that the GOP are so fond of embracing they would be called traitors. I applaud the New York Times for providing this concrete information . Midterms are coming and Mueller is coming.
It would be so nice to see all of these GOP politicians replaced by honest Americans who care about this country.
1
More "smokey eye shadow" from the republican party. No one takes what they say seriously, except for the 34-38% of the voting population that still is worried about Hillary's emails.
When the Dems retake Congress in November, the truth in this matter will take its rightful place. I’m starting to think that Mueller will release his findings after the midterms, giving Dems the fodder to impeach and the impetus to rid our government of the sleaze and grotesquerie that, the author describes, is a “toxic fog” choking the life out of our democracy.
Little lies are easy to believe because most people have told little lies. Big lies are harder to believe or imagine because we cannot imagine doing them. That's the difference between people like Trump and most. Trump does not have any problem with the big lie because he begins with little lies and builds on them. We don't want to believe a politician would collude with another government to win an election. For those who do not believe he's lying, open your eyes. This is about more than Trump. It's about our Democracy.
What a depressing headline--that "truth has stopped mattering in the Russia investigation". But depressing or not, the Republicans have shown us that they only care about keeping the $millions donated to their "campaigns" by the Kochs and Mercers et alia, not about speaking the truth about Trump's rise to power with help from the Russians.
What comes to my mind is Eric Hoffer's True Believers. His prescient writing could be about what has happened to our country. His words “All mass movements … irrespective of the doctrine they preach and the program they project, breed fanaticism, enthusiasm, fervent hope, hatred, and intolerance” seem to describe Republican behavior today, especially Trump supporters' fanaticism.
2
Is the British government and the BBC colluding with American politicians? How about the French? The Israeli? The Mexican? The Chinese? Canadian? It must be a joke when people talk about the Russians influencing our elections but ignore all the much bigger players. Anyone looking knows Russian is not the most important foreign player influencing our elections. They are not the largest source of foreign money or intelligence. Christopher Steele an "Ex" British spy working with both the Republican and Democratic Parties to undermine the Trump campaign. Has Steele really broken all ties with the British government? I doubt it. Why haven't we imposed sanctions on Britain? The hypocrisy of the whole story is insulting.
2
Do you remember how back in the day, when the headlines were about suicide cults in Guyanana, people had hope that rational deprogramming methods might save their sons and daughters (numbering in the thousands) from such ghastly doom?
Now we are confronted with the alternative reality of Trumpism, a suicidal cult of personality, whose recruits, alas, number in the millions!
How shall we ever hope to deprogram this towering mass of deluded victims and rescue our priceless democratic, rational heritage?
1
All you have to do is "find and replace" Trump with Clinton (or Obama) to reveal the utter hypocrisy of the Republican party...
1
Well done, Michelle! I hope you tell your colleague Maggie Haberman how disappointed many of us are in her pandering tweet to Sarah Huckabee after the WH Correspondents Dinner. Who can trust her reporting now?
When is someone going to call out the Republicans in Congress covering up for Trump for what they are: traitors. I honestly do not know how these people, holding a seat of honor in our national legislature, supposedly patriots, can hide these potentially treasonous acts, and denigrate our much more honorable men and women of the Justice Dept. and FBI. It disgusts me to my core.
1
Imagine the consequences of continuing with the denial of all the big truths. Signs of descent in the planet of sapiens. That some barriers to the truths are just not meant to be crossed. See no evil if you got the devil on your side.
It becomes interesting to try and ferret out the probable Russian intelligence service responses in the letters commenting on the Russian interference issue. I’ve guessing-read two here thus far, temporizing and obscuring the issue, and inciting hopelessness.
The crucial issue is treason. Some politicians practice it. One should not coddle hopelessness in the face of betrayal of our constitution and democracy.
“Citizens United,” the Supreme Court decision delimiting political contributions, hands extraordinary power to demagogues such as (our New York City philanthropists) Koch brothers, who have mutated the John Birch Society, a family philosophy, into an industry whose extreme right wing dislikes American governance itself. To an extent, their arrogance incites treason, and they have invited a totalitarian Communistic oligarchy to dine on the American ideal. Ironic. And there are other monied types who have crystallized around racist or other fears.
Republican elected office holders lackey catering to this monied far right have joined them at the table, dining on democracy.
It is time for Americans to rally to our flag. Not the time to give up.
Citing Clapper is not exactly the best strategy to make your point. Clapper lied in Congressional testimony and faces investigations himself.
And as far as "... there’s already overwhelming evidence of the Trump campaign’s collusion with Russia." What nonsense. If such evidence actually existed it would already have been leaked to the press. Instead we have the opposite, the Assistant AG has already told Trump he is not under investigation. This may change but until it does perhaps Michelle Goldberg should write fiction instead of Op eds because that's the only thing she is good at.
1
" If such evidence actually existed it would already have been leaked to the press."
LOL - it has - tons of it - you've been reading it in the Times for a year now.
Michell Goldberg is wrong. Truth matters very much in the investigations into Donald Trump’s conspiracy with the Russians to steal the 2016 election.
Hundreds of mainstream journalists and Democrats in Congress spend nearly every working hour trying to discover the truth.
Hundreds of propagandists and Republicans in Congress spend nearly every working hour trying to distort or obfuscate the truth.
Truth matters, and Michelle Goldberg should not despair.
In fact, she should even pause to chuckle, because of a great irony. Most of the people who are conducting the one guaranteed-honest-and-thorough probe of Donald Trump -- the Mueller investigation -- are Republicans.
1
I have always considered myself an independent. I have voted for both democrats and republicans over the years. The disgusting display of party before common sense, and country in both the tax debacle and the Russian investigation has led me to the conclusion that I will never vote for another republican again.
1
Republicans have long ago eschewed the truth so the current state of affairs shouldn’t surprise anyone, it’s those whose willful ignorance allows the current republican congressional leadership to blithely continue their dismantling of our democratic state that is the problem.
Conspiracy theories, questionable statements made by the president, Congress and certain media outlets all accepted as gospel by the supporters will be the undoing of our nation.
Excellent article and spot on!
Please see Mueller’s questions in a related article. It’s clear to anyone who can read, comprehend, analyze, and draw a conclusion that this Republican President is going to jail. When that will happen is unclear, but at some point in the future this Republican will be serving time for crimes against the USA. Let’s all hope it’s before he has destroyed our country.
Save a Republic, Remove a Republican.
2
All this talk does nothing to allay my deep fear for our country. We have descended into a mire of muck such as nothing, not the Civil War, not WW II, not McCarthyism, not Watergate can touch.
We see once respected institutions such as our banks engaging in filthy tactics to undermine people's basic needs such as housing, education of our young and decent food on the table, a gun promoting agency encouraging slaughter of kids, our so-called President threatening to nuclearize his "enemies" and react with horror when finally a truth telling woman such as Michelle Wolf gets up and tells it like it is, all I can do is shake my head....
"The truth hidden among the propaganda in the House Intelligence Committee’s majority report is that power is winning."
For now. If the Democratic party can somehow become focused, get rid of an ineffective old guard. and present a message other than not Trump, things will change.
Minority identification politics enrage haters and motivate them to vote. They are more worried about bathroom politics than having the air they breathe and the water they drink poisoned.
Stealth it. And no grand litmus tests. It takes 51 votes to block a judicial nomination. Take help from anywhere and hold your nose.
When a new House Intelligence Committee is seated in 2019 we will find out how Russian money was laundered and injected into our elections. And if members of that committee had taken laundered Russian money.
What will come before that from Muller is anybody's guess.
Probably the deep state conspiracy it reveals will be Russian-Republican.
I think, Ms, Goldberg, that our Republic might be entering Wagner’s final stage, Gotterdammerung, the fading twilight of our viability as a sovereign nation.
Right before our eyes, we are witnessing the determined take-over of fantasy from reality; where truth and facts are whatever one wishes them to be. The health of our country seems less important by the day. The Right’s rabid defiance of Donald Trump’s performance—if one may describe it so—is unforgivable and treasonous. Had a Democrat been burdened with the insupportable weight that should have crushed a malfeasant president, Devin Nunes and his posse would have been insanely caustic.
The 85% of Republicans, however, seem content to lope along, cheerleading the indefensible. The Republican Party has dug a trench between itself and the rest of the sane populace, its nakedness barely covered by the fig leaf of the Jobs And Tax Cuts to commend itself after 15 months in power.
A cowardly and compliant media bring the awful culture of acquiescence full circle. It has backed away from its duty as the public’s watchdog, its toothless maw dripping with impotent helplessness in the face of withering Republican criticism, none of it justified.
The president has compromised every law enforcement agency and intelligence service for their refusal to bury his sins in the graveyard of the Russian investigation.
How we respond in November will reveal what’s left of our country.
1
A footnote to my comment of a few minutes ago: I'm fairly certain that the reason Trump fired ALL the U.S. Attorneys was just to provide cover to get rid of Preet Bharara, the previous Southern District U.S. attorney. But it did not help him.
Truth stopped mattering sometime during Obama's first Presidential run. Born in Kenya? Please, the fact that people chose to believe this (and the multitude of lies that have followed) indicates that many American citizens prefer fantasy to non-fiction, and "reality TV" to documentaries. This bodes ill for our future.
Michelle Goldberg's opinion piece has been timed perfectly. Just hours ago, the Times released Mr. Mueller's list of about four dozen questions that the special counsel would like to specifically ask Trump. The questions, as one pundit said, are topics in and of themselves...like peeling an onion of many layers, with the scent of pungency.
I personally have tried to stay on top of all these events. And, as mentioned, it is to the point of being overwhelming, not necessarily leading to apathy, but rather utter mental exhaustion.
But we are the only ones it seems who along with the Democratic Congress have got to keep the truth, or rather the lies and spins, in the forefront. We are seemingly entrapped by dishonesty spewing from Trump, his Cabinet, his GOP Congress, FOX, and, yes, his rabid supporters who for some reason find the truth repugnant. Let's reenergize right now by watching closely how Trump and his team of lawyers are going to respond to Mr. Mueller's queries...a real time, reality show that shouldn't be missed.
2
Truth has stopped mattering in the US it seems when comedians speak the truth and the politicians lie.
The worst part of this past weekend's WHCA tempest in a teapot was the revelation that so many well known print and TV reporters preen around self-righteously but in reality care very little about speaking truth to power. They care more about their access to Trump and about creating distractions in the form of faux controversies.
1
Great points. However, the NYT, along with most of the main stream media, must face the fact that they bear some responsibility for perpetuating the Administration's propaganda and lies. Case in point: nearly every mention of LTG Flynn is accompanied by the declarative statement that he was fired for "lying to VP Pence." Says who? Pence and Trump? We simply do not know this to be true. I'm betting that Pence, and probably Trump. was a witting participant. Truth has not stopped mattering to some of us.
Interesting comment. Pence is a big question mark in all this and we tend to forget about him except as a post-impeachment scenario - which won't happen anyway, as we know by now.
He came on board late in this story, but it is very hard to think that by now he too is not very deeply implicated in many, many ways. Indeed, it is impossible not to think so. We never hear about him "lawyering up." But he must be doing that, big-time. NYT: how about some reporting on Pence?
If in November 2018 the citizenry of these United States continue to choose to ignore the real and present dangers lurking in that so-called Intelligence report from an aiding and abetting House GOP then most surely the consequences will bear striking resemblance to what happened in Germany in 1933. Will we allow 70% of this country to be Trump and company's scapegoats?
Besides Trump, the elephant in the room is the republican base for whom power trumps truth (pun intended?)
The right wing base is a phenomenon indeed. They believe in their god--Trump in this case--and if father says that facts are fake news, then facts are not to be believed.
But that's them, not us. For us, the truth shall set you free. We stand for truth, justice and the American way. We are the supermen and women of the resistance for whom beauty is truth, truth is beauty; that is all ye know on earth and all ye need to know.
I think Michelle Goldberg is beautiful and talking truth to power and her essay is so insightful and comprehensive about this Trumpian/Republican/Authoritarian/Fascist mess. Truth will triumph and Michelle Goldberg is one reason why.
2
In legal jargon what the republican Congress is doing is call being a accessory after the act. I suspect some like Nunes are accessories before the act.
