Russia woes theme of Trump presidency

Even amid all the constant chaos, there has been one constant to mark the Trump presidency so far. No matter the distraction du jour in this White House, the issue of Russia seems to remain front and center. In fact, it all appears to be related. Yet we seem no closer to getting to the truth. Or is it right in front of us? We have been told of Russian interference in the U.S. election, with the intent of influencing the outcome. President Trump’s choice for National Security Advisor was fired after having an improper contact with Russian officials, and then lying about it. Still, it took the Trump administration 18 days to fire Mike Flynn, now facing a subpoena to testify before the U.S. Senate. The head of the FBI, while leading the investigation into whether any members of the Trump campaign were complicit with Russian influence, was abruptly fired by Trump, who then remarked there may be tapes of his conversation with FBI Director Comey. But we have heard many versions of why and how the firing happened. And of course we still haven’t seen Trump’s tax returns so we can see proof there is no Russian connection there. It seems there are plenty of smoking guns, and they all appear to be stamped “Made in Russia.” We need to get to the bottom of what role Russia is playing, and who is involved. Our very democracy depends on it.