1. On Friday, I wrote about the president’s new burden of proof. We know top intelligence officials showed Trump concrete evidence of Russian sabotage of Clinton’s campaign. We know that he knows the Kremlin helped him win. (We also know he’s deadly afraid of illegitimacy.)
2. Therefore, we know he’s lying when he calls the Russia investigation a hoax.
3. We don’t need to ask whether it’s true. The news media does not need to expend limited resources pinning down every instance in which Trump lies and walks it back before lying and walking it back again. The facts have been established.
5. It is now on the president to explain why he keeps lying, and why he keeps rewarding the enemy for attacking our sovereignty. If he cannot, it’s fair to presume the worst.
But Trump isn’t alone.
But Trump isn’t alone.
6. Last Thursday, the House voted down a measure that would have provided millions to states to beef up election security. The vote came days after Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats compared the cyber-attacks on Nov. 9, 2016, to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
7. In congressional testimony on July 13, Coats was the first top intelligence official (to my knowledge) to publicly equate those events. Coats said we are involved in an ongoing one-sided cyber-war.
8. Coats: "The warning lights are blinking red again,” he said. “Today, the digital infrastructure that serves this country is literally under attack."
9. This, along with Trump’s stunning deference to Crypto-Czar Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, pushed at least two vulnerable House Republicans—one a former CIA agent, the other a former FBI agent—to break ranks.
10. US Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, of Pennsylvania, said "the president was manipulated” by Putin. US Rep. Will Hurd, of Texas, said the same thing, only in an op-ed in the New York Times. nytimes.com/2018/07/19/opi…
11. Sensing a rare opportunity last Thursday, US Rep. Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 House Democrat, launched into a thundering denunciation of colleagues for killing off a measure to defend against future Russian cyber-attacks.
12. If you have not seen the footage, please take a moment. You can expect more of this in the future.
13. Per the AP:
"The flashing red light calls us to action!" Hoyer thundered. "Surely we can rise above pandering to party and Putin to act on behalf of our freedom and our security." Democrats broke out in chants of "USA! USA!" as Hoyer spoke.
"The flashing red light calls us to action!" Hoyer thundered. "Surely we can rise above pandering to party and Putin to act on behalf of our freedom and our security." Democrats broke out in chants of "USA! USA!" as Hoyer spoke.
14. It’s not like the Republicans don’t know what’s happening. They know Trump was informed of the Kremlin’s espionage. They know a bipartisan Senate report affirmed the intelligence community’s assessment.
15. They know Coats, a fellow Republican, is now sounding the alarm. They know beefing up security is the right thing to do.
16. So why did they kill the measure? You could say they’re afraid of backlash, but that’s not credible. Most voters have no idea what they were doing, and anyway, no Democrat is going to criticize them for doing the right and patriotic thing.
17. Indeed, in refusing to fund election security, the Republicans gave the Democrats a gift—an occasion to wrap themselves in the American flag just in time for November’s midterm elections.
18. No, the burden of proof is shifting. Just as the president must explain why he keeps lying, and why he insists on making nice with the enemy, the Republicans must explain why they refuse to honor their oath of office, which is foremost to defend and protect the United States.
19. If the Republicans cannot explain, it’s fair to presume they don’t want to stop the Russians from attacking us.
20. Then we have to ask why.
21. Hey I'm WORKING here. Get it all by following me and signing up for my daily newsletter, the Editorial Board. You need this, trust me. stoehr.substack.com/p/do-house-rep…