"Under Trump, the central battle in our culture is between truth and power." No, it's not. The war is between the "red" states that support Trump and the "blue" states that loathe him. The key insight is that Trump gave his supporters permission to hate, and it turns out that is enough. No wall, no infrastructure plan, no 4% GDP growth, not much trickle down from the huge tax cut, soaring deficit, etc., and Trump's approval rating with Republicans is still about 87%. The only thing that's important to red America is that they are now free to hate. Blue America has to grow up and admit this.
The most shocking development of Trump's presidency is that "blue" states continue to put up with this nonsense. It's really quite remarkable that there hasn't been a serious move toward secession by the "blue" states of the west coast and the northeast. For some crazy reason, blue staters continue to hold out hope that red America will come to its senses. California alone boasts the 6th largest economy on earth. The 6 New England states plus New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland would probably come in at #5. What on earth are they waiting for? Leave red America to wallow in its decaying public school systems and its infuriating "know-nothingism" when it comes to science based inquiry and climate change.
It's only that "truth has stopped mattering" to Republicans "in the Russia investigation." Specifically, House Republicans are (yes) colluding with the President (yes) to obstruct justice by impeding the investigation as Rep. Devin Nunes tried and failed to on two separate occasions. And, when those Keystone Kops efforts fell flat, he and his axis of colluders on the House Intelligence Committee issued a premature report exonerating Donald Trump. All this means little as long as the Special Counsel Robert Mueller III is allowed to complete his investigation an answer the big question: Was there a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia? All the public "stack" of evidence indicates that its quite likely. There are so many data points from the change in the Republican platform by Paul Manafort from a pro-Ukrainian plank to a pro-Russian one; to Manafort's email offering access to a Russian oligarch he was in debt to; from the Trump Tower meeting with a now publicly revealed Kremlin operative and Manafort, Kushner and Don Jr. offering "dirt"(aka the hacked emails) on Sec. Clinton in return for sanctions relief with the dirt soon dumped via Wikileaks; from the coverup by Donald Trump himself on Air Force One; from Michael Flynn's attempt to provide sanctions relief; and from the recent cancellation of sanctions by Mr. Trump of those announced by his U.N. Ambassador, Nikki Haley. You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to see the truth of a real conspiracy.
1
I'm a Liberal who started reading Fox News 10 years ago, telling myself to get out of my insular bubble, and understand other perspectives. I branched out to RealClearPolitics, and would even listen to Limbaugh/Hannity/Levin when flipping through channels.
I'm surprised that so many mainstream and Left media are suddenly writing about how Trumpism destroyed truth, when in fact, the entire Rightwing Media Cabal has been making a concerted efforted to destroy truth for more than a decade!
They have been openly feeding the Deplorables (who are 35% of our populace) a constant stream of lies, divisiveness, and outright hatred for all these years. They've cultivated an entire generation of Dittoheads who accept outright lies, because any "fact/truth" can be discounted as part of the Deep State conspiracy.
All the while, centrist and "reasonable" Republicans (and pundits) sat in complicit silence, knowing what was going on, but not speaking out because, well, they were "winning" the game of power.
This destruction of truth didn't start with Trumpism; he's merely the apotheosis of what the Right has been cultivating for years.
So why are the mainstream media and the Left suddenly shocked? Because the bits of the horror that surfaced along the way seemed so insane that no one took it seriously. A wacko like Bannon having power in the White House? Never! Besides, no one took those ridiculous Benghazi hearings seriously!
We're now reaping what they've been sowing for so long.
1
More becomes less. Well said. There are so many panicked headlines, though possessed by dread, I fear a devastating truth splits the country. A good many will want to see justice served, but a minority will want to tout that this is all a witch hunt. What will Trump do in the moment his nation needs him most? Adhere tightly to the rule of law or foment insurrection?
We will need the Republicans to stand for country over party, either way.
Man, do we need comedians more than ever.
1
Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee -- "intelligence" being particularly oxymoronic when applied to Chairman Nunes -- are forever stained by their blatant whitewash of Trump's collusion and obstruction of justice. They will reap what they sow come November.
2
Where is the indignation on our behalf by Congress that we are lied to daily. That, after massive country-wide protests to save the ACA, the GOP is still trying to kill it--without anything as replacement. Where are our tax cuts that go to the middle class (I know, the rich and corporations as altruistic as they are will let some "trickle down", hah!)
Oh well, sure, let's have one or two more investigations into Hillary Clinton as side shows so the GOP can show us how they are looking out for our welfare....as Trump with their connivance dismantle our government structures while his cabinet, family and himself profit by tax payer dollars.
1
In the end, as I imagine you are aware, they take no notice even of the laws –written or unwritten - in their determination that no one shall be master over them in any way at all ... This is the form of government, my friend, so attractive and so headstrong, from which I believe tyranny is born.” Plato predicting the demise of democracy in The Republic
1
As this collusion was to get Trump elected (and perhaps (!) protect Russian interests, as represented by Trump) let's imagine that we didn't know what we know now last January, but when it was occurring, before the election, say, October 2016.
Could Russian collusion in the Trump campaign superseded Hilary's emails? I wish I could say, 'of course!'
But the country we are living in is not the country I thought I knew.
2
"Under Trump, the central battle in our culture is between truth and power."
I spent a few days visiting relatives in Ohio a week or two ago. Time and again I heard the same refrain. "I hate all of the yelling by both sides. I hate how both sides are so angry." Their fuses are blown. The input has overcome the their cultural circuitry. For them, the simple meaning of assertions has become just so much white noise, and distinguishing between truth and power is simply no longer possible.
2
Truth stopped mattering in a lot of matters, just 2 e.g.s below.
-the Joy Reid hacker story - most people did not fall for this very improbable claim that a hacker wrote anti-gay comments on her blog, which she later partly backtracked, but NBC hardly cared and still unconditionally supports her. Compare this to the handling of Bob Beckel, who was terminated by Fox News after he was accused of racist remarks directed at a black IT worker. Moral of the story - if you are a white male, you cannot get away with racism, and rightly so, but if you are a black female, and can concoct an improbable explanation and spin it upside down, you can get away with homophobia, unrightly so.
- the poisonous Michelle Wolf monologue - her supporters said that she spoke the truth when she hurled insult after insult, and has nothing to apologize for, but she did not speak any truth, only a caustic opinion.
The deal is Trump lies and changes the lies and changes the lies.
His supporters support that. They don’t care. His supporters in communities don’t care, his appointees don’t care, his supporting elected leaders don’t care.
As long as all these people have power to participate in running a government, there will be no truth. Everyday is just a surreal country. Trump’s reign, a surreal state of affairs, floating along dangerously, with the potential to implode or explode at any time.
Collusion is not per se illegal but conspiracy to defraud the US is, and that should be the least of the charges. I hope Mueller uses the RICO statutes. Does anything describe Trump world better than "Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations" ? From the money laundering to the selling out of the country for profit and power to the shady quid pro quo dealings of sanctions relief for dirt on Clinton-- it's a classic crime family story, complete with extortion, sex scandals, payoffs and threats. RICO!
1
I hear Devin Nunes' seat has become a contest. If he loses he can write espionage fiction.
After seeing the Comey sad book show and reviewing the lame questions of the Mueller investigation, I agree. The truth is no longer so important as long as Flynn and Comey and McCabe stay fired for lying. I think Obama sums it up best when he said “there is no there, there”.
The power of brainwashing has been overlooked in this frightening column. I have thoughtful conservative friend, who didn't vote for Trump or Hillary and found his behavior revolting. I saw him this week for the first time in a while, and it was like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"--he was now mindlessly parroting Fox talking points: "No one cares" about Russia, Trump has done "so many good things", etc., totally resistant to any facts.
The pod people are multiplying, and we'd better take action before it is too late.
www.newyorkgritty.net
2
This entire situation is out of hand.
The three intelligence agency veterans have all been accused of lying or crossing the torture line during black site operations. Not exactly people to stand up for US democratic values.
The Republican Congressional strategy (apart from resignation from office) seems to be first to stick together. After all, how could all of them be impeached? They are the ones who do the impeaching. Second, pretend that nothing is there, and hope that voters buy it. After all, Trump generates so many scandals and crises simultaneously, the truth will have minimal impact. Finally, pretend that he is doing his job--tout prematurely a success in Korea, applaud the tax cut as beneficial to everyone in the long run. At least the big donors got what they wanted and they are there for protection whatever happens in November.
9
You knew even before Congress convened any investigation into Russian interference in our elections that this investigation was going nowhere. This is similar to the Republican led 9/11 commission, this was another whitewash.
18
Trump was correct when he claimed that the election was rigged. He did not mention that it was rigged in his favor.
32
IF collusion or obstruction is proven, that is when you'll know the truth doesn't matter. Trump, and his Republican congress, aren't going anywhere until they get voted out, and who else is there to vote for?
10
You are assuming that they will actually leave after being voted out. Fascists usually don't do that.
The trouble is that most people have a sense of the idea of "fairness" that they have learned as children. So there is always to them some equivalence that can be pointed to: that the other side does it too. If you take this to its absurd conclusion, anybody can get away with anything. The Tea Party, Republicans and DT have turned this into an art form.
18
All the revelations in the world won't make a bit of difference, certainly not to the cult and only just barely to the fringe cult who will remain on the fence until they see just how powerful the cult proves to be.
This is liable to be decided not in courts, nor in Congress, nor in voting booths.
It's liable to be decided in the streets.
12
That is another scary part, and the most likely. The WH occupant opened that door when he encouraged hate on his very first speech and built from there. We will be paying a big price for what I would call treason.
There's a saying: "Reality has a well-known Liberal bias."
The problem for conservatives and conservatism is that it just does not work - unless what they mean by 'working' is perpetuating their grasp on power and privilege. In that sense, conservatism has bee a roaring success. Never have so few extracted so much from so many with so little accountability.
But, saying this is an inconvenient truth. It needs a huge bodyguard of lies, like "Tax cuts pay for themselves." "Wealth trickles down." "The government makes people dependent." "The free market makes regulation unnecessary."
And let's not get into the outright slanders directed against anyone who would try to promote inconvenient truths.
Kevin Drum has an interesting piece at Mother Jones focused on jobs. It lays out where the economy has been going for the last few decades, and where the money has ended up. His conclusion at the end is exactly what the lying liars of the GOP don't want us to look at. This is what they are fighting to protect, and why they'll take help from anyone, including Russia, to keep their grip on power.
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/04/stop-thinking-small-we-ne...
25
We know this.
Now how to convince the 30% of this country to vote for representatives that will be good, sane legislators.
One commentator from Italy said talk about policy. Is the tax cut for you or the rich? Affordable Care Act, how is your health care, bettor or not? How can we spend the billions of dollars that will really grow the economy, instead of building a wall against a major trading partner.(Winter fruit anyone? Any corn farmers out there?)
See the op-ed in Gray Matter today about Lies.
9
Yesterday, it was reported that Mueller had dozens of questions for Trump. My hope is that like all good prosecutors Mueller already knows the answers.
11
I think that is a safe bet. Mr. Mueller gives the impression that he takes his job very seriously. He knows that his findings will have to stand up to intense scrutiny. We can be glad that there are people like him who make a career out of serving their country.
7
Here's a question from Mueller that appears to be related to members of the Trump campaign soliciting Russia for help in the election – this would equal the last piece of the Trump campaign collusion puzzle if true…
• What knowledge did you have of any outreach by your campaign, including by Paul Manafort, to Russia about potential assistance to the campaign?
1
Most Republicans believe that the whole thing was a Barney Fife type boondoggle, that Hillary used a private server, and had all these emails, the Democratic National Committee, and the Hillary Clinton campaign paid for a dossier on Donald Trump's time in Russia from a British ex-spy, and Donna Brazile, passed pre debate questions to Hillary Clinton from CNN. Most Democrats believe that Russia tried to hack our elections, lots of Trump's inner circle were colluding with Russia, and that Donald Trump was behind it. All of that is true. It is just that one side believes their truth is more important, and the other side believes their truth is more important. The bigger problem is that those who committed all of the above, themselves didn't care about truth at the time it was all going on, and what they were all doing!
3
Truth has long since stopped mattering to the Republican party, not only with respect to their efforts to bury the Russia investigation, but in a general political context as well.
The GOP party has become the party of deceit and lies. It has gone from the "Grand Old Party" to the "Greedy Obstructionist Party". Clearly its mission now, in the face of the Russia investigation, is to preserve power at all costs. However, this goal of theirs will be soundly rejected in the November 2018 elections by an electorate that has finally opened its eyes and ears to the obvious.
