Earlier this week, the media had a feeding frenzy over a bogus dossier of materials supposedly obtained by Russia meant to compromise Donald Trump.
The dossier, filled with lurid details of Trump's alleged sexual misconduct while in Moscow a few years back, was concocted by a former British spy, and was handed to Senator John McCain in December. The senator promptly handed it over to the FBI. On January 7, US intelligence deemed it appropriate to submit a two page summary of the dossier to the president. CNN soon leaked the story, and the full 35 page report was published by BuzzFeed.
In the same event, Trump seemed to concede the long-touted mainstream media claim that Russia was responsible for hacking the email of Hillary Clinton campaign manager John Podesta. Commenting on the importance of the President-elect's apparent change of heart, veteran political commentator Pat Buchanan stressed that the stakes of such an admission could not be any higher.
"Trump had previously dismissed claims of Russian hacking as unproved conjecture," the commentator recalled, and sought to work out some kind of deal with Moscow to prevent a new Cold War.
"This should not be impossible," Buchanan stressed. After all, "unlike the 1970s, there is no Soviet Empire stretching from Havana to Hanoi, no Warsaw Pact dominating Central Europe, no Communist ideology steering Moscow into constant Cold War conflict with the West." Russia, he said, "is a great power with great power interests," but "she does not seek to restore a global empire or remake the world in her image." Therefore, "US-Russian relations are thus ripe for change."
Now, Buchanan noted, "any such hope is…suddenly impaired."
Buchanan pointed out that unfortunately, "the more toxic Putin-haters can make the Russian president [out to be], the more difficult [it will be] for President Trump to deal with him, even if that is in the vital national interest of the United States."
"The sort of investigation for which McCain has been clamoring, and the Beltway drums have now begun to beat, could make it almost impossible for President Trump to work with President Putin," the pundit stressed.
On Wednesday night, expanding on Trump's apparent flub on Russia and hacking, The Washington Post called for a thorough, prolonged investigation into the hacking allegations. "What the Post seeks," Buchanan emphasized, "is a Watergate Committee like the one that investigated the Nixon White House, or a commission like the ones that investigated 9/11 and the JFK assassination."
The city of Washington, the commentator added, is now "salivating over another Watergate, another broken president. But President-elect Trump should be aware of what is at stake."
Speaking to Radio Sputnik about the stakes involved here, political writer Patrick Lawrence began by pointing out that "the intelligence establishment in the United States, and the Pentagon, and the defense contractors, are absolutely desperate to maintain a high degree of tension between the United States and Russia, and Donald Trump's proposal for one another form of neo-détente petrifies them. That's what this is all about."
Commenting on Wednesday's press conference, and specifically on Trump's comments that he 'might not get along' with Russia and Putin after all, Lawrence noted that it's important to understand that Trump has "a certain persona to preserve," a 'tough guy' image that has become "quite an important signifier in politics."
"I wouldn't really worry too much about that. It's vastly more important what Trump is thinking about relations with Russia and indeed, relations with anybody, the Chinese being another important case…I think what [we] started to get yesterday were nods in the direction of orthodoxy, i.e. 'yes I will be tough on Russia'. But let's wait and see what he does. I think it's absolutely critical that Trump holds his ground on the question of US-Russian relations, and fights this fight," the political analyst said.
Hoping that Trump will 'fight and win' his fight with the so-called deep state, the analyst noted that this would have consequences globally, not just in the US. As for the false 'compromising materials' published by BuzzFeed, Lawrence suggested that this was a real "last gasp" by the deep state — by the Pentagon and the intelligence establishment, to sabotage the incoming president.
"These people have ten more days before another president comes in, who is to standing arrangements, problematic. This last bit was a desperate grasp…and I think Trump's anger was entirely appropriate. It's becoming really alarmingly irresponsible, and quite apart from questions of international relations, is really destroying the American political process. It's evidence that these people have absolutely no respect for the democratic process," Lawrence concluded.
