Russia ~ Failure of Speaker Ryan and Senator McConnell
Failing on Russia will be the legacy of the 115th Congress ~ echo opinion published in the Cincinnati Enquirer:
An excellent analysis ~
"worth pointing out that the party that led the charge for a multi-year, multi-million dollar taxpayer-funded effort to turn the Benghazi tragedy into a conspiracy now cannot find the bandwidth to seriously investigate an attack on our sovereignty."
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| Ryan Cahill opinion ~ Congress has tragically failed on Russia |
Cincinnati.com ~ By Ryan Cahill
Meanwhile, Gates and his former boss, Paul Manafort, who served as Trump’s campaign chairman in 2016, were charged (again) by the Justice Department in a sealed indictment. All of this happened in the past few weeks.
This is the new normal for the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and the Trump campaign’s potential involvement in the same. Where many media outlets and some elected officials have approached these issues of foreign interference, high-level collusion, and obstruction of justice with the appropriate seriousness and concern, Republican leaders in Congress have failed.
This ineptitude is not a new development. Before election day in 2016, when the intelligence community came to the conclusion that Russia was intervening in our election on behalf of then-candidate Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to participate in a bipartisan statement condemning such behavior. More recently, House Speaker Paul Ryan has resorted to verbal jujitsu when asked about the president’s behavior as it relates to the Russia investigation, calling the legitimate attempts to safeguard our democracy a “political distraction.”
This is the new normal for the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and the Trump campaign’s potential involvement in the same. Where many media outlets and some elected officials have approached these issues of foreign interference, high-level collusion, and obstruction of justice with the appropriate seriousness and concern, Republican leaders in Congress have failed.
This ineptitude is not a new development. Before election day in 2016, when the intelligence community came to the conclusion that Russia was intervening in our election on behalf of then-candidate Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to participate in a bipartisan statement condemning such behavior. More recently, House Speaker Paul Ryan has resorted to verbal jujitsu when asked about the president’s behavior as it relates to the Russia investigation, calling the legitimate attempts to safeguard our democracy a “political distraction.”
Not to be outdone, however, is Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes, who is using his power to throw chaff at the Mueller investigation with cherry-picked and misleading information – all in the face of objections from the FBI and Trump’s Justice Department. Nunes also likes to joke about the threat of Russian actors on Twitter.
When it comes to legislative action, the paralysis is even more alarming. Last summer, the Senate and the House voted overwhelmingly (something they hardly do on anything lately) to impose tougher sanctions on Russia in the wake of their brazen election interference.
When it comes to legislative action, the paralysis is even more alarming. Last summer, the Senate and the House voted overwhelmingly (something they hardly do on anything lately) to impose tougher sanctions on Russia in the wake of their brazen election interference.
Trump, facing the threat of a veto-override, issued a damning statement (that included a boast about the value of the Trump Organization), signed the bill out of public view, and then simply refused to enforce it.
Highlighting Republican hypocrisy on national security issues has become the equivalent of investing in your 401K: After the first few payments, it’s not sexy or interesting, and the marginal benefit hardly increases, but it’s always necessary.
Highlighting Republican hypocrisy on national security issues has become the equivalent of investing in your 401K: After the first few payments, it’s not sexy or interesting, and the marginal benefit hardly increases, but it’s always necessary.
So it’s worth pointing out that the party that led the charge for a multi-year, multi-million dollar taxpayer-funded effort to turn the Benghazi tragedy into a conspiracy now cannot find the bandwidth to seriously investigate an attack on our sovereignty. During my time working in the House of Representatives, while President Obama was in office, I endured countless speeches centered on executive overreach and our “lawless president.” Now, when the president refuses to enforce a bipartisan law that they just passed, there’s no outrage.
This is the behavior of a group of individuals who are guided by the principle of staying in power, instead of using it for the public good. Considering that the vast majority congressional districts are safe from a challenge from anywhere except their own party, members of Congress are incentivized to placate their fringe constituents first and ask questions relevant to national security later. Unfortunately, this is a zero-sum game: The president’s insistence to dismiss Russian threats to our elections has left us woefully vulnerable to future interference – and it’s the Republicans’ failure in Congress to hold him accountable or protect institutions that ensure our democracy.
This will be the legacy of the 115th Congress. When Robert Mueller, a Republican once appointed as FBI Director by George W. Bush, completes his investigation, those results will be the metric by which to measure the concurrent congressional investigations. It’s likely that there will be plenty of daylight between what the Republican-led efforts to get to the bottom of this and Mueller’s final report look like, and rest assured the usual suspects will do everything they can to downplay it until the next news cycle.
History will undoubtedly reflect the abject failure of Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell to respond adequately to this assault on our democracy. In the meantime, only the results of this fall’s elections will determine whether they can get away with it.
Ryan Cahill is the digital manager at Truman National Security Project and is a native of Ohio. Follow him on Twitter @rwcahill.
This is the behavior of a group of individuals who are guided by the principle of staying in power, instead of using it for the public good. Considering that the vast majority congressional districts are safe from a challenge from anywhere except their own party, members of Congress are incentivized to placate their fringe constituents first and ask questions relevant to national security later. Unfortunately, this is a zero-sum game: The president’s insistence to dismiss Russian threats to our elections has left us woefully vulnerable to future interference – and it’s the Republicans’ failure in Congress to hold him accountable or protect institutions that ensure our democracy.
This will be the legacy of the 115th Congress. When Robert Mueller, a Republican once appointed as FBI Director by George W. Bush, completes his investigation, those results will be the metric by which to measure the concurrent congressional investigations. It’s likely that there will be plenty of daylight between what the Republican-led efforts to get to the bottom of this and Mueller’s final report look like, and rest assured the usual suspects will do everything they can to downplay it until the next news cycle.
History will undoubtedly reflect the abject failure of Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell to respond adequately to this assault on our democracy. In the meantime, only the results of this fall’s elections will determine whether they can get away with it.
Ryan Cahill is the digital manager at Truman National Security Project and is a native of Ohio. Follow him on Twitter @rwcahill.
Labels: Cincinnati Enquirer, Donald Trump, Ryan Cahill
posted by Juliana L'Heureux | 5:50 PM
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