To this day, there has been zero solid evidence to suggest there was
a definitive collusion conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
After years of mocking Republicans for suggesting the Russians
were a geopolitical threat, it took one election loss to turn them into rabid
Russophobes the likes we haven’t seen since Joseph McCarthy was in the U.S.
Senate.
This has always been a sour grapes crusade peddled by Democrats still
stunned that Hillary Clinton lost in 2016, still seething over that loss, and desperate
to find something, anything, that they can use to impeach the president.
We
have the DOJ probe spearheaded by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who has been
investigating this matter for over a year and a half. The investigation is
closely guarded, but things leak in this town, especially on this.
We would
have known about potential solid evidence by now. We have none.
And now the
Senate Intelligence Committee has found “no direct evidence” of Trump-Russia
collusion after two years of investigating and 200 interviews (via NBC
News):
After
two years and 200 interviews, the Senate Intelligence Committee is approaching
the end of its investigation into the 2016 election, having uncovered no direct
evidence of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, according to
both Democrats and Republicans on the committee.
But
investigators disagree along party lines when it comes to the implications of a
pattern of contacts they have documented between Trump associates and Russians
— contacts that occurred before, during and after Russian intelligence
operatives were seeking to help Trump by leaking hacked Democratic emails and
attacking his opponent on social media.
"If
we write a report based upon the facts that we have, then we don't have
anything that would suggest there was collusion by the Trump campaign and
Russia," said Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, the Republican chairman
of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said last week in an interview with CBS
News.
Burr
was careful to note that more facts may yet be uncovered, but he also made
clear that the investigation was nearing an end.
"We
know we're getting to the bottom of the barrel because there're not new
questions that we're searching for answers to," Burr said.
Democratic
Senate investigators who spoke to NBC News on condition of anonymity did not
dispute Burr's characterizations, but said they lacked context.
Yeah, it’s a nothingburger. It’s always been a ridiculous
story, one that exposed a rather schizophrenic narrative about the president
from Democrats.
He’s either a genius who colluded with the Kremlin or a moron;
he cannot be both.
Also, yes, there were some shady people in the Trump orbit,
many of which have been indicted, but for crimes unrelated to collusion and
most of them pre-dating the 2016 election. Who cares?
It still doesn’t prove
collusion.
The pervasive poor reporting about the subject has exacerbated the
whole issue.
Most recently, BuzzFeed had their beloved scoop that Trump ordered
ex-personal lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about a Russian real estate
deal. Who blew it up?
The Mueller investigation, which
offered a rare statement saying that their story, was inaccurate.
CNN
has been nearly beaten
to death for their shoddy
reporting on Russia collusion.
Granted, there have been some
moments of sanity from the news media about this
story, with some hosts even
admitting that no evidence will be found, but it’s overall been rather embarrassing.
As for the Democratic Party,
well, some
of its members have fallen
off the deep end.
