Where’s Joe McCarthy when you actually need him? Imagine what Red-Baiting Joe would make of the GOP – the Party siding with Russia in its war against Democratic Ukraine. Now, to be fair, Russia isn’t Communist like the Soviet Union, it’s autocratic. But, Vladimir Putin worked for the Soviet government. He led the KGB as The Soviet Union sank into oblivion and Russia emerged. And, despite the West’s delusional belief that they could “do business” with Putin, Putin continued plotting against the West – the United States especially. He holds us responsible for killing his country. And he’s made no secret of his desire to destroy us! So, why the hell would ANY Republican – Joe McCarthy’s party – be “pro-Putin”?

This morning, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zalenskyy visited Congress, more or less to beg the Republicans to please help Ukraine continue to defend itself against Russia’s criminal invasion of their country. That is, he’s begging Republicans to get out of the way of the funding! Now, it’s not all the Republicans doing this, but it’s a shocking number of them. Enough that they are holding Ukraine’s money hostage.

The bullshit argument the Republicans have put on the table – that they’re being fiscally responsible here – and just as important – they want to solve our southern border right here, right now. Sorry, Ukraine, you better hope the Democrats cave on a completely unrelated issue.

There is no connection between these two issues. The connection the Republicans have made is 1) artificial and 2) serving someone’s purpose. Ah, but whose purpose?

Please, let’s cut to the end of the chase. One person calls all the shots with the GOP now: Donald Trump. If the Republican Party is siding with Putin – or taking up Putin’s cause against America – they’re doing it because Trump wants them to.

Or needs them to.

So, really, we should be asking “Why the hell would Donald Trump be ‘pro-Putin’?”

It just so happens, the Republicans themselves answered that question before they even nominated Trump back in 2016! As this blog has screamed and shouted repeatedly, the news media themselves reported the answer to the question in 2017. That’s when (then) Washington Post reporter Adam Entous heard a recording of a meeting that happened on June 25, 2016.

On that day – a month before the Republicans officially nominated Trump – former Speaker Of The House Kevin McCarthy exited a meeting where our intelligence community briefed members of Congress on Putin’s active attempts to undermine Ukraine’s fragile, new democracy. McCarthy entered another meeting almost immediately – this one of GOP leaders.

The first thing McCarthy said upon entering meeting number two: “There’s two people I think Putin pays – Rohrbacher and Trump – swear to God!” Not a one of the Republican leaders present contradicted McCarthy. Or questioned his terrible accusation – that their about-to-be presidential nominee posed a grave national security threat.

That would absolutely be the case if indeed “Putin pays Trump”.

Now, everyone there knew for a fact that California Representative Dana Rohrbacher was firmly in Putin’s pocket. They all knew that, yes-indeedy, Putin paid Rohrbacher. But, Putin paid Trump, too? Shouldn’t that have been news to the room?

Clearly, it wasn’t. “Putin pays Trump” was an uncomfortable truth. Even if it was just an uncomfortable suspicion, someone there – in the Republican leadership – should have stepped forward and insisted they all live up to their oaths of office to protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic. That didn’t happen.

Instead, then Speaker Of The House Paul Ryan shut down the conversation. Not because it was bullshit. Because it was true! Why else would he then say – having insisted they keep their secret a secret – “That’s how we know we’re a family”?

What kind of family is he thinking? A crime family?

A month later, the Republicans formally nominated Trump. The day after being nominated, Trump famously got up on his hind legs and brayed “Russia, if you’re listening…!“. The Republican Party’s leadership knew for certain that Russia WAS listening.

Because they owned the guy telling them to listen. And now, because they’d sat by silently, Russia owned them, too! That is how conspiracy works. You don’t have to be actively engaged in the crime itself.

Consider all the myriad ways Republicans have interfered with or tried to outright halt investigations into Trump’s weird relationship with Putin. Consider Maria Butina – a remarkably successful intelligence operative who penetrated the GOP, the NRA and other Republican-led organizations and used them to funnel Russian money to Republicans. Just like they did with Trump.

Yeah, Putin pays Rohrbacher and Trump all right – and pretty much the whole Republican Party. Someone had to pay for the January 6 insurrection. Plenty of Republican donors helped make it happen. But, considering Putin’s investment up to that point in Trump and the GOP, would it be surprising if a part of the cash stream that financed the attack on the Capitol flowed directly from Russia?

If that’s the case – if Russia helped finance ANY of the insurrection? Then it spreads the conspiracy to commit treason across pretty much the entire GOP – to any and every Republican who stands with the rebels or who fails to act against them now. See something, say something. See something, say nothing? We need to know why?

Back in the day – when the WaPo reported that story, a few reporters did approach Kevin McCarthy. They asked what he meant and McCarthy insisted it was nothing; he was just making a joke.

That is absolute bullshit. In hindsight, was he “making a joke”?

What is this picture of Trump and Putin (after the Oslo surrender) if not proof that one man owes the other man money?

Mitch McConnell owns a huge piece of this tragedy. He had every opportunity to stop it from happening before it happened. In October 2016 – with the election looming – President Obama called a meeting of the Gang Of Eight (the Republican and Democratic Congressional leaders). There, the intelligence community laid out the evidence that clearly demonstrated how Putin was actively trying to make Trump POTUS.

The correct response would have been “Mister President, we must do whatever you think is prudent to preserve the integrity of America’s election process – the thing that makes us a democracy!” Instead, McConnell told Obama that if he told We The People what Russia was doing, he’d accuse the White House of “politicizing the intelligence”.

That was NOT what Obama wanted to do. Why the hell then would McConell frame it that way?

The answer: because Putin paid Trump and every single Republican leader knew it.

One last curiosity. Why did Republicans Sen. Richard C. Shelby (Ala.), Steve Daines (Mont.), John Hoeven (N.D.), John Neely Kennedy (La.), Jerry Moran (Kan.), John Thune (S.D.) and Johnson, plus Rep. Kay Granger (Tex.) spend July 4, 2018 in Moscow? Track each and every one of them from that Independence Day to today and you’ll find a study in pro-Putinism.

A study in treason.

And that’s the answer to the question – why the hell would any Republican be pro-Putin? Because “treason”.