It was one thing when the FBI arrested Alexander Smirnov for lying and obstruction, since he was the Republican Party’s star witness in its “impeachment investigation” of President Biden. This was devastating news for the GOP which had been relying so heavily on Smirnov, from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on down to Rep. James Comer (R-KY), chair of the House Oversight Committee through to Fox host Sean Hannity who has done 85 segments on Smirnov and delivered 28 monologues about him, and so many other Republicans.
Then yesterday, the government released a court filing on its indictment which states they have evidence that Smirnov not only lied and fabricated a bribery scheme between the President and his son, but far, far worse had "high-level contacts with Russian intelligence operatives." And this is who the ace GOP has been relying on and trusting as their star witness. An asset of Russian intelligence delivering misinformation to bring down the U.S. President. The Russian expression for such unwitting conspirators is “Useful idiots.” It should not come as a shock. Trump made his position clear in a 2018 press conference in Helsinki with Russian despot Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer, when he said he trusted Putin more than all U.S. intelligence services. And given how slavishly acquiescent Republicans have become in caving to Everything Trump, it only follows that they would unquestioningly believe the word of someone who, it turns out, was passing along disinformation from "high-level contacts with Russian intelligence operatives." This, of course, isn’t the only such disaster for Republicans in their faux-effort to “investigate” President Biden in order to impeach him for no reason. Just last year, another supposed major witness not only disappeared before he was supposed to testify under oath, but he was later found to be an agent for China. It’s easy to see why Republicans in Congress (and from them, their base) believe lies fed to them by high-level Russian intelligence operatives and agents of China. It’s because they want it to be true. And after wanting it to be true for so long, they eventually have gotten to the point where they need it to be true, but their political futures and the 2024 election depend on it. And so, they put aside all sense of rationality, decency, responsibility and honor, and just blindly accepted lies so devastating that they could help undermine the government, and – leading to Trump – democracy. But then, this is the party that enabled the Jan. 6 Insurrection to overthrow the government and democracy, so this all follows. It’s the sort of driven, willful blindness that got Rudy Giuliani to destroy the lives of two innocent women, that ended up costing him $146 million in a lawsuit. It’s the sort of mindset that’s gotten Trump to be impeached twice and indicted four times with 91 counts, thinking that the law and decency and reality don’t pertain to him. A jury verdict that he was liable for the equivalence of rape and defamation, and a $453 million conviction for fraud – so far – have told him to the contrary. Trump, the man who only last week that if he is re-elected, he’d tell Russia that they could do “whatever the hell you want” to our allies. And Republicans in Congress pretty much shrugged “okay.” Because that’s who the Republican Party is today. A party of Useful Idiots whose star witnesses are an indicted liar who had "high-level contacts with Russian intelligence operatives” and an agent of China. And all the while, Useful Idiot Trump cries out that he’s the victim, that all the investigations of him are just political vindictiveness and witch hunts. As he tries desperately and sickeningly in the same whining breath to paint himself as a martyr just like the dead Alexei Navalny, murdered by Trump's handler Putin. All the while echoing the words of Hitler. Though I’m sure it all sounds better in the original Russian. But not much better.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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