At least 14 of Donald Trump's family members and associates communicated with Russian government representatives during and after the 2016 campaign, according to a new Washington Post analysis. Those Russian contacts offered campaign dirt, help with Trump's real estate empire and conduits with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
This bolsters revelations by special counsel Robert Mueller that Russia's electoral meddling extended near — or right to — the top of TrumpWorld. Trump himself grows more belligerent on the subject by the day.
Yet Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell continues to block a bipartisan measure to protect Mueller's investigation from being short-circuited by Trump's Justice Department appointees. Some Senate Republicans disagree, but that's no longer enough. It's time they issued a unified demand that their leader allow a vote.
The Washington Post analysis details the many contacts between Trump associates and the Russian government, beyond what's been revealed in indictments. Some, such as those involving Donald Trump Jr., first daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, are well established; others, including business associates and campaign advisers, are based on new information.
Together, they sharpen the picture of a campaign that wasn't merely brushing shoulders with a hostile foreign government meddling in our election, but was fully engaged with that effort on multiple levels. No wonder Trump is so terrified at what more Mueller might have.
Still, McConnell won't allow a vote on a bill to prevent Trump from removing Mueller without cause. This isn't some Democratic cudgel; co-sponsors include Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a frequent Trump surrogate, and other top Republicans.
It's unrealistic to expect veto-proof passage in the House as currently configured. But with Democrats about to take over the House, it will be at least theoretically possible starting in January. And any passage at all would send Trump a strong warning about the line he is contemplating crossing.
There's no question he's contemplating it. Trump already obstructed justice when he fired former FBI Director James Comey and then admitted on national television that it was to impede the Russia probe. He already ordered Mueller's firing, early this year, before staff backed him off. His almost daily tweet-rants read like a frantic effort to justify the nuclear option.
Yet McConnell persists with his ostrich act. "This is a solution in search of a problem," he said recently, in defiance of any rational interpretation of Trump's words and actions. "The president is not going to fire Robert Mueller."
Those could become famous last words, politically — not just for McConnell, but for his whole caucus. If Trump carries out the Nixonian purge he so clearly wants, the resulting constitutional crisis will sit on the doorstep of those who allowed it to happen. And as long as rank-and-file Senate Republicans let their leader get away with this inexcusable abdication of duty, that will include them.
REPRINTED FROM THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
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