Donald Trump, Russia, and the Political Witch Hunt That Isnt

[elleng]

By Frank Rich

'Near the end of Donald Trump’s press conference yesterday, Trump was asked if he could “stand here today, once and for all, and say that no one connected” to him or his campaign “had any contact with Russia leading up to or during the presidential campaign.” He tried to avoid the question at the podium, and the press chased him to ask again at the elevator. Is this a sign that Trump’s Russia evasions and broad denials will eventually run out of steam?
Let’s not pretend we don’t know what is happening here. There is evidence that Donald Trump and his administration-in-formation are partially, perhaps wholly, beholden to the Kremlin and/or those Russian oligarchs in its thrall. This is why Trump refused to answer that question about contacts with Russia during the campaign — and why he’ll lie about it when he finally feels he must muster some kind of answer. His symbiosis with Russia is also why he will never release his tax returns, for what other reason could there be at this point except that they reveal the Russian financial ties he denies? After all, we already know the other embarrassments contained in those returns — that he hasn’t paid taxes for years, that he practices no actual philanthropy, and that his businesses are in a perennial waltz with bankruptcy, fraud, and failure.

No, Russia is the big story here. The elephant in the room is a bear. Trump has made no bones about repeatedly hiring fellow Putin sycophants, whether his former campaign chief Paul Manafort, the incoming National Security Adviser, Mike Flynn, or the secretary of State nominee, Rex Tillerson. When the heroic aviator Charles Lindbergh was awarded a medal, the Service Cross of the German Eagle, by Hermann Goering “by order of der Führer” before World War II, it helped make him persona non grata in the FDR White House. When Tillerson received a Russian Order of Friendship Award from Putin, Trump regarded it as an incentive to hire him.'>>>

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/01/trump-russia-and-the-political-witch-hunt-that-isnt.html

[Hortensis]

1. That Trump is speaking of witch hunts and Nazis

and networks turned on him, instead of just boasting happily about how great he is and how beautiful his presidency is going to be, shows he's already in trouble.

He's not even president yet, no duties, no problems from several directions coming in faster than jetliners that must be handled somehow. While Obama handles all that, simple criticism has pushed Prez-elect Trump onto the ropes.