The following essay was written by Mike Wagner. Mike is a musician who lives in Texas. He is the composer of the Flint Water Crisis theme music, from the song Unclaimed, used for our podcast, The GOTMFV Show.
Let me get this straight. In regards to Individual 1, this is what we learned from the Mueller investigation and related cases:
- He is an un-indicted co-conspirator having violated campaign finance laws by instructing his lawyer to pay off women with whom he had affairs.
- His campaign manager is in prison.
- His National Security adviser is going to prison.
- His personal lawyer is going to prison.
- His deputy campaign manager is going to prison.
- His foreign policy adviser from the campaign went to prison.
- The Barr summary states: “The Special Counsel’s investigation determined that there were two main Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election”, and these efforts resulted in multiple indictments of Russian nationals. The Barr summary further goes on to state there were “multiple offers from Russian-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign.” This means that not only did the campaign lie repeatedly after being asked ad nauseum if they had contacts with Russians, the campaign did not report this to the proper authorities even after being warned that foreign adversaries, including Russia, would probably try to infiltrate the campaign. And despite first-hand knowledge, and confirmation from US Intelligence agencies, of Russian interference, the President of the United States stood next to Putin and before the world and said he believed Putin.
All of this we know from the Mueller investigation and without reading even the first word of the full report.
Of course, the Trump campaign also lied about Russian contacts related to the Trump Tower meeting and the Trump Tower Moscow deal, all of which left the President subject to compromise by the Russian government. And we can’t forget that there are currently about a dozen investigations against the President, his campaign and his businesses, and one has already shut down the Trump Foundation and he can no longer run a charity in New York.
This all presents a very obvious question: Why are the Republicans celebrating? The results of this investigation are a disgrace to the supporters of this President, this administration, and his party. Yet, they act like they just scored the winning touchdown at the Super Bowl. This report goes to the core of their collective integrity and the moral fiber of who they are and what they stand for and is a permanent stain. His supporters are our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends, and our family.
As painful as it is, we must face the fact that we didn’t underestimate Trump, we overestimated his supporters.
[CC image credit: Thomas Hawk | Flickr]
