The mounting questions about the Donald Trump campaign’s ties to Russia have forced us, time and again, to ask questions that no one in any self-respecting democracy should even have to ask about our leaders. Well, Charles Blow, a longtime columnist at Trump’s pet hate, The New York Times, thinks that is reason enough to demand that the Trump administration not take any major actions until we know that his presidency is legitimate.
Blow believes the Trump presidency will be tainted unless we can be certain that the Kremlin effort to influence our election “did not also include collusion or coverup” by the Trump campaign and the Trump administration. He also argues that if there is anything at all to these allegations, it would represent “one of the most egregious assaults on our democracy ever.” I’d go further than that–it would easily be the most egregious assault that didn’t involve bullets, bombs, missiles, or cannon shot.
With this to consider, Blow thinks there is only one responsible solution.
“Viewed through the serious lens of those epic implications, no action to put this presidency on pause is extreme. Rather, it is exceedingly prudent.”
What would hitting the pause button on the Trump administration mean? Well, Blow believes the American people must call a halt to Trump’s drive to “dramatically alter the social, economic, and political contours of our country”–including repealing Obamacare–until they can be sure that he is legitimate. He also believes that all efforts to put Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court must end until the nation knows that the man who appointed him is legitimate.
Until an investigation into the Trump-Russia ties is complete, Blow believes that “a bare minimum standard” must be put in place to keep the government running. However, he wants the GOP to be put on notice that “there will be a price to pay” at the ballot box if they continue to march in lockstep with Trump while this “fog of suspicion” hangs over him.
It’s hard not to agree with Blow here. After all, we now know that intelligence officials saw something in the “golden showers” dossier that made them tell their Israeli counterparts not to share any information with Trump until they were certain he had not been compromised. While Trump has been screaming that any talk about ties between his campaign and Russia is “fake news,” a number of intelligence agencies around the world have been looking into the dossier for some time. That alone would demand hitting the pause button on the Trump Train.
It looks like Blow’s column was a continuation of his epic dressing down of Mollie Hemingway, senior editor of The Federalist. Watch here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx2xyHw5Eyk
Hemingway thought the press was overreacting to what Trump says. Blow countered that Trump’s lies are “an assault on the legitimacy of the presidency itself.” Later, he accused Trump of engaging on an attack on the truth–and when that happens, journalists have a duty to “defend the truth from whomever.”
Within hours of Blow’s column going to press, the hashtag “#PauseThisPresidency” started trending on Twitter. But this shouldn’t be just a Twitter trend. If Trump is really serious about bringing the country together, then he should be willing to put the brakes on his agenda until we can be certain that he is legitimate.
(featured image courtesy Gage Skidmore, available under a Creative Commons BY-SA license)
.jpg){kind=link}