It’s only been two weeks since the first political assassination of a Trump Administration official, and as Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer promised, “It is merely the beginning.” Now in the left’s crosshairs is Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has only been on the job for three weeks. Clearly the left is going to try to pick off every Trump official they can, until they succeed in their ultimate goal of getting rid of Trump himself, by whatever nefarious means necessary.
At the heart of the latest fabricated scandal is testimony Sessions provided during his confirmation as Attorney General. In a brief exchange with Senator Al Franken (D-MN), Franken cited a CNN story that alleged, “Russian operatives claimed to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump. These documents also allegedly say quote, ‘there was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government.’
Franken then asked Sessions, “And if there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do?” Sessions responded, “Senator Franken, I’m not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians, and I’m unable to comment on it.”
In a clarifying response this week Sessions stated that he “never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign.” At question are the two visits he had with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Justice Department officials explained in a statement that those meetings had nothing to do with the Trump campaign.
The statement read, “Sessions met with Kislyak on Sept. 8 in his capacity as a member of the armed services panel rather than in his role as a Trump campaign surrogate. He was asked during the hearing about communications between Russia and the Trump campaign — not about meetings he took as a senator and a member of the Armed Services Committee.” The statement went on to state, “Sessions last year had more than 25 conversations with foreign ambassadors as a senior member of the Armed Services Committee.”
Having met the Russian Ambassador in his official capacity as a Senator and member of the Armed Services Committee, Session’s is being lynched by the left and the mainstream media for little more than guilt by association. Since they are convinced that Hillary Clinton lost the election in November due to “Russian interference” or more specious yet, “Russian hacking,” they will continue to target anyone in the administration who may even have so much as a Russian postage stamp in their collection.
Our November election was certainly not “hacked.” Even President Obama said just a couple of weeks before the election, “No serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America’s elections.” Well, obviously there are a lot of not-serious people on the left who continue to make such allegations.
And even after the election, in an appearance on the Daily Show with Trevor Noah, President Obama was asked about Russian tampering with the American voting process. He responded, “We were frankly more concerned in the run up to the election to the possibilities of vote tampering, which we did not see evidence of.”
In the same program, Obama addressed the Russian attempts to influence the election. He responded, “None of this should be a big surprise. Russia trying to influence our elections dates back to the Soviet Union.” He then downplayed the actual information that Russia is accused of using to affect the election – the contents of the Hillary Clinton and John Podesta emails. The President said they were “not very interesting” and were lacking “explosive revelations.” He was perplexed why it was such an “obsession” with the news media.
It is not surprising that the President would downplay the actual contents of the emails that are at the center of the “Russian election conspiracy” theory; they were damning to the Democrat Party, and the Hillary Clinton campaign. They proved the level of corruption of both, and validated the level of collusion with the mainstream media on their reporting. As one source described the collusion, “The intimate relationship between the Democratic Party and the media isn’t just a conspiracy theory dreamed up by paranoid conservatives. Turns out, there’s more bias in some newsrooms than there is at a Lois Lerner auditing party. From reporters giving party officials a chance to edit or comment on their stories to outright dictating what questions Democratic officials will be asked on air, the collusion uncovered in the pages of messages is astounding — even for the most cynical media critic.”
As President Obama said to Trevor Noah, “What’s happened to our political system where some emails that were hacked and released ended up being the overwhelming story, and the constant source of coverage – breathless coverage – that was depicted as somehow damning in all sorts of ways when the truth of the matter was it was fairly routine stuff?” But that was then. Now, to the DNC and the mainstream media, it is the story.
It’s no wonder that the mainstream media and the left continually harp on the alleged “Russian conspiracy,” because that way we are intended to forget what the leaked emails revealed. When focused on “Russian meddling,” there’s little chance of the news-consuming public actually thinking through the corruption within the DNC that was supposedly so damaging to the Democrats in the November election! It’s perfect misdirection by the political left, completely aided and abetted by the mainstream media! The entire focus is on how the information may have come to light, rather than what the actual information was.
Liberals blame Hillary’s loss in November on the Russians. Regrettably, all too few of us took the time to read the actual emails purportedly hacked by the Russians, which revealed the level of corruption within the Democrat Party and their leadership, as well as the collusion with the mainstream media. Consequently, the influence of the revelatory emails was likely negligible, certainly much less of an impact than it should have. But that’s understandable since the media ignored the substance, and have instead focused entirely on the Russian meddling. It’s their scapegoat for their corrupt party and corrupt candidate losing. If the Russians were involved with the leaked emails, we should be grateful for the additional information they provided voters leading into the election.
So next time someone asks you about the Russian attempts to influence our election, just ask them, “Oh, you mean all those emails that proved how corrupt the DNC and the mainstream media are?” Regardless of how the information came to be promulgated, the corruption is the real story. That’s what voters, and the news-consuming public should be most attentive to. All the “Russian interference” propaganda is simply political smokescreen to obscure DNC corruption, and provides a cover for politically targeting anyone in the administration with any contact whatsoever with Russia.
Associated Press award winning columnist Richard Larsen is President of Larsen Financial, a brokerage and financial planning firm in Pocatello, Idaho and is a graduate of Idaho State University with degrees in Political Science and History and coursework completed toward a Master’s in Public Administration. He can be reached at rlarsenen@cableone.net.
You are so right in so many ways….Our great Nation has reached new lows most of us never dreamed possible. I imagine that Lady Liberty is crying as she looks out over this beautiful patchwork quilt of a Country and sees all of the stains. While it’s rather a ‘certainty’ that Russia has accessed some of our systems, have dem Dems forgotten about both our open and clandestine involvement in other countries and our monitors were actually on site? It is quite obvious that the Democrats have poor memories in addition to being experienced in ‘cover-ups’. Also Responsibility is not in their vocabulary unless it points at others !
Particularly this past eight years we’ve been accustomed to ‘conspiracy’ theories and that’s where I conjured up this one……Trump is the target….efforts at ‘knocking out’ smaller fish to get to him has led us to Secy Sessions…who even with their failed efforts has become the “Gate Keeper” at the Justice Department. They may not know the definition of ‘justice’ but know that it’s path leads to likely prosecution or discovery. Now that the ‘gate’ is open, the one in charge just happens to be an Obama appointee and his staff. The slow walk on Trump’s cabinet will pale beside the pace anything gets processed/investigated through this department….
Got my fingers crossed and prayer candles lit that at least we can get SCOTUS up to full strength.
Is this the ‘quite’ before the storm?” Better brace ourselves !