Lenin-Trump Doctrine by Chip ProserAccording to the law, the federal crime of treason is committed by a person “owing allegiance to the United States who... adheres to their enemies, giving them aid or comfort.” Misprision (abetting) of treason is committed if a person “having knowledge of the commission of treason conceals and does not disclose” the crime."Trump has certainly captured more than a quick news cycle. His treason on TV-- who ever heard of that-- isn't going away soon. Even before the Helsinki thing happened, Ryan Lizza, in an essay, Vanishing Point for Esquire focussed in on one of the key questions: "As the GOP increasingly comes to resemble a personality cult, is there any red line-- video tapes? DNA evidence? a war with Germany-- President Trump could cross and lose party support? 'Very doubtful,' say a dozen GOP members of Congress stuck hard behind the MAGA eight ball."Mark Sanford (R-SC) went out of his way to say-- and seemingly out of the blue-- that he's not comparing Trump to Hitler, which is exactly what he was doing. "Like any good conservative," wrote Lizza, "Sanford has studied and reveres Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, the philosopher-economist’s 1944 account of how dictators take over democracies. Sanford is "worried about America’s political dysfunction, Trump’s 'strongman' affinities, and where that combination could lead. He also brings up the fall of Athenian democracy. 'In part this is not a new movie,' he concluded. 'This is a replaying of a script that’s played throughout the ages, but with incredibly ominous possibilities if we don’t recognize the dangers of the themes that are now at play within American society.'"Right after the press conference former CIA director John Brennan said flatly that the event was "nothing short of treasonous." When have you seen a tweet like this before?Brennan, as you know, never worked for Trump. Dan Coats does. Coats, a former Republican senator from Indiana, was appointed by Trump to be Director of National Intelligence, in other words, the guy who oversees all the U.S. intelligence services. After Trump said he believes in the Russian intelligence services as much as the U.S. intelligence services. This is what the idiot blurted out: "My people came to me, Dan Coats came to me and some others. They said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin, he just said it’s not Russia." Coats' reply:
The role of the Intelligence Community is to provide the best information and fact-based assessments possible for the President and policymakers. We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy, and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our national security.
He didn't offer an opinion on whether or not Trump is a Russian operative and if he's guilty of treason. But what do you call this that Trump babbled yesterday? "I don’t see any reason why it would be Russia who hacked the opposition party. I have great confidence in my intelligence people. But I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today."I wonder what Leonard Lance (NJ) will say. He was one of the only Republican congressmen Ryan Lizza found who was-- on the record-- willing to say there is a red line for him over which Trump could not cross and still expect his support: "Personal collusion by Trump with the Russians during the campaign."
Conservative Trump critics fear becoming the next Sanford and stay quiet—what Flake and others call the “don’t poke the bear” mind-set. Meanwhile, many of the moderate anti-Trump Republicans are leaving office. Congressman Ryan Costello, a Republican from Pennsylvania who decided to quit (redistricting gave him a bluer constituency), said, “If I were running for reelection, every single time that I saw on the TV screen that the president was going to hold another rally, I’d be like, ‘Oh, fuck!’ Because he’s going to say fifty things that aren’t accurate.”Sanford has started to think seriously about what he should do now to contain the forces he says Trump has unleashed. “I came back to Congress worried primarily about debt, deficit, and government spending,” he told me. “This thing, though, given my own personal experiences, has begun to crowd into that space, to say this is a bigger and more clear and present danger to the republic than even the debt and the deficit that I thought was the end of the world.”I asked Sanford: If he really believed what he said about Trump, shouldn’t he too support a Democratic takeover of the House or Senate? He paused for a long time, perhaps wondering how Friedrich Hayek might answer.“I don’t know,” he finally said. “I mean, everybody’s going to come up with their own remedy as to what you do next. I wouldn’t say that’s mine.”But he wouldn’t rule it out.“I’m not there at this point,” he said. “Let me just take one day at a time.”
Thomas Friedman is pulling his hair out of his head: Trump and Putin vs. America. Is that not an accusation of treason? "My fellow Americans," he wrote, "we are in trouble and we have some big decisions to make today. This was a historic moment in the entire history of the United States."
There is overwhelming evidence that our president, for the first time in our history, is deliberately or through gross negligence or because of his own twisted personality engaged in treasonous behavior-- behavior that violates his oath of office to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”Trump vacated that oath today, and Republicans can no longer run and hide from that fact. Every single Republican lawmaker will be-- and should be-- asked on the election trail: Are you with Trump and Putin or are you with the C.I.A., F.B.I. and N.S.A.?...Putin unleashed a cyberattack on America’s electoral process, aimed at both electing Trump-- with or without Trump’s collusion-- and sowing division among American citizens.Our intelligence agencies have no doubt about this: Last week, America’s director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, described Putin’s cybercampaign as one designed “to exploit America’s openness in order to undermine our long-term competitive advantage.” Coats added that America’s digital infrastructure “is literally under attack,” adding that there was “no question” that Russia was the “most aggressive foreign actor.”I am not given to conspiracy theories, but I cannot help wondering if the first thing Trump said to Putin in their private one-on-one meeting in Helsinki, before their aides were allowed to enter, was actually: “Vladimir, we’re still good, right? You and me, we’re still good?”And that Putin answered: “Donald, you have nothing to worry about. Just keep being yourself. We’re still good.”
I guess when he eventually needs to, Trump can fly off to Moscow and ask for asylum-- though not soon enough for me or anyone I know. Meanwhile, Paul Ryan wants to be really clear-- wellllll.... he wants to be clear enough to not cause a landslide against Republicans in November, but not clear enough to anger Señor Trumpanzee: