Someone on Twitter pointed out that the Russian Ambassador holds Jeff Sessions’s fate in his hands right now. It struck me that this is true, *even if their conversations were proper and innocent. *
In other words, the Russians can effectively blackmail Sessions even if he did nothing wrong. His credibility on this issue is pretty well shot with the US press. If Kislyak says - or a proxy leaks - that their conversations were election-related, isn’t Sessions doomed as AG?
Then I thought: isn’t this true of Trump himself? Can’t the Russians hold the threat of even manufactured kompromat over Trump’s head? Given what we don’t know about the relationships between Trump, his campaign, and the Russian government, isn’t Trump especially susceptible to blackmail threats, even if he’s done nothing wrong?
I dislike Trump for many, many reasons, but I try to keep an open mind about news stories where the facts are in dispute. Here, though, I think it’s safe to say that even if there’s no fire behind the smoke, the Russians can put a lot of pressure on Trump. And all indications are that he’ll give in to them instead of opening the books and admitting whatever wrongdoings there might be - or disproving the allegations.
I wish I trusted him to stand up and fight in such a case, but I really don’t.
In summary: **Am I wrong to think, regardless of partisanship or the truth or untruth of specific allegations, that this is a very dangerous situation? **
It is a dangerous situation. Putin has an astonishing degree of control over the US government (extending exactly as far as does the control of the Executive Branch itself).
But Congressional Republicans are desperate to get their pet projects through. They will ignore the danger as long as their constituents permit them to do so.
Unfortunately the US press - and much of the world’s press - has demonstrated that it is so biased against Trump that it will likely be ignored.
See above. Unless Trump is broadcast live - not just recorded - saying something half-witted (this should not be difficult) then it can and will be dismissed.
Biased? The press treats him better than he deserves. If* every* headline doesn’t include “Unqualified Buffoon” they are giving him more respect than he has earned.
Take the anti-Trump attitude of the press as a given. Maybe it’s because they’re all commies/SJWs, maybe it’s because they’re all in thrall to their corporate masters, maybe they believe in democracy or something- whatevs. They don’t like him much. (Though the pundit class praised him for not stepping on his own dick Tuesday night? Still, that was one time.)
Even if the press is treating him unfairly, isn’t our current situation kinda special? And by special, I mean scary?
I mean, I liked Obama and generally agreed with his policies. But if you slotted him into Trumps’s shoes, right now? I wouldn’t trust him a bit on any issue that affected Russia.
There’s really no danger to them. If they impeach both Trump and Pence, then Paul Ryan becomes President. In four years, everyone will have forgotten about this, Trump will have long-since been completely sold as “an outsider, not a real Republican”, and the election cycle will hang entirely on economics, just like it always does.
If they just impeach Trump, then they risk how popular Pence would actually be with the mass electorate (probably not very). But they’d have a good argument to go for the two-fer.
To what end? Say for example, that the Russians wanted to intervene on behalf of their buddy Assad in Syria against US wishes, or perhaps take over the Crimea, or even start a war on the border of the Ukraine, would they use this sort of blackmail to prevent the US from responding? Because it appears that the Russians can pretty much do whatever the hell they want, hack whoever they want, invade who they want, without the US doing anything to prevent it even when they don’t have blackmail material on the President.
Putin: “Igor, we’ll use our blackmail to get the launch codes from Trump”. Igor responds, “Why? I’ll have them hacked in an hour or lets ask Snowden (or other traitorous sort)”
Maybe I’m being a bit facetious here, as politicians should be relatively free from the influence of other countries, but what is the supposed outcome here if they are being blackmailed? To be more clear, what do the Russians gain when they do whatever they want anyways?
Judging from Trump’s over-reaction to trivial slights, I could picture him being blackmailed for something relatively minor, something which even if made public would be quickly forgotten. It could be an audio recording of him admitting he’s not nearly as rich as he publicly suggests.
The extensive interactions between Trump, his campaign team,and Russian spies go back over a year. Trump has got to either be the world’s stupidest Presidential contender, or a thoroughly compromised tool of the Russians.