WHAT IS THE STORY WITH TRUMP, THE GOP… and RUSSIA?

By Carla Feinkind

At the Helsinki press conference in July 2016, Trump was asked if Putin had “hacked” our election.  With Putin next to him, Trump said Putin told him he had not hacked our elections.  PUBLICALLY, Trump rejected the assessments of ALL of our security services and deferred to Putin who smiled a smug smile…
Isn’t it odd that almost everyone who worked with the Trump campaign was connected in some way with Russia?

Who had “contacts” with Russia?  **Michael Flynn (Trump’s former National Security Advisor now in jail) took $45,000 from Russia Today (media) and failed to declare this TWICE.  ** Manafort, former Trump campaign manager, is now in jail for conspiracy to obstruct the investigations looking into his and Trump’s connections to Russia. A poorly redacted document submitted by Manafort’s lawyers revealed meetings, and the transfer of election data to Konstantin Kilimnik who has close ties to Russian Intelligence.  ** Jared Kushner, “Senior Advisor” and Trump son in law, met with Russian bankers who were deeply intertwined with Russian  Intelligence.  In December 2016, Kushner and Flynn met with Russian diplomat, Kislyak, and asked for a secure DIRECT line to the Kremlin that US intelligence agencies could not breach.  Even Kislyak was taken aback by that request!  **Trump Jr openly sought Russian help with the election. **Wilbur Ross, Sec’y of Commerce, has shares in a publically traded company (HELD IN OFF SHORE ACCOUNTS!) that contracts with the Russian gas company, Sibur, whose owners have CLOSE ties with Putin.  **Michael Caputo was a Republican public relations media consultant and later an advisor to Trump’s campaign. Caputo worked for Gazprom-Media from 1994-2000.  Then, he was hired to work on raising Putin’s support level in the US! 
Roger Stone, who had been Caputo’s former employer, “lured” him back to the states.  But he briefly returned to Europe to manage a Ukrainian campaign for Parliament.  **Rick Gates, Manafort’s protégé, was a senior member of Trump’s campaign.  Gates also worked on that Ukrainian campaign. **Carter Page was a senior foreign policy advisor for Trump’s campaign. Prior to that he had been an investment banker in Moscow with close ties to Podobnyy, who was later accused of being a Russian spy!  Page also met with Ambassador Kislyak.  ** George Papadopoulos was a foreign policy advisor to the campaign. He tried to set up meetings with Putin BEFORE the election…He was convicted and got a light sentence and fine.             ** Roger Stone, former advisor to Trump (and self declared “dirty trickster”) had contact with Gucifer 2.0, the hacker who publicly claimed responsibility for at least 1 hack of the DNC.  Gucifer is believed to be operated by Russian Intelligence.  **Donald Trump Jr. met with Aleksander Torshin and Maria Butina at an NRA dinner.  A secret meeting between Trump Jr., Kushner, and Manafort with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in June 2016 was supposedly about adoptions. However, in secret emails, publicist Rob Goldstone did NOT mention the Magnitsky act but did refer to getting dirt on Hillary!  ** Erik Prince, (Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos’ brother) founder of Blackwater, secretly met with an unidentified Russian with close ties to Putin to set up that back-channel link between Putin and Trump which would be undetectable by US security agencies.
Those are some of the “connections” between Trump’s campaign and Russia.  How did all of these Russian ‘compromised’ people find their way into the Trump operation?  This does not even go into monies that Putin and Russian Oligarchs probably gave to Trump as his access to investors dried up elsewhere.                   
 And, WHY is the GOP so silent and RESISTANT to unveiling these COMPROMISING connections?  It could be because Russia has been funneling money into GOP coffers too.  In 2016, the political action committees of Scott Walker, Moscow Mitch, John Kasich, Lindsey Graham (among others) received $7.35 million from just one Russian Oligarch who is business partners with two of Putin’s “favorite” oligarchs AND a Russian government bank!   The money was often laundered through the NRA and other right-wing groups and ‘media’ organizations.  

Isn’t it is INTERESTING that the Democratically held House passed legislation to protect our elections, but Moscow Mitch refuses to bring the bills to the Senate floor?
Was this Putin’s plan?  By attacking our elections, it looks like Putin installed a puppet who is weakening international alliances against Russian aggression.  When France and Germany realized Putin’s plan, they rebuked him and fortified their security…while Trump AND the GOP did nothing then and still do nothing.  Perhaps Trump meant that Russia would be WINNING sooo much.  Was Putin the REAL winner in 2016???
  
Need proof that these are actual factual facts?   Check actual archived newspaper articles. 
WE CAN AND MUST STOP THIS.  IN 2020, BE THE HUGE BLUE TSUNAMI!         Vote BLUE no matter who and Top to Bottom.  When we look at the bills that  Trump and the GOP have passed, they have all weakened our national security, international alliances, general prosperity, unity, increasing deficits, breaking the ‘bank’ so that the GOP can further dismantle all the programs that bring us together, healthier, happier with more justice and opportunity.
Will you get busy defeating Putin’s “agents”: Trump and the GOP?                         IF NOT NOW, WHEN?  IF NOT YOU, WHO?