As has been projected, there will be a Blue Tidal Wave of epoch proportion as "We, the people" register our absolute disgust, not only with Trump, but also with the Republican party in general... And it couldn't happen to a more deserving crowd.
16
Yes, Michelle Wolf was brave and right in her scathing humor. We can’t have safe spaces here, even though the Republicans and their leader have been given coverage. Thanks, but no thanks Press who helped give Trump a leg up.
11
You are so right, Michelle Goldberg. The media is still playing Trump's game, leading the public to believe that anything short of a photograph showing Russian agents delivering bags of cash to Trump Tower somehow absolves him. But we already know that the Trump campaign knew the Russians were trying to help him get elected, they solicited and exploited that help, and the candidate even publicly asked for more! There is not a single a known instance where anyone associated with the campaign suggested that they should alert the FBI or other intelligence agencies of the Russian overtures or hacks. At every step of the way they welcomed the help of a hostile state and encouraged more of it. Fair play, the integrity or our elections, and our national security never entered their minds. If this was a Democratic candidate and a Democratic president impeach proceedings would have already begun.
39
Truth has stopped mattering the day Trump and the Republican Congress took control of this country.
22
Good column Michelle, you nailed this issue in terms of the Republican contempt for getting at the truth in the Russia investigation. In view of the fact that roughly 25% of the electorate put Trump in and 40% didn't even bother to vote, Trump only needs to lie to a small segment of the voters and they've accepted it. Without a change this fall, I can't see there will be any more pressure put on the Republicans. Appealing to one and four voters isn't a challenge for these guys and this minority of voters like the Trump's message. Russia is a nuisance issue
9
I am still holding out hope that within a year some Republicans in Congress will rediscover their courage and confront this mess. There is simply no way they would dump Trump during this year's primary season - doing so would likely lead to some incumbents losing to a Trumpist primary challenger. This would probably not be something anyone from either party wants.
After the November elections, however, Republicans in Congress will face both a long game politically and more revelations legally. They have half a year to work up their nerve.
6
My bet on 1-Feb-2017 was that it would take until late August 2018 for House Republicans to be afraid enough to begin to pull the plug. Casual voters don't tune in until after Labor Day. Republicans don't need courage. They need the primaries behind them and the fear of November before them. Then they'll act to try to cover themselves with 'glory' in front of those who haven't bothered to tune in until that point.
What you say about Michelle Wolf is true, and her experience at the Correspondents’ Dinner is enlightening. When she stood alone and rightly castigated media for creating Trump the Candidate Who Must Be Watched, she was stoned for lampooning an attitude attested to by the president of CBS, among many others.
When Ben Carson laid into President Obama at a supposedly nonpartisan event, Republicans rewarded him again and again, lately with a cabinet position, even though he has shown not an iota of skill or interest in any of it.
What’s up here?
11
I have long thought that there is a likelihood that more of the republican establishment is under Russian influence (control) than just part of the White House staff. Mr. Nunes is , to me, the most obvious suspect and quite a number of other House republicans may also be aligned with that club. If it turns out that the NRA has been a conduit for Russian money then that could explain why the house intel committee has served up a piece of nonsense that sounds as if it was translated from the Russian.
22
I continue to be amazed at the lengths the Republicans in Congress are willing to go to ignore evidence of ties between the president and the Russian government.
Attacking our intelligence and law enforcement agencies for doing their job is the most egregious example. Making up rationalizations for dubious meetings is the most juvenile.
Why does an American political party ignore evidence of interference by a hostile foreign power? What kind of politician puts his party ahead of his country? Is passing a conservative agenda more important than defending the country against foreign interference?
And most importantly, how does any sane American vote for someone from that party?
19
I read someone comment on his choices in 2016. There was an incompetent crook who would likely be unable to accomplish anything or a skilled, highly competent, hard-working, diligent and successful person who would take the country a good, long way in a direction HE WAS ABSOLUTELY AND UTTERLY OPPOSED TO IT GOING.
So he voted for the incompetent crook and has no regrets. Is that sane? I guess that depends on whether you view the glass as half-empty or half-full. Do we need to roll the clock back to pre-Reagan or continue to persevere with the agenda of shrink-and-drown the federal government? Sane people can make different calls on that.
For the GOP leadership, truth about nearly any topic or policy has stopped mattering over the past few decades. Fair tax policy, affordable health care, honest and appropriate defense policy, foreign aid, immigration policy, drug policy, infrastructure repairs, and virtually all important topics are treated as tools to be distorted and used for political gain without concern for the legitimate needs of voters. Most recently, the GOP has enabled and supported a narcissistic sociopath who cannot tell the truth as an appropriate role model for President. The party of Lincoln no longer has a need for truth in any form.
9
Framing the debate about DT as a battle between truth and power seems right to me. And saying that power is winning also sounds right to me. The power side has access to many channels of propaganda, including Congress, Russia and now Israel. They are able to flood the public arena with misinformation and outright lies. The truth side refutes individual lies where they can but that effort feels futile. The major battle awaits the Mueller report. Then we will see if Congress and the American people choose government that reflects our better selves or accept a new and ugly turn in American democracy.
6
OK, It is time for you to get over your Trump derangement syndrome and admit that Donald Trump LEGITIMATELY won the 2016 presidential election. You may not like it, but that is the correct electoral result as set forth by the rules specified in the US Constitution.
I don't think that anyone seriously doubts that the Russian government did actively try to discredit and delegitimize the American electoral process through a campaign of subversion and disinformation. There is plenty of evidence for that. The Russian government interferes in the elections of other countries as well. However, there is absolutely no evidence that they in any way altered or tampered with the vote count. That is the important part that matters.
Mr. Trump has a strong constituency the majority of whom have not changed their opinion of him since the election. These people were not deceived by Russian disinformation: they were genuinely dissatisfied with their declining living standards over the past 37 years under the watch of both political parties; demanded change; and were willing to take a chance on an unorthodox candidate to get that change.
Mr. Trump fairly won the election in spite of an underfunded and chaotic campaign, significant and well publicized moral shortcomings, and opposition from the Republican Establishment because he spoke to an alienated constituency that HRC, the Democrats and the Republicans blew off. Not because the Russian government somehow deceived American voters.
2
He clearly lost the popular vote. We are the only major "democracy" in the world where the loser wins. Let's be brave enough to say that the Electoral College is not only bad, but that it is delegitimizing the Constitution. If we care for the Constitution, we have to fix it or it goes down the drain. Two out of the last five Presidential elections have gone to the loser.
James Clapper has pointed out that the election turned on less than 80,000 votes in three states.
7
Oh, and by the way, I don't see all those economically discontented white voters and politicians giving themselves the same lectures about hard work and discipline that they are still giving to economically discontented black people.
I totally agree with Goldberg's view of it. But regardless of whether there was collusion or not, I don't call any election win legitimate or fair that was gained by disseminating lies and incitements to hatred and violence to whip up a voter base composed of irrational emotions and collective, nationalistic egoism. Underneath "drain the swamp" there was a looming cesspool of corruption. Underneath claims of wealth for the working man and woman, there were looming tax cuts that lavished more wealth on the rich. Underneath "Make America Great Again" there was looming devastation to American institutions and values. Personally, I call this fraud by means of false pretenses.
I am totally amazed at the quality of many of the comments. Nowadays I may enjoy even more reading the comments than the original article. However I have to praise Michelle Goldberg's piece which I found very objective and very worthy.
As a non-American who nonetheless studied in the US and kept close ties, I am scared by the developments in this great-before country. I am also worried by trends in other countries where the seeds of fascism seem to be taking root and the justifications for further conflicts seem to be elaborated slowly by greedy, divisive, conniving and manipulative rulers.
What will it take to ensure that our children and grandchildren inherit an Earth worth living on and do not have to suffer through a WW3?
17
I've seen it said, at least once, maybe twice, in Times reporting that the Trump White House views the investigation of Michael Cohen by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York as more threatening than the Mueller investigation. That interesting statement was not really explained, justified or analyzed, but it is interesting nonetheless. Trump is being investigated on many sides: Mueller; the New York Federal investigation; I believe it has been reported that the Brookly D.A. is investigating Kushner. And Eric Schneiderman, the New York AG, is hanging fire only to stay out of Mueller's way - he has said as much. These investigations have different jurisdictions and different objectives, but the whole corrupt and traitorous Trump operation is one big tapestry. A good hard pull on one loose thread will unravel the whole thing if the pulling continues. Trump can fire Mueller. It would be hard but not impossible for him to fire the U.S. Attorney. But he can't fire the Brooklyn D.A. and he can't fire Schneidermann. Most of his resources are in New York State. Short of abusing the U.S. military - which of course he might do - he is going down, one way or another, in front of the law. The only question is how long, ugly and painful it is going to be before it's over.
9
This is the country Trumpians want, free of truth, laws and science. It is not Muller, Clapper or any other intelligence official who produced this situation. The Republicans did this all by themselves. They support a very bad president and they know it.
Blurring reality (truth) with tweets is a Trump thing and the House and Senate Republicans apparently love it. So unless the 2018 midterm changes the balance of power, we are in for a rocky ride. Can we get trust back after Trump is the big question.
10
No, there is no more trust, and no one is safe. Get ready for a very rocky ride, indeed. The crucible is heating up, and the boiling point is near. No mercy, no fear.
Every observation from Goldberg is correct. Anyone doubting the hypocrisy in play with Capitol Hill Republicans need consider only one additional aspect of this supposed quest for the truth. In their efforts to find Hillary Clinton somehow guilty of a crime related to Benghazi no fewer than seven separate congressional committee investigations were undertaken. Despite all of the time, money and effort spent on these endeavors, no guilt was ever discovered.
Yet, when it came to an investigation into one of their own, only one House committee was involved, multiple trails of evidence were never pursued and the rushed conclusions convinced no one other than Trump. Indeed, it seems as if the only thing missing is a garden beer party at the White House (besides the truth).
16
On the contrary, truth has never mattered. If it did, all those unsubstantiated leaks would have been criticized and dismissed. Instead, they were clung to like guns and bibles.
Trump's critics' pursuit of "truth" is almost mythical at this point. They still cannot find it but fail to consider it's not the "truth" at all but wishful thinking they've convinced themselves is "truth" to justify their obsession with it.
1
You have it backwards. Amazing the loyalty trump engenders when he has none. It's frightening.
Trump, the GOP and their voters is not an obscure phenomenon, it is the product of our current culture. Win at any cost, decency, morality, integrity and dignity doesn’t matter anymore.
12
Since Ms. Goldberg raises the issue of evidence, explain this. The Steele memo is offered as evidence of Trump's visit to Moscow and his lying about it. Maybe he did lie.
But then that same memo is ignored when one simply asks if the Russians were trying to help Trump, why would they give dirt on him to the Clinton campaign?
Supposedly the Steele contacts were "high level Russian officials." If that's true, and they were acting on behalf of the Kremlin, their revelations certainly didn't help Trump.
The key to Ms. Goldberg's argument is the Intelligence community 'assessement.' Read it carefully. An assessement is a statement of what is possible, not evidence of what occurred. And it comes from among others from James Klapper who perjured himself before Congress over the NSA scandal.
While Ms. Goldberg is excited about the 'truth' of all these bits and pieces, here paper cites Mueller as ignoring all this and instead focusing on whether Trump obstructed justice.
The reason is collusion is not a crime. If it were, Bibi Netanyhau would be the king of collusion. Putin could only dream of having the influence that Bibi does.
I'm no Trump fan, but is this the best the Democratic Party can offer? "We're not Trump" isn't exactly a political project that will stir the hearts of the masses.
5
The GOP argument highlighting the Trump team's *repeated* attempt to find "back channels" highlights something interesting.
The Trump's didn't have just one "back channel" ... they didn't try to find a "back channel" once ... no they have a *pattern* of repeatedly going after these arrangements.
The GOP are right, why attempt to find a "back channel" if you already have one?
It seems the explanation is the Trump's are using these associations to trade influence. Some of their most successful business deals ... their only lines of credit .. have formed from these kinds of relationships.
SO why have more than one "back channel"? Is pretty much asking "why have more than one Trump Tower?"
3
Power over truth in Republican congress is true, but truth is winning over power with the American voter.
The results in the many special elections, show that the informed American people can tell the difference between truth and lies. It is only when truth is hidden from them by a biased media, such as Fox News that they can be fooled. But history tells us that truth doesn't die and will eventually be known.
