Real Witches

By

Leonard Zwelling

Mr. Trump has called the Mueller investigation a witch hunt as recently as his press conference on July 13 with Theresa May. I guess he must be right because yet again, Mr. Mueller’s team has turned up some real witches. The count of indictments is over 30 and several have pleaded guilty. Of course, Paul Manafort, the one-time campaign chairman, rots in jail in DC. If this is a witch hunt, it is unmasking real witches.

This time it is twelve Russian nationals with ties to the Russian government who will probably get medals from Mr. Trump’s new BFF, Mr. Putin rather than be tried in a court of law in the United States. Compared with Watergate and Whitewater, Mueller’s investigation is moving at lightning speed and has been infinitely more productive. There are real bad guys among the Russians and they had associations with some Americans. If any of those Americans turn out to have been part of the Trump campaign, the collusion circle is closed. I think that circle is a net that will catch many. It’s just a matter of time.

So in response to the latest indictments of Russian officials who hacked the Democrats and tried to tilt the election (and well, may have), what is Mr. Trump doing? He’s going to meet with their boss in Helsinki after first disrupting the NATO alliance and then bad mouthing the British Prime Minister to the local press in London. This guy is a bull in a china shop the size of Ikea (the shop is the size of Ikea and so is Trump’s ego).

Let’s say for a moment it was four years ago and the Department of Justice had found Russian operatives stealing the emails of the Republican National Committee. Let’s say it was right before President Obama was to meet with Mr. Putin. You can bet the GOP members of Congress would be up in arms protesting the meeting. Where are they now? They’re picking on an FBI agent who made the unfortunate mistake of expressing his political opinions to a lover in an email or text. This is red meat to the friends of Trey Gowdy who made a complete jerk of himself in front of the TV cameras beating up on the agent who dared to have an opinion.

It is fairly clear now that many people broke the law in breaking into the DNC servers and into the email accounts of various Clintonites. The only question left is, were they working with members of the Trump campaign team and if so which ones and under whose auspices?

I will be very surprised if at least some Trump kids don’t go to jail after the dust settles and we shall see if the American people choose to raise the ante even more and return Donald Trump to the White House. He is a destructive force, a know-nothing and a rude, crude bully. My guess is that there are lots of people who favor his policies vis a vis Europe and Russia and our neighbors to the south. I understand that and I am not unsympathetic to some of these emotions. But that’s what they are—emotions. In fact the Europeans were increasing their defense contributions on schedule, the Russians do want to bury us and steal territory to reclaim the sphere of the Soviet Union (think Crimea) and we do have rules governing asylum seekers and either we must abide by the law or change it.

Of course, that would take some action by a thoroughly inept Congress that is allowing Mr. Trump to do what he wants, how he wants, when he wants. That was not the way the Constitution envisioned the government would work.

I suggest that the Democrats rapidly identify the most likely person who can beat Mr. Trump in 2020 and craft a message of hope for 2018. Then they need to run, run, run and not stop. I suggest that Nancy Pelosi step down and Chuck Schumer do the same.

If we are ever going to get on solid footing again after Trump, he’s got to be beat with something. You can’t beat him with nothing. What’s the Democratic game plan? Wait for more witches? Bad plan.