That Donald Trump is a Russian asset has been known for a long time. Back in January of 2017, even I mentioned that President Donald Trump is a Russian asset, wittingly or unwittingly.*
President-Elect Donald Trump is full of praise for Vladimir Putin and trying to destroy our intelligence agencies, especially the CIA, to say nothing of NATO. Putin is slamming those who criticize Trump. Clearly, Trump is some sort of asset of Russia, perhaps unwittingly, but an asset none the less. Putin has Trump all covered with syrup without Trump noticing he has tipped the pitcher. Putin could hardly contain himself in his actions to maneuver Trump. Many have noted that Putin is the one person whom Trump never criticizes. Putin must be laughing wildly at his luck, This is far more than just trying a reset with Russia and very, very scary.*
As the months have gone by some have begun to wonder if Trump is not simply an unwitting Russian asset but actually may be a Russian agent (see NY Times article cited below for a summary). Trump asked Russia on TV to find the missing 33,000 Hillary e-mails. Trump says he fired Comey because of the Russian investigation. We know he gave the Russias a couple of secrets in a meeting between him and the Russian ambassador and Foreign Secretary.** There was the private long meeting between Trump and Putin at Helsinki (Republicans refused to let the Democrats see the notes on the meeting).*** I've heard that there are five occasions where Trump collected the translator's notes (These are not minutes but aids for the translator) and is exceptionally unusual. Also, there was no official there to take minutes.
On a party-line vote, Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee objected to a resolution that would have insisted on obtaining “copies of every document, record, communication, transcript, summary, note, memorandum, and read-ahead” that could shed light on the president’s interactions and agreements with Putin.***
It is known that Trump has had 8 private telephone calls with Putin.**** Who knows what secrets Trump shared on these calls. For any other President, these private calls wouldn't have been a problem, but with President Trump ...?.
Philip Bump of the Washington Post (January 14, 2019) feels it is still possible that Trump is an unwitting asset of Putin (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/01/14/three-possible-explanations-trumps-interactions-with-russia/?utm_term=.1c9d9083415d):
This brings us back to the other theory: that Trump is stumbling forward, buffeted by competing desires and unanchored to any particular philosophy. He clearly wants to be seen as a historic actor and doesn’t want the validity of his election to be called into question, two impulses that would prompt him to crow about his intent with Russia while downplaying the country’s role in 2016. U.S. intelligence agencies reportedly believed that Putin backed Trump in 2016 not because he was under Putin’s control but because he would serve to disrupt U.S. political priorities and alliances. If that’s the case, Putin has largely gotten what he wanted.
I presume Bump is referring not only to our tariff war but now the government shutdown as well.
Personal View If possible, I would prefer that President Trump not be impeached. Richard Nixon wasn't impeached because he resigned before it could be done. Many Democrats wanted to impeach him even after he was gone. Ronald Regan wasn't impeached because he ran out the clock on the Iran Contra affair. Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about sex in the oval office (Good grief). There is something wrong if every other president is impeached (and maybe it will become every president). Unfortunately, President Trump seems to have some sort of mental illness that may require him to be removed from office before he can be voted out.
I've heard that you can't impeach a President for a mistake. Thus President Eisenhower gets a pass for overthrowing a duly elected government in Iran, and our relations with the country have gone downhill ever since. Ronald cut and ran from Lebanon after the Marine barracks attack killing hundreds of American Troops. This mistake gave heart to Terrorists who felt that, if the Americans are only hit hard enough, they will withdraw. President Obama, who says this is his biggest mistake, helped overthrow of Libya dictator Qaddafi after promising him in a previous administration that we would not overthrow him if he gave up attempts to build nuclear weapons. Libya is a mess today. George W. Bush not only got us into the quagmire of the Middle East by invading Iraq where we have been ever since but also created the financial meltdown called the Great Recession (once he realized what he had down he at least tried to help correct the disaster with the TARP program). In my view, all these mistakes have more greatly damaged our country that the impeachment proceedings that have taken place.
Does it do any good to impeach the President if he is not convicted by the Senate?
See the latest articles in the NY Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/11/us/politics/fbi-trump-russia-inquiry.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/13/us/politics/trump-russia-shutdown.html
* http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2017/01/donald-trump-and-russia.html
** https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-revealed-highly-classified-information-to-russian-foreign-minister-and-ambassador/2017/05/15/530c172a-3960-11e7-9e48-c4f199710b69_story.html?utm_term=.070f492120a7
*** https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/13/trump-putin-house-democrats-822871
**** https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/13/trump-putin-house-democrats-822871
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