5
The headline reads "Truth has stopped mattering in the Russia Investigation." It should read, "Truth Never Mattered in the Russia Investigation." Why? Because neither the House nor the Senate would act on information as if it were the truth. And half our population will regard the report to be a lie if it indicts the Trump campaign, and half will believe it to be a lie if it does not.
We no longer regard the careful compilation of fact as necessary, nor do we willingly believe fact simply because evidence supports it as true. Over the weekend, I read an article begging pet owners to vaccinate their dogs, because the shots cannot cause autism in dogs. Ponder that a bit and then ask yourself what we'd do if we had a written agenda from the Trump campaign that was headed "How To Get The Russians To Defeat Hillary."
The Enlightenment is over and post-modernism rules. Truth is what we believe.
4
Republican congressional leaders are terrified by Trump supporters. That many have placed party over country to push for their mandate that will eventually impact Trump supporters in the worst ways, to include healthcare, or the absence thereof, the promised jobs, lower taxes and tough guy talk on foreign policy, immigration and attacks on the judiciary and Department of Justice simply never occurs to these people. The endless Republican hammering of the position that Government is bad is somehow appealing to them. And it's not just truth in the Russia investigation these Trump supporters don't care about, its truth in government in any area, domestic or otherwise. After all of the clear lies, obstruction and distortions Trump spews a reasonable person one would think could conclude this is not a way to represent a democratic Republic and the POTUS is UNFIT to serve. But Trump supporters ignore all facts and Republican congressional leaders cover for the lies and in some cases are complicit in the obstruction.
It's not clear to me that any criminal or even treasonous activity identified by Robert Mueller's investigation will even matter to Trump supporters or Republican leadership. We're on the threshold of tyranny with the continued attacks on the media, the only entity willing to tell the truth on Trump.
The country has one last shot in November otherwise it's all over for the nation. Get rid of the enablers in congress. It's the only way. I'm not confident.
6
Foxes that are guarding the hen house are not going to indict on their fellow foxes for having made a hole on the other side of the coop. It is just that simple.
Having said that, since this all began, I have been consistently saying that the character that will bring down this Presidency/administration will be Flynn. ( remember him ? )
He is still out there and has been amazingly quiet, while the press ( and the propaganda machine that is Fox ) have seem to forgotten him as well.
When it comes to fathers protecting their sons, ( which seems to be the leverage against Flynn to cooperate ) then all rules are thrown out the window.
We shall see ...
5
Here is my theory in response to those wondering why a new back channel would have been needed during the transition:
Setting up a back channel after the election became necessary because we are talking about a whole new deeply serious level of entanglement with Putin at that point.
During the presidential campaign Trump was just pulling his usual business flim-flammery with Putin, angling for business deals and financing, not expecting to actually win the election. In that spirit he accepted Russian help in the campaign as promoting the "hail fellow well met" of Republican international business dealings He didn't care if he was hurting Hillary Clinton, or our democracy because it was just part of the way he has always operated. He wouldn't win so there would never be called upon pay up for Russian help.
But Putin doesn't let you declare bankruptcy or renege on a deal.
After the election it was a whole new ballgame. Now the back channel was necessary because they were no longer just colluding in (what to Trump was) a fun business deal; they were colluding to cover-up treachery, if not treason, to the United States
9
With the midterms right around the corner no one ...least of all Goldberg...should be surprised that the Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee would try to bury the Russian report. Having said that there was always the possibility Trump would walk. If he does the Democrats should move on....there are bigger issues to address.
3
Re: the puzzle as to why the Rs behave as they do over Trump and his behavior. I heard a repub official interviewed on BBC World. He explained that it was their fear of Trump´s supporters - that if repub congressmen and senators publicly opposed the president, they´d be "primaried" by v. extreme Trump supporters. That thought makes sense to me, and gives the repubs a measure of absolution.
1
The Russian interference in the 2016 election should give Americans a taste of their own medicine since the US government has been interfering in the politics of other nations for decades. Putin was angered by the CIA-backed regime change in Kiev and this was his revenge.
5
Given what has been made public by the intelligence community and reporting by journalists, congressional investigations and those by national law enforcement are essential to our national security. Our country has been attacked by a foreign entity. If some Americans do not believe this or if they dismiss it or if they contradict it with false narratives, they are aiding and abetting those attempting to undermine our democratic Republic.
Two opposing or contradictory conclusions cannot both be true. There cannot be two opposing sets of facts. This is what the public needs to recognize. The majority’s report out of the House Intelligence Committee contradicts that of the combined intelligence community.
The House Intelligence Committee’s investigation was not a normal congressional investigation from a lifetime watching, listening to, or reading transcripts of past congressional investigations. Based on this departure, truth was not the aim of the majority and their report should be questioned.
Some are becoming wrapped up in propaganda, misinformation, and conspiracy theories about individuals conducting investigations and forgetting or ignoring the larger dangers to our country if such investigations were ended based on such lies purposely devised to alter public perceptions. Americans must learn to recognize this.
2
For what it's worth, academics (versus paid talking heads) do not believe in "Russian obstruction". They claim it's a false narrative produced by democrats for political gain.
When they've lost academia, progressives should take stock and re-evaluate.
"If some Americans do not believe this or if they dismiss it or if they contradict it with false narratives, they are aiding and abetting those attempting to undermine our democratic Republic."
David Frum has said it: If conservatives do not believe they can win democratically, they will not give up conservatism, they will give up on democracy. For Trump supporters, Russia is a nothingburger because it gave them what they wanted. The means are irrelevant, only the ends matter. Gorsuch is appointed, the opposition is dismayed, and the federal government is in disarray. The courts are being stacked, and more SCOTUS appointments may be in the offing.
HOW this situation was engineered is irrelevant to those who like it, only that it was successful and only that it continues.
What it comes down to is that Trump and his family this is was all smart business. Collaborate with another world power to become successful - collusion is like blaming two rivals for working together on a shared mission.
When he says, "Wouldn't be a good thing?" if we got along with Russia, that's just Trump's way of saying, I did get along with Russia, they supported me and helped me win, and what's wrong with that?
Honestly the "crime" itself isn't that bad to me. Candidates are always visiting foreign countries and looking good with other powers. I'm sure other countries lobby, maybe legally, but they also support specific candidates.
In this situation it's all the lies and the fact that Trump has a specific relationship with Russia (needed $$$$ for his life) that makes this a bigger deal to me.
2
What about Russians hacking into US voting and election systems? What if ballot counts were actually changed? What about Russian social media bots that create falsehoods and/or amplify them? I think that the means of winning count. It's one thing to have a friendly supporter, it's another to have your supporter commit crimes on your behalf.
1
My congressional representative, Eluse Stefanik, sits on the House Intelligence Committee. A proponent of show "tele-town halls" and avoiding constituents, she clearly knows where her funding comes from and to whom her loyalties lie--and it's not NY's 21st district or her constituents. She signed off on the Republican report that said "no collusion." She put party over country, and power over truth, and I'm working hard to unseat her in November. VOTE the GOP out!
28
Republicans in Congress have no wish or incentive to reveal the truth about how Russia engineered Trump's capture of this country. Their only goal is protect their access to total control of the US and continue to shovel all of our money to the Koch brothers. As far as I can see it is working perfectly and it gives their base plenty of talking points to keep them distracted from their real agenda.
19
Let's not conflate two separate issues. One is was there collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Depending on how broadly you define "Trump campaign" and who was or was not part of that campaign the answer may be yes. The second issue is was there collusion between Trump himself and Russia. Nothing in your column deals with the latter issue and I have not seen anything coming out of the Mueller investigation that establishes that either.
5
I wish to reply to the second issue you have raised. As to Mueller revealing any evidence he may have on Trump himself being a co-conspirator, he will disclose any such evidence at the appropriate time (i.e., when related indictments are unsealed) and not until then. As to direct conspiracy between Trump himself and Russia, your conclusion seems rather naive. Leaders such as Trump and Putin do not get directly involved in conspiratorial activities; they employ agents, deputies, surrogates, and cut-outs.
You might have overlooked the fact that Donald Jr., when setting up the the meeting in Trump Tower with Russians who promised dirt on Hillary Clinton, made and received calls to and from a blocked number between his two calls to the Russian rapper and son of an Russian oligarch close to Putin.
The Republican complicit Intelligence Committee could have easily found out who the owner of the blocked number was, but made an effort to keep it secret.
Donald Jr. was obviously talking to daddy-dearest to get his ok for the meeting, a fact that Mr. Mueller most probably has proof of.
jay orchard, then you are not well-informed. Check out the timeline of when Don Jr. received info about DNC or Clinton emails followed by Trump making public announcements that he has big news to come out very soon. This raises serious issues of his knowledge that his campaign was conspiring with the Russians. The other reason you are not well-informed is the same reason that none of us are: we have no access to what Mueller knows and can prove.
I had always understood, the Democrats are relying on this investigation, to find impeachable offenses. A safer strategy than spending millions to get Obama's voter base, back on their side. Impeaching any President is pure trauma for the country.
7
One could argue that Trump himself is pure trauma for the country and the fastest way to stop the bleeding is to kick him out for illegal activity, assuming there is any such activity. As for Democrats, local contests seem to show increased interest in Democratic candidates, e.g., Lamb vs. Saccone. It appears as though the GOP has ruptured itself, forsaking all previous value positions (family values, budget deficits) for the sake of who-knows-what. It's possible that all voters are growing tired the flim-flam president and the GOP shell game.
1
The point of the investigation is to discover the truth and enact justice. Something the GOP apparently doesn't support.
1
Surgery is trauma.
Amputation is trauma.
And yet, both are traumas that at times need to occur.
America is avoiding necessary moral hazard. Nixon should have been impeached, charged and jailed--but that was trauma. Reagan's coterie of Iran-Contra folks escaped mostly scot-free -- but should have been charged, convicted and jailed. GWB is a war criminal and so is Rumsfeld -- but they were allowed to leave office unimpeded.
DJT is a product of a failed political process. The Hasert Rule produces gridlock in the House. McConnell has produced gridlock in the Senate. The Democrats nominated someone disliked by 56% of Americans at the outset of her campaign -- after a contest with a socialist that NO ONE believed could get his agenda passed if he won. And the Republicans nominated a lying, abusive sex offender more unpopular that his opponent. Voters held their noses and did the unthinkable rather than the untenable. The Electoral College failed to exercise their duty to keep an unqualified victor from the office. The Speaker refuses to do his duty and begin impeachment to remove the incompetent victor from his desmenses. The checks and balances have not checked or balanced.
The trauma of impeachment and removal is necessary for EVERYONE to admit their failures and work to reform the process. It can't work if no one is willing to do their duty. It is time to show that the buck stops somewhere.
It seems to me that Mueller has had plenty of time to dig into the Trump Russian ties. He has great resources at his disposal. This is not like a couple of detectives picking away in a novel. So, I wish he would release his findings. I will abide by the results. But, it cannot go on and on. It is not good for the country.
10
That depends what you mean by "on and on" because Ken Starr's investigation lasted for 5 years. Is this matter less important than Starr's investigation?
41
Ken Starr had plenty of time to investigate Bill Clinton. He spent 5 years & millions of tax payer dollars investigating a failed land deal in Arkansas. And all we got for that was that the knowledge that our President had a very inappropriate, but consensual, relationship with a white House intern.
It's clear that the Mueller investigation is finding much more serious stuff. Let it continue.
2
You're blaming the wrong cause. Without Trump's greed, lust for power and lifelong disregard of the law, none of this would be taking place at all.
GOP Congressmen understand that many must get past a primary challenge that may come from an even further right wing opponent. The Trump base can control that primary outcome so GOP incumbents must play to it. Then they must fight an energized Democratic opposition, which may require a sharp departure in rhetoric. It's a crazy game but the only one in town. The result is that truth is sacrificed for political self interest. America's only hope is that Democrats take over at least Congress; a bonus would be to take over the Senate as well.
The nearly hourly breaking news of Trump team suspicious behavior is exhausting as Congressman Swalwell suggests. Impeachment is a marathon, not a sprint. We must have the strength, determination, perseverance, and tenacity for it. Exhaustion is not an option.
30
Truth is always under attack. The appearance of deconstructionist/ postmodern/ relativism in the 60’s is not a primary cause of today’s situation however, any attack on truth weakens society’s immune system against infections from those agents ready to assemble power from a values weakened culture.
10
The truth stopped mattering when Mr. Mueller assembled his team of partisans.
