America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. These days you really have to be brave if you’re a conservative and participate in the political process. Those who feel free to wear a MAGA hat or openly profess their love of country and Christ will be hunted down, screamed at and possibly beaten. Those who served in President Trump’s campaign or administration are harassed, imprisoned and/or bankrupted by rabid partisans. The only difference between Democrats and the Putin regime is the kill ratio. However, I will say the Clintons gave ole Vladimir a run for his money.
Any person or organization that helped Donald J. Trump win the presidency has a huge target on their back. No one is immune. The National Rifle Association, the longest-standing civil rights organization and without a doubt one of the most patriotic, is under investigation by Robert Mueller’s special counsel. Democrats are alleging the NRA laundered money from Russians to the Trump Campaign. Mind you, an NRA spokesman states the FBI has not contacted their group. But that’s not going to stop Democrats:
Last month on Capitol Hill, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee who examined Russian interactions with the NRA reached a preliminary conclusion that “the Kremlin may also have used the NRA to secretly fund Mr. Trump’s campaign.”
Citing that finding, Lieu and Rep. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., asked FBI Director Christopher Wray in a May 24 letter to expand the inquiry to also explore whether Kremlin money flowed illegally to the NRA for use in influencing House and Senate races.
“Illegal campaign contributions by a foreign nation, especially one whose interests stand in stark contrast to those of the United States, threaten the very underpinnings of our democracy and cannot remain unchallenged,” Lieu and Rice wrote.
The NRA reported spending $24.4 million to back Republican candidates for Congress in 2016.
Spokespeople for the FBI and Mueller’s office declined to comment on the letter.
The senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee echoed concerns about whether Russian money might have found its way through the NRA to congressional races. California Rep. Adam Schiff said it's also important to trace whether the Russians used the prominent gun rights group to conceal financial backing for Trump to determine "whether that would constitute leverage against our now-president" — a favor that could leave him beholden to the Kremlin.
It’s not just the NRA that’s agents for the Kremlin, the Washington Post reported Franklin Graham and other conservatives are also in cahoots with Putin:
Top officials from the National Rifle Association, whose annual meeting Friday featured an address by Trump for the third time in three years, traveled to Moscow to visit a Russian gun manufacturer and meet government officials.
About the same time in December 2015, evangelist Franklin Graham met privately with Putin for 45 minutes, securing from the Russian president an offer to help with an upcoming conference on the persecution of Christians. Graham was impressed, telling The Washington Post that Putin “answers questions very directly and doesn’t dodge them like a lot of our politicians do.”
The growing dialogue between Russians and U.S. conservatives came at the same time experts say the Russian government stepped up efforts to cultivate and influence far-right groups in Europe and on the eve of Russia’s unprecedented intrusion into the U.S. campaign, which intelligence officials have concluded was intended to elect Trump.
Who knew the conservative movement was a front for Vladimir Putin? By the way didn’t Trump pretty much win his party’s nomination in May of 2016 despite the odds? Those Russians are savvy operatives.
Source:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-the-republican-right-found-allies-in-russia/2017/04/30/e2d83ff6-29d3-11e7-a616-d7c8a68c1a66_story.html?utm_term=.acd6a1847d18
https://www.mcclatchydc.com/latest-news/article212756749.html
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