More Damage Than Meets The Eye
Trump Can’t Stop Playing Games With Putin
It sounded like just more trumpian blather from a bitter, old, senile, wannabe dictator with bad hair but the more I read and thought about it, the more I believe that trump’s latest antics are far worse than it seems and that there is much more than meets the eye to trump’s latest outrageous request that Russian President Vladimir Putin should release dirt on the Biden family.
That’s not to say that trump isn’t a bitter, old, senile wannabe dictator with bad hair, because he is.
Philip Bump, columnist for the Washington Post, put it best.
“It’s a really staggering formulation: Hey, since America is arming Ukraine to defend itself against Putin’s aggression — dubbed ‘savvy’ and ‘genius’ by Trump in February — Putin might as well take advantage of the moment to kneecap Biden directly. Trump’s approach to political punditry has often been as though the boundaries he ought to observe are no more tightly drawn than those for a guy at a neighborhood bar, but giving Russia’s leader a hint about how to damage the American president at a moment of heightened military tension is staggering. As president, Trump repeatedly accused his opponents of crimes such as treason for far, far less.”
The so-called GOP leadership has been lightning fast to jump all over that other wack job, Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-Ga., for his crazy remarks about being invited to Congressional orgies where officials do various drugs. Those dignified Republican leaders will not stand for one of their own accusing them of acting poorly.
But when it comes to commenting on the evil trump providing disinformation ammunition for an enemy that has slaughtered thousands in Ukraine, not a word of criticism. Nada. The silence has been deafening over any criticism of the Republicans’ great and incredibly flawed leader.
No matter that Trump has called Putin “savvy” and a “genius,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of the premier trumpian bootlickers, dodged a question about trump’s dirt request and turned it around to show Graham’s undying, unflinching patriotism.
“My message to Putin is he needs to go,” said Graham.
About trump’s remarks, Graham did say, with the drama of milk toast, “That would not be something that I would do, no.” Graham can really offer some white hot criticisms when he wants to, just not at trump.
Sen. John Thune R-S.D., the №2 Senate Republican, was equally scathing in his broadsides.
“We have very little control over what the former president says, obviously,” said Thune, masquerading as a frightened bunny.
“You know, there are a lot of voices out there right now, and you have to stay focused on the goal and that is to give the Ukrainians whatever they need to succeed and be victorious. And I think that’s actually a possibility,” Thune said, while dancing the Republican rag.
Compare that with what the GOP bosses said about their wayward son, Cawthorn.
Among his choice comments in past days, Cawthorn called President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine “a thug” and his country “incredibly evil” as Russian missiles struck and Russian tanks rolled in. In the past, Cawthorn has garnered publicity for bringing a knife to a school board meeting and trying to hide a gun through airport security. Also, Cawthorn, who has used a wheelchair since being injured in an automobile accident when he was 18, was charged this month with driving with a revoked license.
A major trump lackey and House Speaker wannabe, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, refused earlier in the year to discipline Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Texas, after the unhinged lawmaker posted an animated video showing him killing a Democratic congresswoman. Likewise, McCarthy demurred from criticizing Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who is under investigation for sex trafficking. McCarthy did reluctantly condemn Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., after she spoke at a white power conference last year but McCarthy, bowing to the base, refused to remove Greene from any House committees.
But there were no delays before McCarthy responded to Cawthorn, who committed a cardinal sin by suggesting that it was not just Democrats who were sex perverts. McCarthy told Cawthorn, a freshman lawmaker, that he needs to get his act together or else he could face internal consequences. That’s enough to make a man shiver in his boots.
“He’s got to turn himself around,” an irate McCarthy boldly told reporters. “I just told him he’s lost my trust, and he’s going to have to earn it back. I laid out everything I find that’s unbecoming. He’s got a lot of members upset. You can’t just make statements out there.”
You go for it, Kevin.
And retiring Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said of Cawthorn, “On any given day, he’s an embarrassment.”
Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, who represents a district won by Biden, was immensely put off and said that Cawthorn’s bizarre allegations about sex acts and drug use were “terrible” and that he shares “the anger of my colleagues.”
Rep. Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota got really down and dirty and said Cawthorn has gotten under the skin of many Republicans.
“People are flat pissed off,” Armstrong said.
I suppose people aren’t “flat pissed off” about trump and his pushing Putin for dirt on the Biden family. And Republicans can’t say that trump’s actions were “terrible” and apparently there is no consensus that trump is an “embarrassment,” which he is without question.
In an interview on a far right on-line broadcast, “Real America’s Voice,” trump said that Putin should release any information he might have on Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son. Trump asked why the mayor of Moscow’s wife allegedly had given the president and his son, $3.5 million.
“I would think Putin would know the answer to that. I think he should release it,” trump said, referring to a 2020 Senate GOP report on the Bidens that resulted in sparse proof of wrongdoing.
There was one, lone Republican member of congress who didn’t criticize trump for his statements about Putin and dirt. Asked if Trump’s comments were appropriate, Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., answered, “If he believes Vladimir Putin has information a crime has been committed, you know, sure, why not?” One thing about Cramer is that he sees a nuanced world, just like his squeeze. Another thing is that he is very much a trump clone.