The truth stopped mattering when Mr. Mueller failed to decline the appointment - which was bound to involve people with whom he had previously worked as head of the FBI. He should have had the good conscience to say "Well, I'm not really the right person to take this on, given my lack of objectivity."
15
Mr. Mueller's team is made up largely of Republicans, including James Comey and Mueller himself. Proving that there are sensible and dedicated Republicans who realize the USA must be protected from Donald Trump.
39
Not sure why you think he's partisan, given the fact that he was appointed and approved unanimously more than once by both parties. Take a look at his record. He's a lawyer and more than any personal feeling he might have he knows that unless he can present an airtight case against anyone - he cannot make the case stick - it's pretty black and white. So why not sit back and let him do his job.
4
Oh please. Everyone in charge is a republican. I like how it’s just normal practice for Democrats to be investigated by members of the opposite party but republicans are too delicate to be fairly investigated even by their own party.
A prosecutor or investigator SHOULD be an adversary. If trump and the gop is so innocent what are they afraid of?
2
The GOP Intel Committee members along with House Leadership fears a tidal wave in November.
Spackling together a report that ignores the obvious may be disingenuous. However, the circle the wagons mentality in the face of the coming disaster is a basic flight or fight response.
Flee the truth and fight the facts!
61
Who knows what long-term damage is being done to our nation? But assuming honest history is still being written 50 years from now, will enabling members of the GOP be called out literally as traitors? Or shall manners prevail to permit an obscuring of such a harsh reality?
Time will tell.
92
I am betting the modern Republican Party will go down in history in the same way the rebel south did.
What else is the GOP and their supporters doing but eviscerating the institutions of this great nation one at a time.
It is scary what is going on and I hope there many of us who can make it and tell our stories to these historians.
"You don't realize how close we came to losing it all when Trump and his thugs came to power."
3
I'm not so sure of that.
I am nowhere near convinced that the Democratic Party won't try to make nice with the rest of the (non-Trumpf) GOP to facilitate a return to the 'normalcy' of a plodding status-quo, where the mutually supportive wealthy donors for both parties aren't alarmed or inconvenienced too much by talk of re-regulation / universal health & education / equitable tax laws / etc.
Democrats will save the Republican Party by failing to challenge it on fundamental principles, just like Obama failed to challenge the Bush administration.
No need to wait. This GOP is making the case quite clearly: They are, absolutely, traitors to the nation and the rule of law that underpins everything.
That's what happens when you have a habitual liar as your president and party leader.
1
The truly astounding, indeed stupefying, thing about the GOP's abetting what at a minimum amounts to collusion born of corruption, and very likely acts of treason, is that it is all strictly for tax cuts and deregulation benefitting their boosters, thus ensuring their coffers are full in pursuit of reelection. When the vast majority of those in congress arrive as simply well-off and leave as multimillionaires, typically through the revolving door to well-paid influence-peddling and lobbying jobs, well, you know the fix is in, and you can be certain that the well being of the country and its citizens doesn't even factor in. Dark money? More like filthy lucre. It's all quite obscene. Throughout history, when they come to this nations simply don't survive. The danger now is that the planet also hangs in the balance.
221
Sounds like the planets cure... war, economic collapse, disease- all have, in the past, left nature to her landscapes, for a recovery period.
High carbon levels might even speed the healing.
6
The ACLU was kind enough to send me a copy of the constitution with all its amendments. Interesting reading it is and I recommend it to all as a refreshing reminder to what created our modern democracy.
What has become apparent to many now is that the GOP and it's donors have made a decades long assault on our democracy. History, as I remember it though is that when one major political party oversteps it's original charter, it is doomed to a reckoning. Does history repeat itself? Yes. We can hope.
70
The only practical response at this moment is to plan on voting against Trump's enablers in November. Between now and then it would be more than a little helpful if Democrats could craft a unifying forward looking message that goes beyond "not Trump."
62
Your first sentence contradicts your second. I agree wholeheartedly with the first. The second can be seen in the robust health-care debate among high-profile Democrats. I hope our purists can finally take "yes" for an answer.
26
Mike Marks, almost all I've heard from Democratic candidates last year in Virginia and NJ and Alabama as well as this year in PA and Arizona is health care and education. Where are you coming up with this idea that all they are doing is saying "not Trump."?
3
@Walter
And the purists hope you can finally get beyond a corporatist, neoliberal (and in the case of ACA, a Republican-Heritage Foundation plan) policies that we oppose.
You "purist" arrogance shows that you fundamentally fail to understand what those farther to the left want. You think Democratic versions of private, "market"-bent policies are say 50% "there" in terms of what we support (compared to 0% "there" from GOP plans), but you're wrong. Your corporatist plans are bad too, have led to gross inequality and the great harm to the poor and middle classes, and we oppose them as well. So don't think you're owed our acquiescence.
Plaudits to Ms. Goldberg for framing the dynamics of our current dysfunction in the precise language of a contest between truth and power. When one speaks truth to power, we are taught to believe that truth prevails, except in an Orwellian autocracy.
I believe truth will out, except if power is painted into such a corner that autocracy is its only way out.
50
What appears as autocracy in Trump's case is actually a cult of personality.
1
Remember the Cold War? Our domestic differences were cast aside to deal with foreign threat. All the lawmakers in government today were either raised in that era or already perhaps governing.
And now, Russia is the central topic of the central debate in domestic politics.
The greatest act of collusion is what is presented in this report: Russia’s work is done.
59
"A toxic fog of denial has descended over much of the country"
Well put.
A fog is more ethereal and difficult to manage than a swamp.
Now; how to identify our own part in the fogging of the truth? and how to clear the fog?
83
A mob boss and his underlings will do what it takes to retain power Law and order are respected when used to protect their interests. Truth seems not to be a priority for either party.Democrats want to impeach or at least weaken Trump and Republicans don't
26
I would assume Mueller's team has access to the same information available to Ms Goldberg and other columnists.
So if there is "overwhelming evidence" of collusion between Trumps's team and Russia, we can assume they will see it as well.
But what if they don't? Will that be proof that Mueller's team is also corrupt? Is it, even at this point, evidence of foot dragging? As in, Ms Goldberg can see it so what's keeping them?
I have trust that Mueller is doing a thorough job. That he and his team are capable of seeing what there is to see.
And when they issue their findings, I will trust those as well.
In the meantime, Ms Goldberg is free to claim the Senate Intelligence Committee's report is flimsy, shoddy, weak, etc. She is free to prefer the Democrats' response and say why.
But I think it is both inflammatory and irresponsible to claim that the evidence is in and the findings are clear.
23
Ms Goldberg bases her conclusions on information which we all have at our disposal including the members of the House committee. Inquiring minds will examine what we already know always and come to a conclusion which always can be modified by subsequent information. What Ms Goldberg writes are the conclusions that reasonable minds following a minimum of logic have concluded as well. It is very obvious that the inquiring minds of the Republicans on the House committee have already been shut down. Its reasoning on the importance of Kushner's back channel to the Russians operated from their offices make that shut down of reason obvious. But we will find out eventually what the Mueller investigation has found out. All I can say is if I were a Republican on that committee, I would be afraid of what my grandchildren think of their grandfather after the history of this terrible episode in our national story is written.
193
Excellent point, Talbot. Taking it one step further, the news media have reported that the special prosecutor's has completed his investigation of collusion, but he is withholding the findings to avoid prejudicing the rest of the investigation. If Mr. Mueller has evidence of Donald Trump colluded with the Russians to affect the outcome of the election, it would be unconscionable for him to delay the release of the information and allow a president controlled by the Russians to continue in office. The most likely scenario is that Mueller does not have a case for collusion, but reasonably fears that if he announces it, the reaction will drown out his efforts to make a case for obstruction or some financial skullduggery by Mr. Trump.
You also insightfully raise the question of what will be the liberal response when Mueller announces that he has no case for collusion. Will Ms. Goldberg and her fellow travelers admit they were wrong? You can bet the ranch that that won't happen. They will continue to weave conspiracy theories, convinced that the smoking gun is perpetually just around the corner.
12
If Mueller says there was no collusion, and the President Trump is not under threat of Russian blackmail, I will say, "Good." The known Russian interference was bad enough. Then I will ask the President what he is doing to protect American elections from future Russian interference, as required by his oath of office.
21
Democrats and Republicans evidently have different truths. Trump supporters see the US Congressional report as valid and as a vindication of Trump. Afterall, they trust their government.
Trump critics cling to hope against hope that the Mueller investigation will pan out - only time will tell, but so far, there is not much of a hint that anything against Trump will be found. It benefits Trump's critics to string this along to keep airtime on the dubious subject in an attempt to discredit Trump. Since Mueller is unlikely to find anything, the usefulness is that it continues especially near the mid-terms, it will not be useful at all when it is concluded and most probably in Trump's favor.
I look at the Russian conspiracy in the same category as the Monica Lewinsky scandal with Bill Clinton. The GOP-dominated Congress tried to reverse the result of a democratic election by going after Clinton. He was impeached by the House along party lines but not the Senate, and he therefore remained president. But I doubt very much that the Russia conspiracy will lead anywhere near that far.
14
Yes, it won't lead that far unless the Republicans are voted out of office in November. Then it might unless the President has resigned in the meantime.
35
Mueller is unlikely to find anything? 19 indictments and four guilty pleas so far—In a shorter timeframe than Watergate.
123
The Congressional report was not developed by "their government" it was developed by members of the Republican Party in Congress. The republicans aren't trusting their government they are trusting their party.
31
Thanks for this observation at the end of an informative and thought-provoking piece:
"Under Trump, the central battle in our culture is between truth and power."
This is a time to confirm that truth stands apart from power as the indispensable measure against which power can be held to account without anarchy. We mustn't allow it to be suppressed, invalidated, or counterfeited by anyone in power or out. Truth is the ultimate touchstone of civilization.
72
The appearance of apparently successful lawlessness will change the instant it is no longer successful, when the fines are levied, the guilty behind bars, the innocent cut loose.
The focus has to remain on protecting the integrity of the investigation, its ability to operate through to the issuing of a report to congress, appropriate charges are filed, any pending charges safe-guarded until such a time as they may be.
There is no other remedy. Throwing lawless bums out unpunished will be a reward to & an inducement to more of the same lawlessness. If no one is above the law, then let us see that principle put fully into serious effect.
74
Sadly because of the way that the GOP has systematically undermined this investigation there will always be a large percentage of the American people who will never believe that the Russian interference and collusion really happened. Our checks and balances only work when the American people trust the process. By politicizing what should have been a good faith investigation into a serious threat to our Democratic process the GOP has damaged our country's credibility with its own citizens. Regardless of what the Mueller investigation turns up our country is going to be paying for this travesty for quite awhile so Russia wins and they know it.
104
Small wonder if Michelle Goldberg, among so many others, may be losing heart. Ever since they summarily froze out Merrick Garland, President Obama's nominee for SCOTUS, Republicans have been 'in for a penny, in for a pound' when it comes to dishonouring the established rules, unwritten and written, of good governance. Thus, in the Russia investigation, as well as in their advise and consent function on Presidential appointments, elected representatives of the majority party have wilfully ignored if not actually broken the oath they so solemnly swore to uphold the constitution. Whatever harm Trump has done and will end up doing to his country, it pales beside that already done by the now wholly owned subsidiary of the Koch bros, formerly known as the GOP; not long ago a respectful and respected partner in what is now so swiftly becoming, as a direct consequence of their disgraceful behaviour, the failing USA.
247
Truth has stopped mattering to most Republicans, who continue to support Trump. However, 55% of us disapprove of Trump because to us truth still matters.
154
It’s clear that ANYTHING that doesn’t deliver impeachable offenses against Donald Trump will be condemned as useless skullduggery by liberals. Yet it’s not only a Republican Congress that is failing to offer up evidence of cahooting with Russians in affecting our 2016 election, it appears that Mueller himself is only challenging Trump for “obstruction”, not the base crime of collusion, the investigation of which sparked his appointment – as these investigations by “special counsels” by any name ALWAYS finish. And we have no idea yet how serious the challenge will be, based as it is on he-said/he-said claims and a book.
And what ABOUT “obstruction”?
