Two score and two years ago, we figured it was not just shocking — but an impeachable offense — when we heard the so-called smoking gun tape recording of our Republican president, Richard Nixon, planning to cover up the fact that his top advisors had hired burglars to break into the Democratic Party headquarters and bug the place to obtain damaging info in the 1972 presidential campaign.
On Wednesday, much to our astonishment, all the world heard from a different sort of smoking gun — Donald Trump’s often-gushing fire hose of a mouth. It fit the pattern of this mondo-bizarro campaign that the biggest news of the day at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia was made by the terminally unrestrainable 2016 Republican presidential nominee down in Florida.
During a seemingly routine press conference in Doral, a city just outside Miami where Trump owns a golf resort, Trump suddenly said he hoped America’s re-emerged adversary, Russia, had Hillary Clinton’s estimated 33,000 allegedly personal emails that her aides tried to delete long ago so they would not be made public. And he called on Russia to make them public.
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump told a televised news conference. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
The FBI and other intelligence agencies reportedly have concluded with high confidence that Russia cyber-burgled the Democratic Party headquarters and was responsible for emails that were leaked days ago. They showed Democratic Party operatives seeking to smear Clinton’s opponent, Bernie Sanders, on their suspicion that the Jewish-born senator might be an atheist. Strangely, Trump has said he thinks the hacker was “probably not Russia.”
And before the day was done, the clearly untrainable and unrestrainable mogul had given Democrats the one gift they could not have gotten from anyone else — a live negative political infomercial demonstrating what the parade of Democratic convention speakers have meant as they’ve attacked Trump for not having the temperament for the job.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, who reluctantly endorsed Trump just before the GOP convention over which he presided, was more than just unsupportive of his new leader’s latest blurtation. “Russia is a global menace, led by a devious thug,” said Ryan’s spokesman, Brendan Buck. “Putin should stay out of this election.”
But when a reporter asked Trump about that sentiment, the nominee replied, “I’m not going to tell Putin what to do. Why should I tell Putin what to do?”
Soon, Trump’s team of not-yet-ready-for-prime-time politics players was struggling to unsay what their nominee had clearly said. Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller sent several Twitter messages hoping to clarify what his boss didn’t say. “To be clear, Mr. Trump did not call on, or invite, Russia or anyone else to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails today,” Miller tweeted. His point was that Trump had only been suggesting that if Russia or other countries already have Clinton’s deleted emails, they should share them with the FBI.
One statement of obvious criticism came from the one Republican who is most anxious not to appear obviously critical of the nominee — Trump’s new vice presidential running mate, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana. “The FBI will get to the bottom of who is behind the hacking,” Pence said. “If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences.”
Pence then artfully steered his campaign bandwagon into a hard turn and took an unmistakable low road (surely understanding that would keep him in his boss’ good graces), adding: “That said, the Democrats singularly focusing on who might be behind it and not addressing the basic fact that they’ve been exposed as a party who not only rigs the government, but rigs elections while literally accepting cash for federal appointments, is outrageous.”
While Pence delivered assurances that there will be “serious consequences” if Russia has interfered in U.S. elections, his boss has shown little inclination to get tough with Putin. Quite the contrary, Trump unthinkingly has spent the past year praising Putin, even as Russia supported insurgents in Ukraine. Trump has welcomed Russian intervention in Syria on the side of President Bashar Assad’s murderous regime.
The wily Putin knew what he was doing when he became the first major world leader to praise Trump at the end of last year. “He’s a really brilliant and talented person, without any doubt,” Putin told reporters, later adding, “(H)e’s the absolute leader in the presidential race.” Trump has repaid Putin with kindness and consummate naivete ever since.
Somewhere, in a far better place, the spirit of Ronald Reagan must be shaking his head in dismay and disgust at the sad fate that has befallen his once Grand Old Party.
