Trump And Russia: Is It Watergate Yet? - Joe Conason
Joe Conason
Trump And Russia: Is It Watergate Yet?
February 26, 2017 12:02 am
As Donald Trump and his subordinates lash out wildly to suppress discussion of his presidential campaign’s alleged collusion with the Kremlin, they only fan intuitions of a truly monumental scandal. With their latest attempts to manipulate the Federal Bureau of Investigation and intimidate the Washington press corps, they are clumsily encouraging comparisons with Watergate — although as usual with this crew, it isn’t so simple to distinguish malevolence from incompetence.
The New York Times and CNN clearly struck a sensitive nerve with reports that the FBI is investigating multiple contacts last year between Russian officials and the Trump campaign. Whatever the nature of those contacts and officials, such stories fit neatly into the long-developing narrative of an illicit effort by Kremlin operatives to sway our presidential election on Trump’s behalf, through email hacking, fake news reports, hired internet trolls, and other means.
If the Russian hacking story was troubling for Trump, it was not nearly as dangerous as the possible collusion of Trump aides and advisers in that conspiracy. While no direct evidence of collusion has emerged, the implication was inescapable.
The reactions of Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, press secretary Sean Spicer, chief strategist Steve Bannon, and Trump himself were all telling. After denying the Times story on Meet the Press, Priebus asked a top FBI official to support that denial — a request that the bureau properly rejected because its probe is still continuing. Spicer attacked the stories from the press podium and then, in an extraordinary measure, excluded the Times, CNN, and several other news organizations from a briefing in his office. Bannon, in a rare public appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference, proclaimed a permanent war against the independent press, warning “it’s going to get worse every day for the media.”
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http://www.nationalmemo.com/trump-russia-watergate/
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