Comey claims that he was fired because he refused to collude with Trump in shelving the Russian investigation and the FBI’s pursuit of Flynn – despite Comey’s execrable judgment in the matter of TWO badly timed announcements of unripe investigations that damaged Hillary Clinton’s election prospects far more than any Russian attempts; and despite Trump’s denial of Comey’s interpretations of conversations they had with no witnesses, whether he documented his memory of those interpretations or not; and despite the fact that Comey now stands to make a great deal of money on his book and any subsequent movie exploitation of it. Beyond that, Comey’s firing did NOT halt the FBI investigations.
13
It’s claimed that Trump ordered White House counsel Donald F. McGahn II to fire Mueller but that he backed down when McGahn threatened to resign. All we KNOW is that Mueller WASN’T fired, not that the motivation for NOT firing him was even partially due to McGahn’s threat – if it happened at all. Trump could have had MANY reasons for re-thinking such a decision – that he never acted on. Bet that he’ll offer up a few.
Giveth me a break – try proving “obstruction” here against a sitting president on these allegations which, after a year of investigation, Mueller can find no unambiguous basis for support.
In 1974, what brought down Richard Nixon was “obstruction”, but what proved THAT was a tape of a conversation in which he EXPLICITLY and unambiguously colluded to obstruct justice. He knew once he reviewed the tape, which had been subpoenaed, that he was cooked, would be impeached and probably convicted by the Senate and removed from office. Where’s the beef HERE?
This is developing as heartfelt angst among liberals that they’re probably not going to be able to stanch Trump’s decidedly NON-liberal policies – at least not until 20 January 2021, if then. From the beginning it’s been he-said/he-said and a painfully clear fishing expedition aimed at undoing the results of an election liberals simply will not accept.
This effort will go down in our history as one as ideologically-impelled and outrageous as Andrew Johnson’s actual impeachment proceedings.
8
I have a simple question. How could an investigation commissioned by a Republican (Rosenstein) and led by another Republican (Mueller) logically be construed as a Democrat or liberal fishing expedition? It is nothing of the kind. It is a search for the truth about what happened.
And a review of the 49 questions in this evening's Times reveals many focused on collusion. By no means has Mueller given up on this.
Richard could not be more wrong about history. Mueller is a man of integrity. Unless he is further interfered with, and regardless of its conclusions, this investigation will go down in history as evidence that our system of democracy still works.
20
You seek comfort in the duration of the Mueller investigation. Be careful what you wish for. I have no more idea than you do what is going on inside the investigation, but it seems to me that slow and thorough makes for a better and sounder case than something more hurried. One inference that we can make is that Mueller would have ended the investigation had there not been a substantial trail of evidence by now. Another inference that we can confidently make is that with Mueller in charge, whatever happens will not be determined by ideology. Which won't convince you, because steadfast ideologues always seem to attribute everything you don't like to others' ideology.
81
Is there any organization considering long-term strategy for the US? Beyond the 2, 4, or 6 years until the next election; on the scale of 10, 20, 50 years, how can we ensure the prosperity of American core values like freedom, democracy, and individual rights?
That we've somehow muddled through so far is a testament to the fundamental strength of a system enacted over 200 years ago and the quality of the stewardship of the its countless caretakers since then. It also owes a great deal to sheer luck.
Central planning by fiat was shown not to work, and at terrible cost. But even a distributed system like the internet, for example, could still succumb to an aggregation of forces over time.
Many of the institutions that embody American core values seem to be under attack from within for the purpose of short-term gain. I'd hope there are more forward-thinking people looking in earnest at how to ensure their survival, and thus all of ours.
23
We know China is planning ahead - probably by at least 100 years. Russia's always scheming and Putin's strategy to attempt to bring the former glory of the Soviet Union (snark) back is probably in the 'next 25 years' category. But the US? With Trump? Hour by hour. Minute by minute, sometimes. (Trump gives 'living in the moment' a really bad name much to Eckhart Tolle's chagrin).
2
the Roman empire lasted 2000 years....while I agree that we've mange to build a terrific system that has lasted thus far (225 ), it has a long way to go to match the Roman empire....and given what we've got in the WH at the moment does not leave me feeling all that well about our chances...
The only feasible long term plan might be drafting articles of separation but a second American Civil War would make the four horsemen of the apocalypse seem a Sunday School picnic.
To summarize Suday's article about Rep. Nunes in the Times Magazine, he corrupted the investigation out of loyalty to trump, but he looks like he's going places in the Republican Party.
So much for checks and balances. Putin must be green with envy. All trump has to do to frustrate democracy is have his lackeys in Congress do the dirty work; Putin sometimes has to do heavy lifting, like having his opponents bumped off.
56
It is worth asking the question to what extent
truth has stopped mattering elsewhere. The different
mental universes we are all carrying around with us
have built in levels of concern that something about
our thinking and being in the world depends upon
what our language calls truth. So, what happens
when these levels of concern differ so much that it
appears that there is no general consensus about
what the "truth" is?
The sense of generalized chaos and permanent buzzing about of irrelevant factoids that surrounds us seems to have
distorted our ability and/or our interest in remaining
anchored to an objectively determined truth. "Truthiness",
the fudging of this ideal, seems to have become a sufficiently widely held norm that is distinct from its idealized construction.
What happens when this occurs? Can two individuals with such
opposite senses of what constitutes truth and its inherent importance understand/believe anything that the other says?
Isn't this what we are detecting all about us when it comes
to any number of the very important problems looming out there over the horizon?
A second point that seems less widely appreciated is the basic
trap one falls into once one believes that one's own sense of what is truth is the only valid one and with any value. Anyone else is just plain wrong. End of story. End of discussion. This form of hubris is as fatal to civic and civilized discourse
as anything else. It is, unfortunately, very widespread by now.
4
And a third point is that this is fundamentally a political
issue now. If the November election results follow
a pattern of other mid cycle elections, the toxic fog of
propaganda and sustained disinformation in which so many live so comfortably, principally within the talk radio and f-x universes
will never lift and the society will be deeply, if not fatally,
damaged.
The only significant issue is electoral turn out by those who insist upon living in truth, not the fog of lies.
But I am also skeptical that the percentage of people who insist upon living in truth as an ethical principle
is sufficiently large to withstand this
tsunami of constructed distracting lie upon lie upon lie.
11
Maybe power isn't winning so much as becoming desperate. There is no endgame for Trump and his supporters in the Republican Party. All they can hope for is to stash away some tax giveaway money, buy a place along the Loire, and see if they can hustle a final payment out of Mercer or Koch.
When the Party blows up, it will be like a giant Roman candle, leaving a trail of smoke and sparks that scatter over the whole country.
Let's follow the opposite scenario: Trump hangers on, including the crews at Fox and talk radio, renounce their leader and publicly ache for the day when an actual human will be in charge. Not going to happen, though. They are married to a monster, and, to a lesser extent, so are the rest of us.
He and his family will end up broke and humiliated. There will be no joy in that outcome, only remorse that we failed to stop him.
43
Dear Mike, although I understand your desire to remove the “collabo” Republicans from American soil when this contemptible presidency finally crumbles, please do not plant the seeds in their minds of using their “Koch-gotten-gains”to buy a cut rate château in the beautiful Loire River valley. We have enough trouble with “man made pollution” as it .
1
Understood, Susan. We have a place in Paris, in an old building, and might end up retiring there.
I hadn't thought about what people like Mnuchin, Pruitt, and Koch could do to the Loire Valley. New five car garages, garish details, and horrible landscaping, not to mention the rich white trash cultural toxins. I now suggest they buy places in Argentina, a second home for fascists for centuries. Viva la France!
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/queen-offers-to-restore-...
"This two-hundred-and-forty-year experiment in self-rule began with the best of intentions, but I think we can all agree that it didn't end well," she said.
21
The object of all of all that is being done to change the leadership of the nation and many states is to win elections and attract a chunk of Trump supporters to the opposition. Did Michele Wolf advance the success of reaching this most necessary goal? I don't think so. I did not find her funny at all and am convinced she gave Trump a victory.
11
Couldn’t disagree more. Many found her funny and brilliant.
49
Singing to the choir. Those laughing at her jokes would never vote for Trump. It's the rest, outside the bubble if you will, who found her neither "brilliant" nor "funny".
She was brutally funny and that is exactly what she was supposed to be. She told it like many see it, in words you may not have approved of but she did what comedians do. They shock!
2
Of course truth doesn’t matter to Trump or the GOP in the Russian investigation or in anything else that affects their power and wealth. The law agencies the GOP once revered? I doubt that for at least fifty years, the GOP as a group has revered anything but power and money. What used to be political give and take has been recast as wars on religion, on “culture,” and on white American identity and supremacy. Many Americans grew up in a special environment--the richest and most powerful nation in the world, a nation that hadn't seen war on its continental heartland since the Civil War, a nation cosseted in glowing myths of virtue and goodness, manhood, motherhood and white supremacy. Growth of American population and of other world powers, economic change, and climate change have dinged the myths. The realities emerge, and Americans are not used to so much reality. The conservative American core that is the GOP has no ideology other than greed. The religious adherents of the GOP are not motivated primarily by religion but by group and tribal interests.
36
Dear Michelle, your writing is great but you either aim to mislead or you just missed the most telling. The whole world is worried. We can see the forest fire that seems to be obscured by your proximity. The world is marvelling at your uniquely American desire to see trees where there is really an enormous funeral pyre threateningly close to our common heart in Democracy.
See, DT is very very concerned about Truth. You say he is unconcerned by truth as though it is some funny quirk in his personality....respectfully and emphatically WRONG.
We recall the surprise and out of left field confusion that presidential candidate DT threw us into when his world televised statement suddenly appealed to a well understood enemy of state... We recall how it rang alarm bells world wide, raised eyebrows and perhaps champagne glasses in certain clandestine co-ops... We recall the stunning timing of that call to arms in the penultimate stages of a campaign poised to fall to ‘Crooked’ HC...
Michelle, It is without wish to offend that we must remind you what your President did do.
“If your listening RUSSIA.... missing emails...“.
A comedian tells the truth and she is lambasted. Meanwhile, 45 and his mouthpiece, Sarah Sanders, lie on a daily basis.
493
She's telling the "truth"? Who is now the arbiter of said truth?
It's clear truth is now completely subjective. No wonder Trump's critics find everything he says, including his jokes, to be "lies."
kj
The "comedian" did not tell the truth; and she was vulgar.
The president of the United States and his Press Secretary, Sarah Sanders, do not lie.
Those who lie constantly about the President are members of the left in their failed attempt to destroy him.
1
AACNY proved the point exactly: Trump supporters are willing to deploy moral relativity when it suits them. "Post-truth preceded pre-fascism" indeed!
"In reality, as the meticulous Democratic response to the Republican report makes clear, there’s already overwhelming evidence of the Trump campaign’s collusion with Russia."
If this is so we can expect Mueller to reach the same conclusion. Times readers might want to pend Ms. Goldberg's column to be checked monthly until Mueller's Russia investigation concludes.
14
HurryHarry
There has been no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians. This is a lie.
It is not a lie. It is, as of now, an allegation that has not yet been proven in a court of law -- or dismissed by investigators as unsupported by enough evidence to warrant a trial.
Nixon saying he was not a crook.
Reagan claiming that there was nothing to the Iran-Contra affair.
Clinton claiming he did not have sex with that woman.
GWB claiming Saddam had WMD.
Just about everything DJT says.
Those were/are lies.
Big difference.
What was equally astounding was to hear Rep. Conaway (R) of the House Intel Committee express his complete lack of interest in revisiting the conclusions of the majority report or even of learning more about the Russian lawyer Veselnitskaya's role (she had attended the Trump Tower meeting with Manafort, Trump Jr. and Kushner) in light of her now admitting to being an informant for the Kremlin. His complete and utter indifference to the topic, as though it were equivalent to having been given information on the life cycle of the fruit fly, was stunning. It's as if the entire GOP has been mentally enslaved by the forces of Trumpism, Putinism, and incipient authoritarianism . I've never been so frightened for this country.
190
They are not mentally enslaved. They are just selfishly interested in retaining power.
5
We get an opportunity in a little more than seven months to add reality to an imaginary replay of the 2016 election. No excuses, vote! If you want delve in imagination think of the voting booth levers as mini handcuffs.
31
Indeed!
These are the glory days for the Trumpistas.
The Greedy Ole Party, bereft of any semblance of statesmanship, has become what they’ve always been to those of us who’ve been attentive — obsequious sycophants to the elite.
Now the elite are firmly the power structure of our peoples government. The people have acquiesced.
Yes the elite and their followers are winning.
