Miner Queries | Cherie Miner

I’ve been having flashbacks again – to the 70s when my father and grandfather argued about the deeds of President Nixon. No matter what new information was unearthed, Grandpa refused to admit Nixon broke the law and abused the powers of his office. No wonder dad saved his copy of the Des Moines Register with the headline, “Nixon resigns.”

However, it took three and a half years for Nixon’s presidency to unravel. We are three and a half months into the Trump administration, and we’ve already seen multiple firings, potential obstruction of justice, sharing sensitive intelligence with our enemies, and the appointment of a special counsel. What the heck is going on?

In the last two weeks, we have seen testimony from a former acting attorney general indicating General Michael Flynn was compromised by the Russians, as well as indications from a former NSA director that Trump campaign principals’ financial transactions may present conflicts.

Then came the firing of FBI Director James Comey, ostensibly for his handling of the Clinton e-mail investigation before the election. When that explanation elicited disbelief, President Trump outed himself in a television interview with NBC’s Lester Holt, admitting he’d made the decision before requesting any supporting documentation from the Justice Department – and to stop what he called the made-up Russia story.

The next day, as if to rub salt in the wound, our fearless leader met with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador at the White House with only Russian press allowed access. U.S. reporters were barred from the meeting.

Later, we learned President Trump violated an intelligence-sharing agreement with our ally Israel by providing the Russians information about ISIS and U.S. counter-intelligence. When the story first broke, the White House scrambled again to do damage control, sending out National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster to deny the story. And again, just when White House staff nearly had their story straight, it was President Trump who outed himself with a Tweet.

Trump’s lack of knowledge about foreign policy and his refusal to learn security protocols probably led to the blunder. But it makes me wonder what other damage he will do. He seems to have no regard for established institutions or relationships and no interest in learning about anything. What happens when we’re faced with a real crisis?

But that’s not all. As Congress members began to indicate an interest in having Comey testify before house and senate committees, the president also threatened Comey (in another Tweet) with tapes of their White House conversations. So Comey responded with news of his own memos documenting these meetings, including a dinner in which Trump asked for a vow of loyalty.

And this news finally got GOP attention. With the possibility of solid documentation, Republicans could no longer ignore the possibility of presidential misconduct.

Yet I was still surprised to learn late Wednesday that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who wrote Trump’s CYA (cover your a**) memo to fire Comey, has appointed a special counsel to oversee the investigation into Russian’s election meddling and any possible ties to the Trump campaign. Former FBI Director Robert Mueller III, who served under both Bush and Obama, will now direct the investigation. And he has power to issue subpoenas.

So where will this lead? No one knows.

But it’s clear Russia used social media and fake news, as well as hacking, to meddle in our elections. Evidence is clear Russia has been working to influence other countries’ elections as well, as indicated by the hacking of the Macron campaign in France.

Only here did voters fall so spectacularly for the false narratives. All of us should be asking what happened. We need to get our heads out of the TV, radio and Facebook, and start reading widely. We need to start talking to each other. We need to start tracking campaign finances and votes. We need to speak up when our public officials ignore our voices. We need to take back our government.

Cherie Miner is a local parent, community volunteer, freelance writer and artist. In a former life, she was a corporate writer and public relations professional. Contact her at news@redoakexpress.com or on Facebook.