Thursday, February 16, 2017

Is Mitch McConnell Stonewalling an Investigation into Trump/Russia to Save Himself?


As regular readers know, I view Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell as one of the most loathsome members of Congress, no small feat given the number of loathsome Republicans to choose from.  Time and time again McConnell has put the interest of the Republican Party - and by extension, himself -  above the best interests of the nation.   And when it comes to lying and hypocrisy, few exceed him except for perhaps Der Trumpenführer.   Now, with increasing information suggesting possible collusion between Herr trump's campaign and Russian intelligence officials at the very moments that Russian hackers were attacking the DNC and Hillary Clinton's campaign, McConnell is stonewalling against and independent investigation with subpoena powers and a special prosecutor.  Why?  A piece in the Daily Kos suggests it is to protect McConnell's own sorry as.  Here are highlights:
Let's just keep this in mind as Mitch McConnell continues to stonewall an independent inquiry—which would be far more public than current investigations—into Donald Trump's Russia ties: McConnell was briefed about Russia's interference in the election last fall and he lobbied to keep that information from voters.
In September, during a secret briefing for congressional leaders, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) voiced doubts about the veracity of the intelligence, according to officials present. [...]
McConnell raised doubts about the underlying intelligence and made clear to the [Obama] administration that he would consider any effort by the White House to challenge the Russians publicly an act of partisan politics. [...]
McConnell’s office did not respond to a request for comment. After the election, Trump chose McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, as his nominee for transportation secretary.
McConnell has finally been backed into a corner on needing to extend the current probes in the House and Senate into examining ties between the Trump camp and Russian officials. But he and Paul Ryan still exercise an enormous amount of control over which parts of those investigations go public, so long as they aren't conducted by an independent body.
Look, if this thing really goes south, McConnell will have played a role in covering up the information prior to the election. Depending on what was shared in those briefings, it could prove as "explosive" for McConnell now as Harry Reid said it was last October. Remember the letter (i.e. distress signal) Reid sent to FBI director James Comey last October?
"It has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors and the Russian government — a foreign interest openly hostile to the United States, which Trump praises at every opportunity,” Reid wrote to Comey this weekend. “The public has a right to know this information.”
The public may have had the right to know about a scandal that is currently snowballing by the hour, but McConnell made sure the public wouldn’t. At least, not if he could help it.
Stated another way, McConnell doesn't want it proven that he may have been complicit in duping the American public and allowing treason to go unpunished.  There needs to be an investigation and hopefully it takes down Der Trumpenführer and his regime and McConnell with them.

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