The last best hope for our peoples democratic-constitutional-republic are the midterm elections.
Should the Ghastly Ole Party retain both houses of Congress, (pay attention! don’t bet on a democratic wave— VOTE!) the GOP will double... triple down on their agenda.
It will be a very sad day for our nation’s history.
41
Truth stopped mattering to the Republican Party long before Trump came riding down that escalator.
139
Indeed! The recent flap over Michelle Wolf’s hilarious roasting of the Trump administration’s dishonesty machine made me go back and watch Stephen Colbert’s even funnier 2006 2006 performance at the Correspondents’ Dinner. It took me back to Dubya’s earlier efforts to bend the truth, which seems almost quaint in comparison to our now post-truth society.
5
Apparently the truth does not matter to this POTUS and to most of the GOP members in Congress. Our country is based on the rule of law which relies on truth.
Unlike for the POTUS I think that Robert Mueller is actively seeking the truth.
34
Ms. Goldberg is so right about the overwhelming evidence of collusion being whisked away by Trump & Republican lies, about the negation of our intelligence community conclusions by Trump & Republican lies, and about Michelle Wolf's brilliant speaking truth to power being criticized as disrespectful when they were the only words in the room at the WHCA event that helped one understand the meaning of a free press and the First Amendment. Anyone who thinks she crossed a line should be forced to view in entirety the featured speakers of the last 10 or 15 years at this event.
45
Judging from many recent special election results, and many recent opinion polls, it's premature to say that "truth has stopped mattering."
12
It's hard to grasp that I have lived from a time when those on the right unfailingly supported our intelligence community, the Justice Department, and the FBI. (Think Saddam's WMDs.) Moreover, suspicion of any contact with Russian intelligence, KGB or FSB, was grounds for indictment for treason.
Now, many of those same people are willing to support attacks on those who would protect us from treasonous activities, simply denying the wealth of information pointing directly to treason by so many within Trump's inner circle.
We must act decisively to indict and convict these people and firmly reject their traitorous crimes.
55
"In reality, as the meticulous Democratic response to the Republican report makes clear, there’s already overwhelming evidence of the Trump campaign’s collusion with Russia."
What reality is this?? Seriously, this is just denial dressed up as an argument.
4
The April 9th meeting in Trump Tower is in itself evidence of collusion. Even if it resulted in no damaging evidence about Hillary going to the Trump campaign.
2
What does it mean when Trump says no collusion with Russia? does it mean collusion with officials in the Russian government? Does it mean direct contact with Putin?
I would like the media to ask Trump if he engaged in collusion with Russians specifically Russian Oligarchs who are Putin's tentacles.
1
In his essay, “Persona au Gratin” (Here and Now 1955) HERBLOCK entreats America in another, earlier humiliating era of American politics. His message and words apply today in their call for principled engagement with the persistent threat of our current Republican demagogue.
As then, it's again time to hold otherwise respectable people - who now find it advantageous to go along with Trump - accountable for this man who hijacked legitimate economic grievances, security concerns and moral values of every American.
Trump’s fraud was apparent from the start; the case against him has always been well-documented. No one, including talking-heads and down ballot Republicans, had to do any mystic divining to know what this character is like. There's nothing secret about the facts.
There was no time when the conscience-driven party faithful could not have smacked him down with a declaration of principle or when his religious supporters could not have demanded repentance from their prodigal son.
But, few among them, having created and nourished the rhetoric of his rise, were willing to force the issue or to come out in opposition, much less denounce him. Trump acolytes, Christi and Juliani, and candidates like North Carolina’s own Thom Tillis and Richard Burr, clung, like desperate parasites, to their place with Trump.
For all the talk about Trump being a one of a kind political force, he was never really alone. He couldn't have achieved his peculiar success unaccompanied.
32
The utter failure of the House Intelligence Committee to conduct a meaningful investigation is an embarrassment. But in the scheme of things, it is a matter of little consequence. Mueller is conducting the only investigation that counts. And when he finishes, he will forward his results to the House Judiciary Committee, which is mostly made up of lawyers and some of the most capable Congressmen in the House.
When Clinton was investigated by Starr, there were no separate investigations by Congress. So, the Intelligence Committee conducted an investigation that was essentially meaningless. It was undertaken by incompetent Congressmen who did a lousy job. Except for the fact that it demonstrates the lack of intelligence on the Intelligence Committee, however, this is one I wouldn't lose any sleep over.
8
It is possible that the intentions of Republican's on the Intelligence Committee (just look at Nunes' midnight scramble to the WH) was to ultimately try to sweep it all under a rug. My point is that what they did was not meaningless, but rather quite meaningful in terms of identifying just exactly the lengths to which they were willing to go to avoid sanctions for Trump. It doesn't appear they ever had any interest in truth and justice, and that is as meaningful as it can get when it comes to corrupt behavior on the part of so-called leaders who took an oath to protect this country.
1
Republican Congressman (or person, if there is one) and lousy reminds of of Mark Twain's quip (as I remember it), "say that I am a congressman and that I am an idiot, ...but I repeat myself..."
I can't help but feel that Trump is biding his time before he fires Mueller at the most devastating moment, and that the GOP, with the help of the Russians, will fix the next election so that no matter how we vote, they will win, and will work hard to make it appear that they did it legitimately.
65
Quelle Surprise, Michelle ! GOP'ers already seditiously prevented Merrick Garland's SCOTUS nomination from the Senate floor, and promised that if a Dem were elected POTUS in 2016, they would keep Scalia's seat unfilled:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/clinton-wins-gop-say-no-9-supreme-...
GOP'er leaders were willing to ignore the Constitution, pretending a 2-term Dem POTUS has no SCOTUS appointment power past the 85th month of his 96 months in office - these GOP'ers utterly define Radicalism and anarchy, no matter their suits and ties.
"The state of our Union is lawless" - Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Ca.), Jan. 30 2018
"If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy." - David Frum (Dubya speech writer)
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The "power" of these corrupt, "party over country" Republicans will be transitory, per the dire, earned consequences of the 2018 and 2020 elections. The "truth" will be timeless, finally revealed for all of America to witness through the herculean efforts of the Mueller Investigation, as supplemented by the Senate Intelligence Committee bipartisan labors. Balance, sanity, and proportion will be restored to our civic life.
5
The very first volley in the Trump attack on America was an all out assault of the press and the second was an all out assault on the justice department. This was no accident.
In order to brainwash the public with propaganda, the fist step is to gain control over what information gets input into those brains. By convincing the public, (well about 40% of the public) that there is a deep state that is out to get the real hero, that the press is in cahoots with the deep state justice department, that everything they say are lies, the table is then set to input their totalitarian garbage by the truckload.
Without any contrasting information, all the victims have to work with are the truckloads of garbage. They then become emotionally invested with the message to the extent that they reject everything that contradicts what the garbageman is telling them. The scam now powers itself.
That's what has happened to our nation. Trump does not have to disprove anything to his base. They will reject any and all proof.
You gotta admit it. These guys are good! They have woven the perfect trap for their prey. Now, those that got suckered can't conceive that they have been bamboozled.
So when asked, the red hat people just brush off the Russia investigation as just a media ploy to delegitimize Trump's election. That's the standard retort because that's what Trump told them to think.
176
And, as we know, there are none so blind as those who will not see.
5
The GOP is masterful at projection. We citizens living in reality all know that the GOP is really the so-called "deep state."
4
At this point, Mueller's best chance for impeaching the Liar-in-Chjef is to be fired by the latter. I suspect there are too few decent Republicans to make a difference, even if Mueller uncovers a collusion with Putin to damage Hillary and secure the presidency. Even if Mueller is fired, it may lead to nothing.
16
Mueller has no power of impeachment, That is a function of the House, and therefore of the Speaker.
1
You read me more literally than I intended. It is about what actions will most likely lead to impeachment not where the power lies.
Mr. Trump doesn't seem to be overly observant. I wonder if he was aware of the the connection between Russian billionaires and the Russian government. He borrowed money from one and is paying the debt to the other.
15
"Power is winning?" What are the rest of us supposed to do until the 2018 elections? Riot in the streets? Would that even help? Neighborhoods that rioted in DC in the late 60s still haven't recovered. Instead, I, and many people I know, are organizing and fundraising like crazy. To end gerrymandering (yes, by both parties, but mostly the GOP); to enfranchise as many people as possible; to run progressive candidates; and to get out the vote.
If we stop working within a democratic system to a peaceful transfer of power, then there's really nothing left.
69
Vote, yes, but assume that they will rig the next election, too and insist on a paper trail.
3
But if truth has momentarily be subverted in the Halls of Congress, at least we have heard it in the WHCD speech by Michelle Wolf this weekend:
“Trump is racist, though. He loves white nationalists, which is a weird term for a Nazi. Calling a Nazi a ‘white nationalist’ is like calling a pedophile a ‘kid friend,’ or Harvey Weinstein a ‘ladies man,’ ...”
293
It should have been enough when we learned how much the Trump empire depended on Russian money. But the American people drifted from truth and reasoning well before the ascendance of Donald Trump; just consider the invasion of Iraq, an exercise in caprice that was supported by both parties and most of American media. A country adrift from reason and objectivity can only hope for a few good men and women now, and a return to a least a facsimile of the rule of law. Otherwise, we are facing the stark reality of totalitarian rule.
79
There are any number of honest journalists, most of whom work for small papers on small wages informing their employers' readership of local goings on. As a former reporter, I have come to know any number of far better paid journalists, men and women working for the WSJ, the NYT, Reuters and the AP who started out with truth as their guidepost, yet who now care most about their mortgages and pensions and who have sacrificed true objectivity to the former. That said, they and their ilk remain our nation's first defense against Donald Trump's mendacity. That they assault Ms. Wolf's performance nevertheless frightens me. God help us all.
94
The Galveston County Daily News was a stellar and award winning paper in the 90’s, I hope for Galveston’s sake, it still is.
2
If you avoid examining what doesn't for your preformed conclusion, of course you don't go looking for this.
its a well known fact that contempt prior to investigation produces monumental errors--because unless you regard all facts with the same degree of objectivity you don't produce truth.
According to a great book, "how doctors think" by Jerome Groopman, physicians fall into this trap all the time. By forming a diagnosis before performing a differential, they cherrypick a patients symptoms to confirm their initial instinct, instead of considering facts that somehow don't conform.
Republicans of course have a far more sinister intent than simply trying to confirm their instincts. I suspect they know deep down the president's behaviour is more than fishy, but they have too much vested in holding on to power than to be bothered by facts.
So yes, I'm going to state the obvious: the Republicans in Congress are traitors, protecting a damaged president who likely conspired with Russia to rig the election on his behalf.
The goal is power by any means--not truth, not patriotism, not the constitution.
Democracy fails--and evil prevails--when good men do nothing in the face of abuse if power.
In this case, it's obvious we need to change the word "good men" to "bad ones".
438
You are so right, it's saddening. I've never been a part of the GOP, but it's pretty clear that there's complicity going on here with the GOP leadership in Congress and the Trump misadministration. I never thought I'd see the day in this country when fascism would rear it's ugly head in our electorate, but there's no excusing it now. After all of this time under the fake POTUS, GOP led Congress, and the Cult45 members STILL refuse to believe the facts in front of their faces. This does not bode well for our country at all.
3
Nothing in modern American politics, not even Watergate, can compare in audacity to the Trump Russia campaign. Thanks to Ms Goldberg for bringing us back to some of the more salient aspects of this collusion that are buried by more revelations on a nearly daily basis.
Fortunately, it is not up to public opinion to track and litigate this largest of all Trump scandals. Nor is it dependent on politicized Congressional Committees. And it seems clear that there is little chance the work of the Special Prosecutor can be buried, no matter what Trump does.
As for audacity, only the Big Tobacco fight comes even close. For decades, tobacco lawyers and corrupt doctors and researchers managed to delay the inevitable, manufacturing doubt where there was none, on the addictive properties of nicotine and the link to cancer and other respiratory disease.
Some years from now, it will seem just as ludicrous that GOP leaders of Congressional Committees actually participated in the obstruction of justice in the investigation of Russian collusion when the evidence was so clear.
182
Unfortunately, the Russia investigation is only the latest example of how truth and honesty no longer matter for Republicans in general. From the dishonest evidence used to justify the Iraq war, to tax cuts stimulating the economy, to fake tears about the 'Obama deficit,' to birtherism, to Hillary's e-mail 'scandal,' to 'repeal and replace,' to trump and Republicans 'looking out for working people,' to 'voter fraud, and even more 'tax cuts will pay for themselves.' These days it is almost impossible to find anything that Republicans are telling the truth about. 'Unbelievable' is not just an exclamation; it is a literal description of the party.
