I was blindsided when I saw Mr. Phillips-Page’s letter, dated July 27, titled, “Don Flood, the truth and Trump.”
Juxtaposing “Trump” and “the truth” in one sentence is simply intellectually corrupt, almost as much as the man himself.
Phillips-Page dismisses the “Russian collusion” as being fully discredited and a hoax. That’s far from reality. Rather than being fully discredited, what was really discovered in the Mueller investigation may never really be known. What we do know about the investigation was shaped by then-Attorney General William Barr, a Trump sycophant loyalist, who issued his description of Mueller’s conclusions three weeks before the public saw the full 448-page report. In a letter to Barr, Mueller complained that Barr’s summary “did not fully capture the context, nature and substance” of his (Mueller’s) team’s work and conclusions, and created “public confusion.” So much for fully discrediting an investigation.
While Phillips-Page does correctly state that Trump was impeached twice, he does not mention the reasons for these impeachments. The first: for an abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. This stemmed from a phone call Trump made to the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, encouraging him to dig up dirt on political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter. The second: Trump was charged with incitement of insurrection after hundreds of supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in protest of the 2020 presidential election results. I am sorry to inform Phillips-Page that neither of these impeachments had anything to do with accepting election results.
And please, Mr. Phillips-Page, do not dismiss, with a brief sentence, the inquiry into Trump’s telephone call to the Georgia secretary of state. We haven’t heard the end of that. After all, Trump pleaded, “All I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have... Fellas, I need 11,000 votes, give me a break.”
Most objectionable is Mr. Phillips-Page’s attempt to water down the insurrection of Jan. 6. An insurrection is “an act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government.” An insurrection is not determined by the weapons that are used. I know the NRA will be upset, but flagpoles and crowd gates are just as serious as rifles. And what charming bus ride songs they sang, like, “Hang Mike Pence.” Golly! Makes you want to go back to day camp and take some selfies while ransacking the hallowed halls of Congress. This was an out-and-out act of insurrection against the Capitol of the United States. And if you don’t think Trump incited this riot, you had better question your loyalties to this great nation of ours. On Jan. 6, Trump exhorted the riotous crowd: “And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” And please, Mr. Phillips-Page, do not be so condescending to suggest that audits of election results should be welcome. Better than audits, there are court cases after court cases that have upheld the results of the 2020 election.
And as was reported July 30, on NPR, “in a telephone call in late December, then-President Donald Trump pressured senior Justice Department officials to declare the 2020 election ‘corrupt’ in an effort to help him and his Republican allies in Congress try to overturn the outcome, according to documents provided to a House committee.” Finally, Mr. Phillips-Page ends with the circular logical argument: “Transparency is what builds trust in democracy, not resisting scrutiny of suspicious results.” Which really is his way, and all of Trump’s sycophants’ way of saying: “Transparency is what builds trust in democracy, after we create suspicious results.”
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