Politics
Despite reality, Vance says Trump was impeached over Russia scandal
Eight years after Donald Trump pushed “drain the swamp” rhetoric, the phrase has apparently made a comeback, despite the fact that this became one of the Republican’s most notorious broken promises.
His running mate, Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, took some time at an event last week to explain what he thinks the phrase means in 2024.
“I mean, look, just go back a few years ago, you had the entire government, you had an impeachment, a fake impeachment that was completely oriented around the idea that Donald Trump was in bed with a foreign government,” the senator said. “We all remember that the Russia Russia Russia scam? That scam was a complete lie.
“Even the independent justice department investigator basically said this is all completely made up. But here’s the problem. They admit that it was made up. They admit that it distracted this country. It led to a fake impeachment. How many people have been fired from that? Zero.”
So, a few things.
First, Trump was impeached twice, but he was never impeached for the Russia scandal. I know Vance is new to politics, but his running mate’s presidency really wasn’t that long ago, it’s kind of weird that the senator doesn’t know why Trump was impeached. (It was especially amusing to see Vance incorporate the phrase “we all remember that” in his comments, because he clearly doesn’t remember the story at all.)
Second, the scandal was neither a “scam” nor a “lie,” no matter how many times Republicans claim otherwise. In reality, investigations from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team and the GOP-led Senate Intelligence Committee documented the extent to which Trump and his team welcomed, received, and benefited from Russian campaign assistance. (They also obstructed the investigation into this assistance — by some measures, 10 times.)
Third, Vance told the public that “the independent justice department investigator basically said this is all completely made up.” This is apparently in reference to former special counsel John Durham, whose report Republicans only pretended to readand who did not in any way conclude that the underlying scandal was baseless. (I’m reminded of a New York Times report from last year, which noted the GOP’s partisan reactions to Durham’s findings had become “Exhibit A in how the American right seems to be living in its own universe.”)
But even if we put all of these relevant details aside, does Vance really want to spark renewed interest in Trump’s Russia ties right now? Because it was just days before the Ohioan made these comments when the public learned about Bob Woodward’s new book, which alleges that the former president has spoken to Vladimir Putin “as many as seven times“ since leaving office.
Woodward’s book also alleges that the former Republican president, while in office, secretly sent Covid testing equipment to Putin at the height of the pandemic, even as people in his own country struggled to gain access to such resources.
If Vance wants to explore all of the allegations surrounding Trump’s Putin ties in more detail, I’m game, but this seems like a conversation the GOP ticket should want to avoid.
Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an BLN political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
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