315
Not to mention perhaps the biggest issue of all, global climate change.
15
In the trial scene from the film, "A Man for All Seasons," Sir Thomas More confronts his chief accuser, Richard Rich, who has lied about a conversation between the two of them in the Tower of London. The lie helps to convict More of treason. Rich, as a result of his perjury, gains appointment as attorney general for Wales, then a backward part of England. Paraphrasing the Bible, More tells Rich, "Why Richard, it doesn't profit a man to lose his soul for the whole world, but for Wales?"
This scene sprang to mind when I considered the evident willingness of congressional Republicans to sacrifice their integrity in order to defend Trump. At least Richard Rich (and Faust) traded their souls to someone who could deliver temporary benefits in exchange. But the leaders of the GOP have hitched their political fates to an ill-disciplined narcissist who neither can nor apparently wants to master his chaotic impulses long enough to spearhead enactment of their agenda. They did secure passage of their beloved tax cut, but that achievement doesn't seem very impressive, considering their control of Congress and the presidency.
Someone needs to remind them that the loss of one's integrity represents a high price to pay for any gain, but to sacrifice it in service to Donald Trump...?
264
Beautifully said. If only the evangelicals who put Trump in power were aware of the Bible verse that Sir Thomas More quoted. Wait, they read the Bible, don't they?
65
They are not interested in integrity. They are interested in power.
I believe we are seeing the end of American democracy. The form will be there--elections, laws, editorials--but the substance will be permanently degraded.
The unprecedented corruption we see every day, and that goes unchecked and largely unremarked after fifteen months, is a sign of how deep the rot is and how the degradation will proceed. We are becoming inured to what is happening; Mick Mulvaney talks openly of influence peddling and no one even bats an eyelash.
I don't assume there will be a blue wave in November--Trump is up to 42% in the new Gallup tracker, his highest level in almost a year. They will mobilize the base on the reliable issues of immigration/racism, white nationalism, and demonization of enemies, with the added touch of the need to ward off impeachment by a Democratic House.
I truly hope I'm wrong. But I fear I'm not.
20
2 Peter 2:1
“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.”
Outlook does not look good for evangelical Christians who support Trump.
Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee didn't find any evidence of cooperation with Russia because they never looked for it. Mr. Mueller's findings will no doubt prove eventually that they put political expediency and self-interest ahead of patriotism and loyalty to the Constitution.
86
It’s funny how Republicans can be outraged at Michelle Wolf’s comedy and yet think that our narcissistic liar of a president and his toadies and enablers are somehow honorable. She used language that befit the situation and properly dealt with the odious Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the repugnant Kellyanne Conway. Her last comment about the media profiting from the endless promotion of a defective candidate was stunning. They help to create a monster, and she said it without apology.
Every aspect of the Russian collusion story is surrounded by lies, deception, the rewriting of the truth and the sense that they could have their way with gullible Americans. It’s not the search for evidence that’s the problem. It’s that they’re so much evidence that it’s hard to disentangle the extent of the conspiracy.
It’s also telling that Republicans are willing to go to the mat to support the fantasy that Russian collusion was nonexistent. The willful ignorance, combined with ordinary garden-variety ignorance, produces a black hole of lies and deceit that may never be completely explored.
Recent speeches by the president show a man who has become totally unhinged. The disjointed attacks on honorable people, the incoherent blather, the jaw-jutting and posturing are all like pheromones that transfix slack-jawed deplorables who are thrilled to be dabbling in fascism.
This man and his cronies have to be stopped, and brought down. Crimes have been committed. People need to go to jail.
1007
"This man and his cronies have to be stopped, and brought down. Crimes have been committed. People need to go to jail."
Along with the Wells Fargo bank executives, where the elusive buck clearly does not stop.
19
gemli, your opening line echos exactly my reaction when I heard the first groan from the audience at the WHCD. Our president has done worse, and is not clever enough to have delivered a scorching satire such as Michelle Wolf did. Not only have we become a country commanded by the minority, but they wear rose-colored hearing apparatuses as well as rose-colored glasses. I hope they are all treated with a healing dose of elixir delivered by Mueller soon rather than keep drinking the Trump and GOP KoolAid.
24
The media was outraged at Stephen Colbert, too, but many of us watching on TV were ecstatic, and the internet rang with cries of joy. But Obama tried to unify the country instead of driving the truth home; if he had done this, we might have had to endure McCain/Palin. The great apolitical middle of the country does not like to hear unpleasant truths, but is also developing a distaste for pablum. Much of it seems to like mythic feel-good falsehoods.
8
The Mueller investigation may be the one remaining hope for the entire scope of Trump’s venality to be established, but Michael Avenatti’s efforts represent a more immediate opportunity for Trump’s criminality to become unavoidably apparent. Avenatti is very close to taking Trump’s deposition. Just as it was inevitable that Michael Cohen would take the 5th in that case. it is highly likely that Trump will either commit perjury or take the 5th in it, too. What would be the effect on the American people of their president saying, “I decline to answer that question because the answer might tend to incriminate me”?
141
For trump’s fans, I believe it will have no effect, sadly. They seem to wholly go along with his spin on the truth, and even the greatest lies are either believed or brushed aside.
46
Remember, the majority of voters, nearly three million, voted for Hillary. If, IF, we still have free, unfettered, elections this November, all the lies spewed daily by Trump and his GOP enablers will energize even more people to vote for the renewal of sane, fact based governance in the House and Senate. But the loss of a few key Senate and House elections will be enough stop all progress, and the GOP knows this. The GOP will stop at nothing, including treason, to keep power. Vigilance, and active involvement, is our only defense. Get out and vote this November, and do all you can to turn the GOP out of power.
20
I agree. As a recent Canadian pointed out that is 30% of the US population...too many to ignore as stupid. We need real, secure employment, health care and community. This is a time of change with a lot of losers, worldwide, who are looking for the "Return of the King"
People turn to myth and superstition when they don't understand what is happening. In my area, liberals have chem trail conspiracies, which totally defy science. When someone with a science background explains, they don't want to hear it. It isn't just Trumpists.
Most conspiracy theories fail to pass the smell test because they rely on the complete secrecy by too many conspirators or their unwitting assistants for the conspiracy to succeed. The more conspirators or unwitting assistants involved, the less likely the conspiracy is to succeed.
Unless, of course, obvious leads are not followed and/or the evidence is hiding in plain sight.
Trump and various high and low campaign members had obvious ties to Putin or his high-placed friends, Trump deviated substantially from conventional Republican wisdom about Putin, without explanation or defense. Trump asked the Russians on national tv for cyber warfare on his behalf. Negative emails leaked only about Democrats.
Like those connecting the dots puzzles, the big picture became evident during the campaign and a few journalists got it and tried connecting all of the dots.
The House Republican Intelligence Committee Report tries in vain to erase the dots and lines. But even its own members know that the picture emerging points to active cooperation by Trump’s henchmen, if not Trump himself.
188
As historian Timothy Snyder notes, "post-truth is pre-facism". This is exactly where we are today. This wholesale assault on the truth by Trump is at best outrageous, and at worst, dangerous for all of us.
But many commenters here fail to identify who is really responsible. It is not Trump. It is not the Republican Party. It is Trump voters. All of them. Eighteen months into this nightmare of an administration, their support remains unanimous. They alone are the reason why Congressional Republicans have not breathed one word about impeachment. In fact, Republicans are using the threat of impeachment by a Democratically controlled Congress to get out the Republican vote this November.
I recall presidents back to Eisenhower. Never once (including Nixon) did an administration show such a disdain for evidence - for undisputed facts as Trump has. But he knows he need not tell the truth. Congressional Republicans dare not require it of him. And why? Again, Trump voters. By now they should have seen him for the fraud he is, and abandoned him. Instead, they remain in lockstep with him. They're quite happy to live in a nation where our President lies about breathtaking acts of criminal wrongdoing, as long as he tells them that as whites, they are superior to the rest of us.
Trump lies as frequently as he breathes. Of course the Republican Congress knows this. But remember this -- they are being kept in power by nearly half this country who want them all to keep lying.
1073
It really is the dark side of the American public's character that makes this possible - the racism (above all, the racism), the selfishness, the ignorance. The dark side is not the only side, but we forgot how very strong it still is.
But the Republican members of Congress could act differently if they chose to. They would each have millions of times more power than regular citizens, especially if they were prepared to act with what passes for courage in the political realm. They don't make that choice. So the Republican Congress *is* responsible, because they have the *responsibility* to stop it, and they don't even try.
183
"But many commenters here fail to identify who is really responsible. It is not Trump. It is not the Republican Party. It is Trump voters."
Maybe it's not the trump voters either. Maybe the real blame lies with the Republican "Donor Class" or as the late George Carlin used to call them "the people who run the country."
159
The fault also lies with Fox News and alt-right Internet sources (fueled by the Russians) that are spewing lies and conspiracy theories manipulating the Less educated among us. Propaganda that’s effective in ginning up conflict and deepening divisions among Americans. Very disturbing to see people buy into this stuff and challenging to confront.
132
The one remaining hope for truth to have the final word is the Mueller investigation and its aftermath. Power is working hard to deny truth that opportunity. We'll see how it turns out.
86
The American media have failed to properly frame the investigation of Trump and his campaign members: Treason, not collusion, is the question. The Ukrainian plank change in the Republican platform was demanded by Russia, Putin. Flynn, a 3 star general, told Kislyak to not respond tho the December 2016 sanctions Obama imposed on Russia, and the did not respond, since Flynn offered the removal of all sanctions, like the good traitor he was. And Putin certainly did not believe Flynn had the final say in the sanction removal, only Trump would and could. Trump and his team are all traitors to the United states: conspiring to interfere with the internal affairs of the United states, the 2016 election. Why hasn't Mueller brought Treason Indictments?
656
Because treason charges are only brought during wartime. I'd love to see it, but it won't happen.
7
Mueller's just getting warmed up.
I've heard some of the reporters and legal experts calling the 48 questions "softballs" which probably means there is something even more incriminating coming later.
18
Read the Constitution's definition of treason.
4
The idea that power is winning over truth regarding the Russia investigation is just awful. The only power Trump has is given to him by the elected Republicans in Congress. They clearly have forgotten that they were Americans before they were Republicans.
There is a word for Mitch McConnell, Devin Nunes, et al. That word is "quisling".
537
"They clearly have forgotten that they were Americans before they were Republicans."
Actually, they clearly remember that "they were Americans", and that they are no longer. That's why they became Republicans—because being Americans conflicted with their bigoted business model.
22
Thank you, I have been calling him quisling since 3am Nov 3, 2016. I think I used it in commends in Dec of that year. Again thank you
11
@ Vesuviano: I also like Loki's term - mewling quims.
6
"Under Trump, the central battle in our culture is between truth and power." Or perhaps, more concretely, between freedom and democracy on the one hand, and fascism on the other.
We continue to be shocked at the behavior of the Republicans, but we will stop being shocked when we recognize that we are living through a self-conscious, foreign-assisted but still essentially domestic, fascist revolution (remember Steve Bannon, Trump's "strategist", who loves to talk about revolution and civil war?), in which the fascists woke up one morning suprised and not a little alarmed to find out who their unexpected leader is. It took them a little while to get used to him, but now they are used to him, and they are very, very happy.
This is a much harder proposition to accept than that a very, very bad man got into the White House by a fluke, but accept it we must if we are to have any hope of defeating it.
145
Excellent article that speaks to the bewilderment of decent, law abiding citizens across this country. When did these supposed GOP leaders decide that they valued power and self-advancement over the law? When did they decide that democracy was a rug to wipe their disgustingly filthy dirty Republican boots on? Just as Anonymous always states, "We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us." Expect all of us decent law abiding citizens to come out en mass to vote out you corrupt, self-serving, indecent fake GOP "leaders."
360
We will remember in November, and we will vote the Republicans OUT into the wilderness for a long time.
28
And of course Trey Gowdy (he of the Benghazi hearings) goes on a Sunday news show and exclaims the Executive Branch is far more capable of investigations than Congress. Irony??
97
Irony yes. But like most on the Right he is a coward and can do this now because he's not running for re-election--so it's time for the truth, sort-of
2