Chances are you haven’t heard of Cramer or maybe you confused him with Cosmo Kramer on Seinfeld. I knew nothing about him until he told trump he had his back on the Putin request.
This is what I found.
Kramer is the quintessential political animal. Most tellingly, one of Cramer’s major financial and political backers has been Oklahoma oil tycoon Harold Hamm, referred to by environmental activists as a “fracker in chief.” Hamm, the CEO of Continental Resources, also was a big trump booster and was later named an unofficial energy advisor. Hamm was on the short list for trump’s energy secretary but was not chosen.
Forbes estimated that Hamm’s fortune was $11.9 billion. Like Trump, Hamm pushed for less regulation and more drilling and was a board member of the pro-Trump nonprofit, America First Policies.
Cramer benefited well from Hamm’s financial backing and it’s safe to say that Hamm expected loyalty from Cramer, particularly in continuing to back trump. Campaign finance documents show Hamm contributed to various groups backing Cramer, including $50,000 to the Cramer Victory Fund. Of Hamm’s donation, $5,000 went to Badlands PAC, a Cramer political action committee, as well as $33,900 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) , the main GOP campaign arm for the Senate.
In all, the joint fundraising committee led by Hamm has supplied $155,000 to Cramer’s campaign, more than $72,000 to the Badlands PAC, and almost $65,000 to the NRSC, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. That is a lot of money in North Dakota politics.
Cramer, a 61-year-old native of Rolette, N.D., is pure political animal. He worked on political campaigns after college and by 30 was the youngest state party chair in North Dakota’s history. Prior to serving in the Senate, Cramer was chair of the North Dakota Republican Party, state tourism director, and state economic development and finance director.
Cramer served as a member of the North Dakota Public Service Commission from 2003 to 2012 and represented North Dakota’s At-Large Congressional District in the House from 2013 to 2019. He previously ran unsuccessfully for the House in 1996, 1998, and 2010.
In his only, non-political employment, Cramer was director of the non-profit Harold Schafer Leadership Center from 2001–2003. The center was established at the University of Mary in 1997 by the university’s then-president Sister Thomas Welder. The center was named after Schafer, a North Dakota businessman, entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded the Gold Seal Company, the original maker of Mr. Bubble
During his high school years, Cramer worked at an electrical co-op with his father. Cramer has a bachelor of arts degree from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn., a master’s degree in management from the University of Mary, a private Benedictine university in Bismarck, N.D. and was conferred an honorary Doctor of Leadership degree in 2013.
He was sworn in to the senate on Jan. 3, 2019, having formerly been a member of the House from 2013 to 2019. In literature asking for donations to the GOP cause, Cramer said that “Biden’s energy policy is bad for jobs, the environment, the economy and national security.”
A review of Cramer’s politics shows he rejects the scientific evidence of climate change, supports an increase in oil and gas drilling on public lands and cutting taxes for energy producers. Not coincidentally, has had strong backing from oil and gas and by his own admission he supports trump “100 percent of the time.” On May 28, 2021, Cramer voted against creating an independent commission to investigate the 2021 Capitol attack by trump supporters.
Cramer wants to cut off public funding of Planned Parenthood and said an increase in mass shootings was a result of the legalization of abortion and a decline in religious values. “We have normalized perversion and perverted God’s natural law,” he said in very trumpian words.
In his 2012 race for the house, Cramer was endorsed by various national conservative groups, including FreedomWorks, a conservative group that has been supported by the oil industry and Club For Growth, another conservative advocacy group that has opposed government action to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
Cramer was “one of a handful of early Trump endorsers” in Congress. He is a virtual mirror of trump, having favored all of his policies, including Trump’s 2017 executive order banning entry to the U.S. by citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries. At trump’s request, Cramer wrote Trump’s energy plan, which heavily promoted fossil fuels, weakened environmental regulation, and vowed to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement and repeal U.S. regulations of carbon emissions. He is opposed to gun controls, wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act or “Obamacare,” is against COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates and opposes same-sex marriage. On March 24, 2020, Cramer tweeted that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was “retarded” but he later apologized and said he meant to write that she was “ridiculous.”
Cramer voted to acquit trump in his second impeachment, saying “the House Managers failed to establish a direct line between the Jan. 6 attacks on the United States Capitol and the former President’s public statements and remarks.”
“The January 6 attacks on the Capitol were appalling, and President Trump’s remarks were reckless, but based on the evidence presented in the trial, he did not commit an impeachable offense,” Cramer said.
On Jan. 11, 2018, Cramer announced that he would not seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate and would instead run for reelection to the House. A month later, he changed his mind and said he would run for the Senate. During his campaign he won support of
During his 2018 campaign, Cramer sought and received the support of the Public Advocate of the United States, an anti-LGBT group that advocates conversion therapy and ties homosexuality to pedophilia. He also agreed with the organization that “public schools should be ‘prevented from brainwashing elementary school children with the Homosexual Agenda.’”