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‘Draining Swamp?’

It appears that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican, Kentucky) has recently earned the moniker “Moscow Mitch” for his denial, essentially, of all facts provided by our highly respected intelligence officials that Russia, without question, was heavily involved in attempting to influence the 2016 presidential election in favor of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s candidate of choice and now “best buddy” Donald Trump. McConnell, in his position of leadership, refused in 2016 to issue a joint, nonpartisan statement initiated by then-President Barack Obama, condemning the undisputed involvement of the Russian government to influence the American election.

In addition, more recently, Sen. McConnell has personally blocked several election security bills, which had already been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, including $600 million that would be used to upgrade voting machines and would leave a verifiable paper trail that would be implemented as a security measure to help prevent the hacking of votes.

Perhaps Sen. McConnell, whose wife, Elaine Chao, just happens to be the current secretary of transportation in the Trump administration, is more committed to assisting President Trump win re-election, by turning a blind eye again to the involvement of a longtime foreign adversary, to help ensure their desired results?

This appears to be an obvious case, perhaps, of putting party loyalty paramount to patriotism and fairness in the election process, which is, indeed, most troubling.

Was it also not most disturbing that President Trump said he would nominate Republican Congressman Daniel Ratcliffe, incredibly, for the critical position of director of national intelligence, which oversees 17 U.S. “spy” agencies, replacing the recently resigned Dan Coats, who left the position Aug. 15? However, it appears that Congressman Ratcliffe, Republican from Texas, has a shocking lack of security experience on any level, but is an obvious and unabashed Trump toady, making such outlandish statements, with no supportive evidence whatsoever, such as, “The FBI has a secret society to bring down President Trump” and “It was (actually) Hillary Clinton’s campaign that conspired with the Russians during the 2016 campaign (not Trump).”

It appears, quite obviously, that President Trump prioritizes “personal loyalty” over professional qualifications and dedication to patriotically serving our great country with his appointments.

However, Congressman Ratcliffe thankfully announced on Aug. 2 that he was withdrawing his name from further consideration for the position he had been nominated to, stating in pure Trumpian fashion that he was “stepping aside in order to avoid months of slander and libel.”

So much for “draining the swamp.”

Richard Hord

Martins Ferry

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