TPM: Flynn Doesn't Matter. This Is About Trump
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Through the course of the campaign, transition and presidency, three top Trump advisors and staffers have had to resign because of issues tied to Russia. Paul Manafort, Carter Page and now Michael Flynn. Page might arguably be termed a secondary figure. Manafort ran Trump's campaign and Flynn was his top foreign policy advisor for a year. The one common denominator between all these events, all these men is one person: Donald Trump.
As I said above, this has all been happening before our eyes, the train of inexplicable actions, the unaccountable ties and monetary connections, the willful, almost inexplicable need to make the case for Vladimir Putin even when the President knows the suspicion he's under. When I was writing my first post on this topic more than 6 months ago, I had the uncanny feeling of finding what I was writing impossible to believe as I wrote it. And yet, I would go through the list of unexplained occurrences and actions, clear business and political connections, sycophantic support and more and realize there was too much evidence to ignore. It was fantastical and yet in plain sight.
That's where we still are. There is a huge amount we don't know. We don't know the big answers. But to use the language of the criminal law, there's probable cause to have a real investigation. Not a rush to judgment, but an investigation. This has been in front of us for months. It may gratify Democrats as partisans to see an entire political party be suborned by a President under a cloud of doubt. But it is horrible for the country. There is so much smoke that you could choke on it. It's time to find out what Donald Trump's relationship is to Russia, his and his associates' contacts with Russian officials during the campaign, whatever business ties there might be. If you were Vladimir Putin you could not have done more to help the cause of Donald Trump. And if you were Trump, you could not have done more in actions and statements to repay the favor. The only question is whether the trajectory of perfectly interlocked actions were simply chance or tacit. Is it even remotely credible that with everything that led up to it, Michael Flynn initiated and conducted this back channel on his own? Hardly. It's crazy that we're having this conversation about a sitting President. But here we are. It's time. We need to know the answer to this question.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/flynn-doesn-t-matter-this-is-about-trump