Seeing Through the Smoke
White House Special Advisor Jared Kushner testified to the House Intelligence Committee last week regarding his role in the “Russian connection.” According to Adam Schiff, the California Democrat and ranking minority member of the Committee, “(Republican) Mr. Gowdy took the role as a second attorney for Mr. Kushner…” [1] Gowdy not only soft-pedaled his own questions, but prevented Democrats from asking tough questions and advised Kushner on what to answer.
This is the same Republican Trey Gowdy who took great pride in the interrogation of Hillary Clinton during the Benghazi hearings, and continues to this day to call for further investigation of the Clinton emails. He clearly has determined that his role is to deflect attention away from “Russia” and bring back the old tales of the past two years – the flaws of Hillary Clinton. Benghazi cost Congress over $5 million,[2] and estimates adding in the FBI’s email investigation drives the cost to over $20 million.[3]
Over the next several weeks, expect to hear from or about former National Security Advisor Susan Rice, former UN Ambassador Samantha Power, and perhaps even former Attorney General Loretta Lynch. This is all a part of the same smokescreen: let’s talk about the “good old Obama days” as a way of distracting from the reality of the Trump/Russian issue.
There is also a different screening operation going on, but this time aided by the “mainstream media” that the President has so often accused of “fake news.” The premise of this insidious argument: that the Russian “collusion” was in fact a plan by Russian Intelligence simply to create chaos. Russian agents DID make the contacts with the Trump campaign and administration that are slowly coming to light, but they did so NOT to arrange for campaign coordination, but simply to create the appearance of that conspiracy. Meanwhile the Russians DID manipulate the campaign, but the “Trump connections” are in fact simply to create more chaos in the American political system. There’s smoke but no fire, because the whole idea was to create smoke.[4]
This concept plays the Trump campaign/administration as unwitting participants in the Russian operation. They are not cooperators, colluders or conspirators; they are fools who fell for it. That makes them naïve, perhaps stupid, but probably not felons.
The third smokescreen is the ongoing chaos that IS the Trump Administration. With the firing of Preibus, the hiring of General Kelly (don’t we all trust a Marine Four-Star?) and the (temporary?) ascendency of Scaramucci to power, foul-mouth and all; it’s hard to keep focused on what’s going on.
This will get worse before it gets better. As the investigations (Senate, House, Mueller, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman) grow more intense, the counter-reaction will grow greater as well. It will be hard to stay focused, and it will make the US government seem to be even more disrupted. Whether there was a conspiracy or not, if Richard Engel of MSNBC is right, the Russians have achieved their goal: chaos.
[1] Gowdy Protects Kushner
[2] NPR Cost of Benghazi Investigation
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/benghazi-committee-tops-5-million-in-spending/
[3] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/investigating-clinton-many-millions-were-211500881.html
[4] MSNBC – Richard Engel Reports
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/russian-goal-of-us-chaos-already-accomplished-1012666435586
More smoke -Corey Lewandowski, former Trump campaign manager, tried to focus a Meet the Press interview on Richard Cordray – Ohioan who heads the Consumer Protection Bureau. What???!