The theory in American politics at the moment appears to be ‘if you say it enough it’ll become true’. For weeks now the Democrats have been desperate to suggest President Trump is some sort of Russian spy, who beat Hillary Clinton because of foreign interference.
Democrats seem incapable of accepting Clinton was a tainted candidate with real questions over her fitness to govern. And in any case America was crying out for change, racial tensions and falls in living standards were the true legacies of Barack Obama.
This week Donald Trump Jnr released all the emails relating to a laughable meeting he held with a former Russian prosecutor during the Republican Primaries. It was organised by a talent manager from the Miss Universe contest.
To be fair the email did promise the meeting would deliver opposition research on Hillary Clinton and it stated the source was the Russian government. Equally, Trump Jnr greeted this idea with a level of enthusiasm he later regretted, but it is not hard to believe that this meeting was a waste of time.
I believe Trump Jnr when he says this meeting was nothing more than a “bait and switch”, whereby he was lured to a meeting about adoption policy with the promise of some information about Clinton’s nefarious activities abroad.
Kushner left after three minutes, Trump’s campaign manager never bothered getting off his phone and after 15 minutes even the Miss Universe guy was apologising about how pointless the exercise had been.
This doesn’t exactly sound like the KGB at it’s finest does it? Surely if they were really in collusion they’d have sent more credible people than the adoption woman and a beauty pageant magnate!
The incredibility of this story hasn’t stopped the Democrats accusing the Trump team of all manner of crimes. Most of these allegations are so ridiculous they aren’t really worth talking about but the one about foreign donations does get a little more sticky.
The relevant statute says: “A solicitation is an oral or written communication that, construed as reasonably understood in the context in which it is made, contains a clear message asking, requesting, or recommending that another person make a contribution, donation, transfer of funds, or otherwise provide anything of value.”
Everyone seems agreed opposition research is a donation (though what value gossip?). But for Trump Jnr to be guilty he would have to have asked for this opposition research, something he manifestly did not do. He was the one approached not vice versa.
Also, he did not receive anything of any value so no other laws could possibly have been broken. And remember the context, this whole thing happened before “Russia-mania” hit the press. So Trump Jnr had no real reason to be worried about any form of Russian involvement in the election.
To make this even more pointless Trump senior was unaware of the meeting and didn’t get told about it because it was a damp squib. So even if his son was guilty of wrongdoing it would have no impact on him. This makes him a wholly innocent party.
The real crime committed by the Trumps was to beat the Washington establishment candidate and to shake things up in the US capital. They have been open and upfront, unlike Hillary who deleted 33k emails before the FBI could read them.
This attack and the pretence Russia rigged the election is the left's way of trying to overturn a free and fair election.
That callousness with the voters choice is the real threat to democracy.