Donald Trump expressed collaborative interest in a security crime that Russia may have committed against the United States. Can treason win the Presidential election?
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The more Donald Trump talks, this presidential election becomes less a choice between him and Hillary Clinton and more about why he should not be elected.
The Republican Party’s standard bearer all but challenged Russia and unspecified others to hack into U.S. government computers in a hunt for lost emails from Mrs. Clinton’s days as secretary of state. Russian cyber hackers are already the prime suspect in the breaching of Democratic National Committee emails that sealed the resignation of embattled DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
All too often, many of Trump’s statements have been shrugged off as another example of foot-in-the-mouth for which he either is never held accountable or follows up with an unapologetic follow-up. For this one, Trump’s campaign defended itself with the comment that Trump actually said if Russian or other hackers had any missing emails they should hand them over to the FBI. Not the same as calling on Russia and other foreign countries to hack U.S. national security systems, the campaign said. (Judge for yourself. Here are Trump’s exact comments. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. They probably have them. I’d like to have them released, Now, if Russia or China or any other country has those e-mails, I mean, to be honest with you, I’d love to see them.”)
That a presidential candidate would make any comment that could be construed as a challenge to other countries to spy on his own country is probably without historic precedence. The spying, however, is not. Trump’s latest gaffe resurrects the dark shadows of a by-gone era and which were cast by another Republican, President Richard Nixon.
On June 17, 1972 – 44 years ago – when Nixon was in the midst of a reelection campaign, five men who were paid by the pro-Nixon Committee to Reelect the President (CREEP) were nabbed after breaking into national Democratic headquarters in Washington. Their purpose was to install electronic surveillance bugs to spy on Democrats throughout the campaign. The ensuing investigation of the break-in led to the discovery of other covert and illegal activities by Nixon and his cronies even before Nixon first took office in 1969.
The scandals that evolved and were grouped together and known collectively as Watergate were put to rest in August 1974 when Nixon became the first and only president to resign the presidency.
The parallels between Watergate and the criminal conduct that Trump seems to suggest is disturbing and frightening – disturbing because that very conduct forced Nixon from office in shame and disgrace, frightening because Trump as a presidential candidate receives routine national security briefings.
Outraged, possibly frightened, citizens took to social media with some suggesting the GOP candidate be charged with treason, a federal crime punishable by death. While it may be a stretch of the law that Trump could be charged for treason, there is a stronger argument that Trump’s briefings on matters of national security should be suspended pending a U.S. investigation of his comment.
There may be logic, too, in the observation by some that Trump’s national security credentials be revoked on grounds that Trump himself is a threat to national security. That suggestion is rooted not only in Trump’s latest comment but also on his past flattery of Russian President Vladimir Putin and former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
In a related comment – barely related – a day after suggesting foreign governments hack U.S. security programs, Trump said he once heard Putin call America’s first black president the “n” word and, less related, said he “hoped (Putin) likes me.” It may be no coincidence that cyber detectives attributed Russia’s hacking of DNC computers to Putin’s support of Trump as president.
The political conventions are over, and the choice for voters is Donald Trump, billionaire real estate mogul with no governing experience, or Hillary Clinton, former first lady and secretary of state, not to mention first woman nominee to head a major party national ticket. The next three months will be a predictable barrage of pro- and anti- ads for both candidates.
They may not be needed, though. Trump’s mouth may be his opponent’s best argument for voting against him. The more he talks, the more the electorate may be horrified at the prospect of Trump as president and his vision of America as dark, forbidding and forbidden, isolated from a global community and a Trump government influenced by an executed Iraqi dictator and a Russian president who has called for the fall of the West.
That fear should not be dismissed as extreme alarmism. This time, America’s very soul and future may really be at stake.
Photo: Flickr/Gage Skidmore
Source: 30dB.com – Trump and Russia and Emails
“Results from social media from today show some support for Trump and his Russian invitation. Makes one wonder if the rumors of State sponsored pro-Trump tweeting by Russia is real.” – Howard K. 30dB