04/10/17

From an Angry Reader:

Mr. Hanson –

In your truly myopic article about the Russian/Trump connections you point out the Democrats’ contacts with Russians but you fail to make an apples and apples comparison. You don’t mention BUSINESS and MONEY. You don’t mention Trump making $50 million on a house worth much less in FL from the Russians. You don’t mention Trump’s bashing of everyone else on the planet but Putin. You don’t mention that most every person in this White House has contact with Russians, and I mean everyone… his son-in-law, his daughter, Everyone! The list is endless – Do some homework and start with Christopher Steele’s dossier. Most everything on there is turning out to be true. The traitors in the White House will be totally exposed soon and The of us Americans will say “we told you so.”

Patrick Chaney

Victor Davis Hanson’s Reply:

Dear Angry Reader Patrick Chaney,

I think your conspiracy theory (“traitors in the White House”) is a bit out of date, given the recent Trump strike against Russian interests in Syria, and Russian media assaults on the Trump administration.

In contrast, Barack Obama and Susan Rice assured us that a supposedly trustworthy Putin had ensured the end of Syrian WMD. So far Trump has not had an Obama open mic moment assuring the Russians that he will be flexible after the next election.

Once again you illustrate the hyperbolic style of the unhinged Left with the boilerplate scare capital letters and general hysteria and exaggeration. Take your statement “You don’t mention that most every person in this White House has contact with Russians, and I mean everyone…” Do you mean National Security Advisor McMaster and Defense Secretary Mattis? And you have evidence that Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon are profiteering with the Russians? Who are on your “endless list”? Who is everyone? Press Secretary Spicer?

James Clapper, the Obama appointee as Director of National Intelligence who was angling for an appointment with the Clinton administration, is on record that there was no collusion between Trump and the Russians; is he too included in your “Everyone!”?

So far no one has produced evidence of direct collusion between Trump and the Russians; your notion of “turning out to be true” will most likely be relevant to documents in the hands of the intelligence committees revealing efforts by Susan Rice and others to unmask American citizens who were monitored by the Obama administration on the pretext of surveilling foreign leaders and diplomats.

In what way was Bill Clinton speaking in Russia and Ukraine, or large donations to the Clinton Foundation from Russian businessmen, or Hillary Clinton’s green-lighting of the North American uranium deal not about “BUSINESS and MONEY”? Do you think the same Russian interests who hired Bill to speak or gave lavishly to the Foundation are doing so now, when the Clintons are politically finished and have no quids to offer for their once lucrative quos?

Why is no one hiring Bill Clinton to speak in a way they most certainly did just a few months ago?

Sincerely, Victor Hanson