Nancy Pelosi comes straight at Trump on Russia connections
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With Friday’s victory in the battle over government shutdown, it might seem like a moment in which Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi might sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of satisfaction before diving into the weeks of negotiation ahead. But that …Nancy Pelosi comes straight at Trump on Russia connections
With Friday’s victory in the battle over government shutdown, it might seem like a moment in which Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi might sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of satisfaction before diving into the weeks of negotiation ahead. But that … is not how she followed up Trump’s fold. In a thread starting a few hours following Trump’s Rose Garden appearance, Pelosi charged straight at Trump’s connections to Russia and his attempts to blow off the increasing evidence uncovered by the special counsel investigation. Pelosi has directly tied Trump’s actions—including his attempts to pull the United States out of NATO—to possible influence on the White House by Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The speaker started with a statement that Roger Stone’s indictment “makes clear there was a deliberate, coordinated effort by top Trump officials to subvert the will of the American people during the 2016 election” and went on from there. Pelosi followed up her her Twitter thread with an official statement that compiled her statements and made clear that Democrats in the House are not about to give Trump the free pass he received from Paul Ryan. “Lying to Congress and witness tampering constitute grave crimes. All who commit these illegal acts should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. We cannot allow any effort to intimidate witnesses or prevent them from appearing before Congress.” The thread has generated not just a massive response, but a genuine question — Does Pelosi know something that has not yet become public? The arrest of Stone, following the months Paul Manafort has spent wearing orange, shows that the special counsel is not afraid to go after strategists who have been at the core of the Republican Party for decades. And the revelations from those indictments show that Trump had the motive (the “Moscow Project”) and the means (Stone, Manafort, Cambridge Analytica, and many others) to conduct a conspiracy with Russia aimed at subverting an American election. Pelosi’s willingness to go straight at Trump on this issue may indicate that she has even more evidence. It certainly indicates that she has more guts. And it absolutely informs Trump that the days of being able to count on the House to provide comforting statements about his Russia connections are absolutely over. Read more