Will Congress Prevent Trump From Cozying Up With Cozy Bear?

Ultimately, the American people are going to want to know what Trump and his inner circle knew about Russian hacking— and when did they know it? McConnell and Ryan— who aggressively covered it up during the election— are now trying to cover their own asses by pretending to be indignant over Russia helping steal the election for their candidate. Blaming Obama for failing too prevent Russian hacking, Miss McConnell lisped menacingly that Russians “are not our friends… Sanctions against the Russian intelligence services are a good initial step, however late in coming. As the next Congress reviews Russian actions against networks associated with the U.S. election, we must also work to ensure that any attack against the United States is met with an overwhelming response.”



While Trump is babbling about forgetting the Russian cyber-attack that placed him in the White House and “getting on with our lives,” Obama announced the public sanctions he’s taking yesterday, ejecting 35 Russian intelligence operatives from the United States and imposing sanctions on Russia’s two leading intelligence services.

Trump will now have to decide whether to lift the sanctions on the Russian intelligence agencies when he takes office next month, with Republicans in Congress among those calling for a public investigation into Russia’s actions. Should Mr. Trump do so, it would require him to effectively reject the findings of his intelligence agencies.

Asked on Wednesday night at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., about reports of the impending sanctions, Mr. Trump said: “I think we ought to get on with our lives. I think that computers have complicated lives very greatly. The whole age of computer has made it where nobody knows exactly what is going on. We have speed, we have a lot of other things, but I’m not sure we have the kind, the security we need.”

President Obama, in a statement, put in a subtle dig at Mr. Trump’s unwillingness to talk about Russia’s role. “All Americans should be alarmed by Russia’s actions,” he said. He said he acted after “repeated private and public warnings that we have issued to the Russian government” and called the moves “a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm U.S. interests in violation of established international norms of behavior.”

The samples of malware were in what the Obama administration called a “joint analytic report” from the F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland Security that was based in part on intelligence gathered by the National Security Agency. A more detailed report on the intelligence, ordered by President Obama, will be published in the next three weeks, though much of the detail — especially evidence collected from “implants” in Russian computer systems, tapped conversations and spies — is expected to remain classified.

Although you still have some Trumpist nut-jobs who prefer Putin to Obama and would sell out the U.S. in a moment— look at the tweet below from Arizona right-wing psychopath Trent Franks— even most Republican lawmakers understand the gravity of this. On CNN with Jake Tapper, Adam Kizinger (R-IL), a former combat pilot and currently a major in the Air National Guard, said he can’t defend Trump’s self-serving position. "Yeah, I can't defend that, and I am not going to," said Kinzinger. "I think to disparage the intel-gathering mechanisms that we have here is not the right answer… I hope when he is actually sworn in as president, you know, now the weight of the world has fallen onto him and he realizes that ... for the last eight years America has given up its role in a lot of areas to Russia, we need to claw that back. So I hope that changes on Inauguration Day.”

Meanwhile hawks like John McCain (R), Lindsey Graham (R) and Ben Cardin (D) in the Senate and Adam Schiff (D) and Brad Sherman (D) in the House are vowing to take the lead on even stronger sanctions against Russia, regardless of what Trump is up to with Putin. Many in Congress fear that Putin will have Trump obliterate the sanctions and measures as soon as he gets into the Oval Office. Many Democrats want the Senate to pass legislation going even further than Obama, something that will put congressional Republicans in a bind, where they have to choose between the country (+ their own integrity) and Trump, now widely seen as a Putin puppet. Ryan is furiously working behind the scenes to prevent any legislation that ties Trump’s hands in rewarding Putin for the GOP electoral victory in November.

Not everyone agrees, of course. This video clip, I feel bad to say, was a real meeting of two self-described open minds, who are convinced Russia means the U.S. no harm. And maybe they're right; I've said all along we'll never know for sure, although we can be sure all sides have their own agendas and none of them have any sense of responsibility to The Truth.

Last word on this (at least for this morning)-- Republican Party strategist Rick Wilson goes off on an anti-Trump/Putin tweet storm: