The Trump-Russia Story Has Only Just Begun (To Explode)
Not since Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal has an investigative hearing made it so clear that a presidency was in serious legal peril.
By Howard Fineman 03/20/2017 03:19 pm ET | Updated 53 minutes ago
There's a video .. Go listen to it .. ;)
WASHINGTON ? Let’s step back for a minute and consider again what we saw Monday in a hearing room of the U.S. House.
The director of the FBI, with the director of the National Security Agency agreeing at his side, in effect called the president of the United States a liar ? and, oh, by the way, the president’s 2016 campaign indeed is under investigation for allegedly having secretly teamed up with Russia to win the election.
After two months of Donald J. Trump’s presidency and more than a year of his campaign, our political senses are so dulled by tumult that we can barely recognize history when we see it. Make no mistake. Monday’s hearing was all but unprecedented.
Not since a White House aide named Alexander Butterfield told the Watergate committee in 1973 that President Richard Nixon had bugged his own Oval Office has an investigative hearing made it so clear that a presidency was in serious legal jeopardy.
Now we know for sure that, while no one “tapped” Trump’s phones, his campaign circle is in the gunsights of the FBI. The issue is whether Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose interference in the 2016 election is now an accepted fact, tried to rig the outcome with the knowledge or collusion of Team Trump.
Foreign countries have meddled in U.S. politics from the founding of the republic. At the dawn of the 19th century, France and Britain fought what amounted to a proxy war between U.S. allies of the two countries. France and Britain aided opposite sites in the Civil War. German interests spread propaganda here to try to keep America from fighting in World War I and World War II. And of course, the Soviet Union infested the State Department and other portions of the U.S. government during the Cold War.
But it is highly unlikely that a foreign government ever has been under investigation for direct ties to and direct ? and successful ? efforts to aid a presidential candidate, especially one now serving as president, and who has expressed such interest in better relations with the government under investigation.
While Democrats probed FBI Director James Comey and NSA Director Michael Rogers for evidence of links between Trump and Russia, Republicans sought to change the conversation by asking about leaks pertaining to Trump and Russia. Comey insisted he was concerned about the leaks, but seemed more eager to ominously deny comment on where the unauthorized disclosures were coming from.
If Team Trump is found to be complicit in any way, leading figures in the campaign and in the White House would indeed become targets of law enforcement. The White House and its minions will howl about “FAKE NEWS” ? the president did so via Twitter Monday morning ? but even Fox was covering the House hearing.
Which, in turn, means this story is just beginning. Here’s why:
Video is right here at the end of the article and of course one at the top ..
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