Uncommon Reads: New Yorker “Donald Trump has been Implicated in a Criminal Conspiracy”

08.23.2018 / By Stephen Spaulding

The first in a series of "Uncommon Reads" from Common Cause staff. These must reads are selected by the staff member indicated in the by-line. The writing excerpted is that of the author of the article being recommended.

Adam Davidson write at “Swamp Chronicles” in the New Yorker, August 21, 2018:

What will this add up to? Well, at first, nothing. The Republican leadership has, indeed, made clear that its instinctive response to any Trump outrage is silence. And the increasingly desperate Trump apologias have already been tried: this has nothing to do with Russia, nothing to do with Trump, it’s a witch hunt, the President can’t be indicted.

It would take some remarkable news to shake Republicans from their moral slumber; while Tuesday’s events should be more than enough to do so, it is already clear that they aren’t. However, it could shake that small portion of the electorate that voted for Trump but never embraced him fully; even a slight downturn in Republican turnout could well mean a victory for Democrats in the midterms, which, in turn, will guarantee a far more aggressive—and far more public—investigation into the activities of Trump and his shadier cronies. Tuesday’s news also helps build an increasingly compelling case for impeachment and removal from office. It is now clear that the President engaged in at least one conspiracy to hide the truth from the public in an election he won with a tiny margin in three states.

Read the full article at The New Yorker.