Pro-Security Republicans Rejected the Trumpist House GOP Attempt to Censure the Russian Interference Investigator

A Trumpist Republican effort in the United States House of Representatives to censure a leading Democratic member for the investigation of the acceptance by the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump of Russian Federation support and their cooperation has failed. Twenty Republicans joined with the majority Democrats to reject the censure resolution soundly. Like U.S. intelligence agencies, both a Republican special prosecutor and the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee have found that not only did Russia interfere both overtly and covertly on behalf of Trump in the GOP Presidential Primary and General Election, which was an unprecedented degree of foreign interference, but also that Trump publicly requested and welcomed Russian interference and his campaign coordinated its messaging with the release of information stolen by the Russians and published through Wikileaks, a Russian cutout, of which it had advanced knowledge. The interference, led by Russian tyrant and ex-Soviet intelligence officer, Vladimir Putin, was sufficient to win Trump the presidency, apart from all the other election fraud (deception, intimidation, illegal campaign finance activity and other foreign interference) from which it benefited, but the cooperation between Trump’s campaign and the Russian efforts were even more troubling. There were over 100 contacts between the Russians and the Trump campaign, none of which were reported to federal law enforcement. Trump’s campaign manager even shared internal polling data with a Russian intelligence officer. It remains unclear how Russia managed to micro-target both liberal Democratic voters to suppress their votes for their party’s presidential ticket and conservative Republicans to support the pro-Putin Trump. The GOP special prosecutor found that Trump campaign staff hid their communications and that Trump obstructed his investigation, for which he urged impeachment. Trump later was forced to admit that he had lied to Republican primary voters that he was not continuing to do business with Russia during the campaign. In office, Trump refrained from criticizing Putin, despite the Russian dictator’s human rights abuses and hostile actions around the world, let alone to acknowledge Russian political interference in America, and often attempted to keep his administration from standing for U.S. security versus Russia. One example earned him in 2019 his first of two impeachments by the House when he withheld military aid to Ukraine, then under Russian invasion, to extort the former Soviet Republic to investigate his leading Democratic challenger. The delay gave Russian-backed separatists a strategic advantage that Russia took advantage of in its 2022 aggression against Ukraine. Putin’s “active measures” Russian interference in American politics since 2014 has influenced the public in a number of ways, by deliberately dividing Americans, undermining confidence in the truth and in elections, in addition to promoting pro-Russian views. But Soviet and Russian efforts to cultivate Trump date back to the 1980s and helped prop up his failing businesses, thus helping the tycoon to present himself to Republican primary voters as a successful businessman. Most “conservative” Republicans have dismissed or minimized Russian interference, especially cooperation between Trump’s campaign and the Russians, which they focus only upon to ignore the broader and successful Russian interference. A significant number of "conservative” and Republican leaders, including a faction in Congress, have even become apologists for Putin. The inability of the GOP to come to terms with its support of a candidate backed by a hostile foreign power led by a tyrant who is trying to restore the Soviet Union has damaged the party’s standing and undermined Republican voters’ support for U.S. security. The 20 Republicans who voted against the censure resolution are helping to preserve what little is left of the GOP anti-Communist legacy and reputation for American security.