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Trump's Enemies
See an Opening
By Patrick
Buchanan
January 13,
2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- "Fake news!" roared Donald Trump, the work of "sick
people."
The
president-elect was referring to a 35-page dossier of
lurid details of his alleged sexual misconduct in
Russia, worked up by a former British spy. A two-page
summary of the 35 pages had been added to Trump’s
briefing by the CIA and FBI – and then leaked to CNN.
This is
"something that Nazi Germany would have done," Trump
said. Here, basically, is the story.
During the
primaries, anti-Trump Republicans hired the ex-spy to do
"oppo research" on Trump, i.e., to dig up dirt.
The spy
contacted the Russians. They told him that Trump, at a
Moscow hotel in 2013, had been engaged in depraved
behavior, that they had the films to blackmail him, and
that Trump’s aides had been colluding with them.
When Trump won
the nomination, Democrats got the dossier and began
shopping it around to the mainstream media. Some sought
to substantiate the allegations. None could. So none of
them published the charges.
In December, a
British diplomat gave the dossier to Sen. John McCain,
who personally turned it over to James Comey of the FBI.
On Jan. 7,
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and his
colleagues at the NSA, CIA and FBI decided the new
president needed to know about the dossier. They
provided him with a two-page synopsis.
Once CNN
learned Trump had been briefed, the cable news network
reported on the unpublished dossier, without going into
the lurid details.
BuzzFeed
released all 35 pages. The story exploded.
Besides Trump’s
understandable outrage, his Jan. 11 press conference
produced related news.
U.S.
intelligence agencies had for months contended that it
was Russia who hacked the DNC emails and those of
Clinton campaign chief John Podesta. Putin’s objectives,
they contend, were to damage both U.S. democracy and
Hillary Clinton, whom Putin detests, and to aid Trump.
Trump had
previously dismissed claims of Russian hacking as
unproved conjecture, and also as being advanced to
delegitimize his victory.
Wednesday,
Trump conceded Russia did it: "As far as hacking, I
think it was Russia," adding, Vladimir Putin "should not
be doing it."
The stakes in
all of this are becoming huge.
Clearly, Trump
hopes to work out with Putin the kind of detente that
President Nixon achieved with Leonid Brezhnev.
This should not
be impossible. For, unlike the 1970s, there is no Soviet
Empire stretching from Havana to Hanoi, no Warsaw Pact
dominating Central Europe, no Communist ideology
steering Moscow into constant Cold War conflict with the
West.
Russia is a
great power with great power interests. But she does not
seek to restore a global empire or remake the world in
her image. U.S.-Russian relations are thus ripe for
change.
But any such
hope is now suddenly impaired.
The howls of
indignation from Democrats and the media – that Trump’s
victory and Clinton’s defeat were due to Putin’s
involvement in our election – have begun to limit
Trump’s freedom of action in dealing with Russia. And
they are beginning to strengthen the hand of the
Russophobes and the Putin-is-Hitler crowd in both
parties.
When Secretary
of State-designate Rex Tillerson went before the Foreign
Relations Committee, Sen. Marco Rubio demanded to know
why he would not publicly declare Putin a "war
criminal."
The more toxic
Putin-haters can make the Russian president, the more
difficult for President Trump to deal with him, even if
that is in the vital national interest of the United
States.
The sort of
investigation for which McCain has been clamoring, and
the Beltway drums have now begun to beat, could make it
almost impossible for President Trump to work with
President Putin.
The Washington
Post describes the engine it wishes to see built:
"The
investigators of Russian meddling, whether a
Congressional select committee or an independent
commission, should have bipartisan balance, full
subpoena authority, no time limit and a commitment to
make public as much as possible of what they find."
What the Post
seeks is a Watergate Committee like the one that
investigated the Nixon White House, or a commission like
the ones that investigated 9/11 and the JFK
assassination.
Trump "should
recognize," writes the Post, "that the credibility of
his denials of any Russian connections is undermined by
his refusal to release tax returns and business
records."
In short, when
the investigation begins, Trump must produce the
evidence to establish his innocence. Else, he is Putin’s
man.
This city is
salivating over another Watergate, another broken
president. But President-elect Trump should be aware of
what is at stake. As The Wall Street Journal writes:
"Mr. Trump’s
vehement denials (of collusion with Moscow and corrupt
behavior) also mean that if we learn in the future that
Russia does have compromising details about him, his
Presidency could be over."
Yes, indeed,
very big stakes.
Patrick J.
Buchanan is the author of the new book "The Greatest
Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose From Defeat to Create
the New Majority." To find out more about Patrick
Buchanan and read features by other Creators writers and
cartoonists, visit the Creators website at
www.creators.com.
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CREATORS.COM
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