I said to a person I respect: “A significant portions of the GOP Congressional leadership are partnering with Russia to achieve their domestic political agenda.”
She said: “I need evidence before I’ll believe that.” (She is not a Trump supporter)
So I put together a sampling of the evidence.
2013: Russia enacted anti-homosexual legislation.
2014: Pat Buchanan noted that Putin was “entering a claim that Moscow is the Godly city of today” and stamping out western evil like easy divorce and homosexuality:
Paul Manafort, GOP Operator and later Trump campaign manager, strategized on behalf of the Russian-backed Ukrainian president Yanukovych. Manafort also worked on “a plan to increase Russian influence in the U.S.” (Source for quotation: Snyder, Road to Unfreedom)
2015, “Russian authorities were cooperating with the American gun lobby [NRA]” (Snyder, Road to Unfreedom, pp. 250-251, Kindle version):
Feb. 2016: Maria Butina reported to Torshin from the United States that “Trump (NRA member) is ready for cooperation with Russia.” ((Snyder, Road to Unfreedom, pp. 250-251, Kindle version):
May 2016: Torshin met with Donald Trump, Jr. in Kentucky in May. That same month, the NRA endorsed Trump and eventually gave his campaign $30 million.
After the Russians infiltrated the NRA, the NRA’s official attitude toward the NRA changed (previously they felt American policy toward Russia was ‘too weak.’)
From Snyder: “Russia’s support of the NRA resembled its support of right-wing paramilitaries in Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. Once Trump was in office, the NRA proclaimed in a video that “We’re coming for the New York Times.”
June 15, 2016: Rep. McCarthy (R-CA) was caught on tape saying “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump.” Paul Ryan immediately stopped the conversation from exploring McCarthy’s assertion and swore the Republicans present to secrecy.
Sept. 9, 2016: Richard Spenser, a leading American white supremacist, called Russia the “sole white power in the world.”
In the Motion for Pre-Trial Detention for Christopher Paul Hasson (the guy planning to mass murder liberals) is quoted as saying “Looking to Russia with hopeful eyes.”
[Narrator: We see Russia beckoning to America’s far right wing, establishing itself as the savior of the white (Christian) race.]
March 16, 2016: Sen. McCain accused Sen. Rand Paul of working for Putin
The Mueller report, pp. 67-173 documented numerous instances of “links and or coordination” between Russians close to Putin and the Trump campaign. Trump Tower Moscow was in the works (Mueller Report, 67-80)
Papadopolous (Mueller Report, pp. 80-95) met the prof. & two Russian nationals. He pursued relations with Russians and kept the campaign informed about his outreach.
Carter Page (Mueller Report, 95-103) touted his “high level contacts in Russia,” traveled to Russia and cultivated those (and more) contacts.
Dimitri Simes and the Center for National Interest (CNI), Russian think tank had contact with Jeff Sessions and Kushner, and hosted a Foreign Policy Speech at the Mayflower Hotel. Kushner and Simes stayed in contact after the speech. (Mueller Report 103-110)
And of course, the famous email:
April 5, 2017: A reporter for Breitbart began hosting a Russian propaganda radio show.
Jun 14, 2018: Katie Hopkins, pictured with Ann Coulter, praises Russia as being “untouched by the myth of multiculturalism and deranged diversity,”
August 6, 2018: Sen. Rand Paul met Russian Senators in Russia to “open the lines of communication.”
He met with Sergey Kislyak, who had been in the May 10 Oval Office meeting when Trump bragged about firing Comey.
Also on August 6: Russian State TV declared Rand Paul a “loyalist”
July 19, 2018: Carlson Tucker of Fox began actively pushing Russia as an ally.
August 12, 2018: Jeanine Pirro on Fox asks “Who’s a greater threat—Putin or Mueller.
Oct. 22, 2018: Giuliani, at the conference, spoke alongside Sergei Glazyev. Glazyev was sanctioned by both the US and the EU for his role in Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine.
[What we might call Operation Ukraine Shakedown, the scandal at the heart of the impeachment hearing, began in late 2018]
Jan. 14, 2019: Trump discussed pulling the US from NATO (Putin has been trying to weaken NATO for years)
May 4, 2019: Trump told Putin about the “Russian hoax” and didn’t tell him to stop interfering in our elections.
Sept. 27, 2019: Giuliani had been planning to appear at a Kremlin-backed conference when the Ukraine scandal broke.
That $1 million Lev Parnas lied about indicates that the Russians actually funded Operation Ukraine Shakedown.
Now for the real meat: A GOP defense of Trump in the Impeachment debates that isn’t getting enough attention.
Trump’s GOP defenders threw out lots of garbage but buried in all that yelling was an important strand that was easy to miss: On multiple occasions, Trump’s GOP defenders said Trump was justified in launching Operation Ukraine because there was solid evidence that Ukraine interfered in our election and that the Russian investigation was a hoax, so (to use Jim Jordan’s word, Trump was “ticked.”)
Fiona Hill testified that Trump’s GOP defenders were pushing “a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves.”
The diplomats made clear that America was (and should be) on Ukraine’s side against Russia, which was the right thing to do for Ukraine and in America’s foreign policy best interests.
Then, on day 2 of the impeachment debate, Matt Gaetz made the comment that stuck with me.
Gaetz suggested that the entire impeachment was a “policy disagreement about how to make Ukraine great again.” He said:
I conclude that if the dispute is a policy difference between the Trump-GOP and the Democrats, the policy difference can only mean attitude toward Russia. Gaetz, in fact, stated this clearly.
How do we make Ukraine “great again”?
Ukraine has never been a democracy. It is struggling to become a democracy.
The “again” in the above sentence is highly suspect.
I conclude that Gaetz is saying that the way to make Ukraine great “again” is by doing Russia’s bidding and forcing Ukraine to conduct an investigation that clears both Russia and Trump from blame and mires Ukraine in the kind of corruption they’re trying to free themselves from.
Russia is trying to reconquer Ukraine through Russia.
Matt Gaetz argued that Trump’s foreign policy was to help Russia.
Matt Gaetz says it’s fine with him–and apparently it’s also fine with the entire GOP leadership now shielding Trump.
It therefore appears that the Congressional GOP leadership, like Trump, is on Russia’s side.
