For months (I know, it seems like years) the Trump administration and its supporters have yelled that there is no evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump election campaign, that it is all “fake news”. That will be an impossible to claim after this week’s news.
Over several days of revelations, it turned out that in June of 2016 Donald Trump, Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort (then Trump’s campaign manager) met with a Russian attorney representing the Russian government and a “former” member of Russian military counterintelligence, Rinat Akhmetshin. Mr. Akhmetshin has been reported to have current ties to Russian intelligence, although he denies this.
An email to set up the meeting promised damaging information regarding Hillary Clinton and stated that this was part of the Russian government’s ongoing support of the Trump campaign. Trump, Jr’s email response? “I love it….” If there wasn’t collusion, this was at the very least attempted collusion.
The quotes from the emails are damning. One said the documents “would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father,” and added, “This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” The latter implies that the support has been proceeding for a while – and is continuing.
Trump’s son was delighted. “If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.” A few days later the intermediary wrote back, proposing a meeting in New York on Thursday with a “Russian government attorney.” That was Natalia Veselnitskaya. (As a Rocky & Bullwinkle Show fan, I was hoping her name was “Natasha” – but it’s close.)
“Former” intelligence official Akhmetshin told the Associated Press, Natalia “brought with her a plastic folder with printed-out documents that detailed what she believed was the flow of illicit funds to the Democrats,” which he believes she gave to the Trump team.
Truly, I am at a loss for words.
Republican Senator John McCain said that this meeting is but one of “many more shoes that will drop”. He is a member of Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and may well have specific knowledge of additional shoes.
Turning to the other major news, Trumpcare looks dead but continues to amble on in zombie-like fashion. Senate Republicans released their “new and improved” version of Trumpcare on Thursday.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) will release its analysis of the bill on Monday, although it’s expected to be as devastating as the CBO’s analysis of the prior version. A vote is expected on Tuesday, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants to minimize the amount of time Republican Senators have to ponder the CBO’s score.
There are two major issues. The revised Trumpcare bill still makes massive cuts to Medicaid supplements for health insurance and many governors, including Republicans, oppose that. For some reason they seem to think that the poor in their states should have health insurance.
The other is that Senator Ted Cruz succeeded in getting a change that would allow insurers to sell both plans that meet the Obamacare requirements and stripped-down plans. While those with illnesses or pre-existing conditions would pick the Obamacare plans, the healthy would often choose the much cheaper skimpy plans.
That would cause the full plan premiums to skyrocket to the point where no one could afford them. Although health insurance companies are usually loath to criticize any pending legislation, on Friday both Blue Cross Blue Shield and America’s Health Insurance Plans said that this approach is “simply unworkable.”
At this juncture, two Republican Senators have already stated that they will vote not to proceed with Trumpcare. That means the Republicans cannot lose a single vote more – and there are several more moderate and right-wing Republican Senators who have expressed grave concerns.
If Trumpcare does not pass this coming week, it’s probably dead forever, though it may make a few more zombie-like appearances.