August 18, 2020: "A President Who is a Danger to National Security."

 

8/18/20: If you’re not watching the Democratic Convention, Joe Biden is now the official candidate of the party and will try to defeat Donald J. Trump.

 

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“I never thought I would have a president who is a danger to national security.” 

Lt. Gen. Jack Weinstein

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You’ve also missed seeing former Republican governor of Ohio, John Kasich, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell, come out in favor of Mr. Biden. Powell, a lifelong Republican, was joined by former GOP senator Chuck Hagel, who accused the president of “dereliction of duty.” Trump, warned Hagel, “has degraded and debased the presidency and our country in the eyes of the world.” Retired Lt. Gen. Jack Weinstein added his voice to the chorus. Citing his 36 years in uniform, he said, “I never thought I would have a president who is a danger to national security.” 

We have, Powell said, a nation divided, and “a president doing everything in his power to keep it that way.”

 

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Connections with Russian intelligence assets. 

IN OTHER NEWS, the final volume of the Senate report on Russian interference in the 2016 election is released. 

Most Americans are too busy trying not to get sneezed on to consider the findings. We will briefly note: 

The bipartisan committee uncovered the same kind of evidence found by Robert Mueller and his investigators. There were multiple contacts between Russians and members of the Trump campaign. Some were more problematic than previously known. For instance, Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer, who met with top campaign officials in a secret meeting in June 2016 (a meeting which included Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort), had connections with Russian intelligence assets that were “far more extensive and concerning than what had been publicly known.” 

(As we at this blog have previously noted, Ms. Veselnitskaya fled this country, one step ahead of arrest.) 

As The Hill notes, the Senate panel also found that, hostile foreign powers looked upon the Trump transition team as an easy mark: 

“Russia and other countries took advantage of the Transition Team’s inexperience, transparent opposition to Obama Administration policies, and Trump’s desire to deepen ties with Russia, to pursue unofficial channels through which Russia could conduct diplomacy,” the report reads, noting that this made the “transition open to influence and manipulation.” 

 

Senate investigators also went further than the Mueller Report had, tagging Konstantin Kilimnik, the business partner of Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, as “a Russian intelligence officer [emphasis added].” The committee labeled Manafort “a grave counterintelligence risk” in its report. 

Kilimnik also fled to Russia before the feds could slap on the cuffs. And Manafort went to prison. 

Evidence indicated that at least two members of Team Trump, Don Jr., and Felix Sater, may have lied to Congress about Candidate Trump’s efforts to get a hotel deal closed in Moscow, during the campaign. (Again, as we have previously noted, Sater was a convicted felon with he went to work for Trump.) 

Further, the committee found that Russian President Vladimir Putin was personally behind the hack and leak operation that published stolen Democratic Party emails, which did serious damage to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. 

Trump fans might find some comfort in knowing that the committee faulted the F.B.I. for giving too much credence to the Steele dossier.

 

Also, six of the eight Republicans on the committee happily announced that after three years of investigations, “we can now say with no doubt, there was no collusion.” 

This is an interesting assessment, since we know Veselnitskaya and Kilimnik are safe in Russia and will never testify. 

And because Trump has always said he won’t take a pardon for Manafort “off the table” – so Manafort has no reason to cooperate with any investigations. 

And because Don Jr. refused to return to Congress and clear up his earlier testimony until he got a sweetheart deal, including limited hours he’d have to stay on the stand, limits to topics he’d have to address, and a promise he would never be called again to testify about any contacts with Russians. 

Top Trump allies in both the House and Senate argued absurdly that Don Jr. shouldn’t have to come again, in the first place, because so far no one had been able to prove he had been lying.

Veselnitskaya secretly met with Donald J. Trump Jr.

Later, she fled to...Russia.

BLOGGER’S NOTE (12/24/20): Paul Manafort gets an early Christmas present when the president indeed pardons him. You could say for “services rendered.” 

That is: Not ratting on Donald Sr.