Thursday, May 24, 2018

Trump Campaign Informant


I can't get excited about protecting the source who reported on Trump's campaign.  His name has been revealed by the Washington Post as Stefan A. Halper.  I don't know who revealed it first, but it has now been published by liberal media like the Washington Post who earlier were claiming that it would be the end of the world if the name was revealed. 

We still have to figure out the impact of this spying on the 2016 election.  Looking at two or three Trump campaign hangers-on to see if they were Russian agents didn't affect the election, as Russian media meddling may have.  It does raise the odd issue that the President does not have to get a security clearance like any other government official who has access to classified information.  The voters give the President his security clearance, although at the beginning of his adminsitration, there seemed to be some reluctance by the intelligence community to give Trump an unlimited briefing on the most sensitive intelligence. 

If the FBI had found through their spy that Trump was actually working in cooperation with the Russians, what would the FBI have done?  Presumably it would have publicized this fact, as it did Hillary Clinton's email investigation.  The American people can elect someone who favors a Russian alliance or a Communist government if they want to.  Should the FBI arrest Donald Trump because they think his politics are too favorable to Russia?  Isn't a Communist allowed to run for President?  Should we prohibit someone from running for President simply because he likes Vladimir Putin? 

The FBI and CIA were probably justified in trying to find out whether Trump was a stalking horse for Putin, but that would not justify their arresting him or killing him.  In fact, the proper way for America to handle this situation would have been for the media -- newspapers, TV networks, and on-line channels -- to investigate and publicize Trump's connections to Russia, rather than organs of the US government.  Trump is right to be outraged that Obama's government treated him as if he were a traitor.  The only remedy for a treasonous President is impeachment. 

The whole Russia connection brouhaha is a charade to cover up the fact that the Democratic Party ran the worst political campaign in recorded history in 2016.  First, the Democrats pushed out Joe Biden by choosing Hillary Clinton while Biden was mourning the death of his son, displaying despicable callousness and disrespect for him.  Then they ran a fecklsss campaign with no message and no enthusiasm, in essence saying Democrats rule this country by divine right; we don't have to campaign.