The Republican war on democracy started long before Jan. 6
Washington Post
Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump at the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan, in 2019. (Susan Walsh/AP)
As we continue to grapple with the fallout of the Trump era, a disturbing fact is becoming more and more clear, one whose effects are still being felt: Donald Trump’s presidency began and ended with two of the most profound attacks on American democracy in our history.
There’s a straight line running from the 2016 Russia scandal through the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6. And in both cases, almost the entire GOP decided to defend, justify and use those attacks for whatever advantage it could gain. Indeed, that through line runs from both of those right into the GOP campaign of voter suppression and cultural panic now underway.
The atrocity of that first scandal is now coming into clearer focus. On Thursday, the Biden administration announced new sanctions on Russia as punishment for both cyberespionage and the Kremlin’s attempts to interfere in the 2020 elections. Within the Treasury Department document explaining the sanctions was a striking conclusion on a key unanswered question, one that offers a vital reminder of something that lies at the heart of American politics right now.
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It concerns Konstantin Kilimnik, a longtime associate of Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. A bipartisan 2020 Senate report called Kilimnik a “Russian intelligence officer,” and in 2016, Manafort passed Kilimnik internal campaign information, including polling data.
While it was long suspected that Kilimnik might have turned that information over to the Kremlin — since it would have helped form the Russian strategy to help Trump get elected — our government had never said definitively what Kilimnik did with the Trump campaign secrets.
Until now. This is from the Treasury Department statement on the new sanctions:
During the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign, Kilimnik provided the Russian Intelligence Services with sensitive information on polling and campaign strategy.
So far Republicans have been silent on this news (though Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas did say that “Biden is soft on Russia” because the sanctions didn’t target an oil pipeline Republicans oppose).
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But when you clear your head, it boggles the mind. The man running the Trump campaign was allegedly passing secrets to a Russian agent who then conveyed them to the Russian intelligence services.
And that was just one part of the scandal. That a major-party presidential nominee was seeking a lucrative deal in Russia while running for president and lying about it; that members of his family and campaign had dozens of contacts with Russian officials; that Russia waged a multifaceted effort to get him elected that included hacking into the opposition’s electronic systems; that the nominee’s longtime political adviser helped coordinate the release of damaging hacked documents to help his campaign; that in the end the president pardoned wrongdoers who had kept their mouths shut — all of it would be the greatest scandal in the history of any democracy on earth.
Republicans largely defended all of it, for years. It’s fine, they said. If a hostile foreign power wages war on the U.S. electoral system, we don’t mind, so long as it’s done to help our candidate.
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“This is fine” may have been the key ideological through-line of the Republican Party through the entire Trump era. No matter what Trump did — including trying to strong-arm another foreign country into helping subvert the 2020 campaign of Joe Biden — Republicans defended it.
And when Trump’s rabid supporters overran the Capitol, only a few Republicans managed a full-throated condemnation of this different variety of attack on democracy. Some went so far as to praise the rioters. Others said the attack itself was bad, but defended the lunatic conspiracy theory of a stolen election that inspired insurrectionists in the first place.
Indeed, just hours after their workplace was overrun by a mob, 147 Republicans in Congress voted to overturn some of the winner’s electors. And in following days, the consensus Republican line was that while the Big Lie might or might not be correct, severe voter suppression measures are now necessary because so many of their own followers believe that lie.
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Everywhere you look, Republicans are defining democracy as a threat to be defeated. They’re attempting not only to suppress Democratic votes but to seize control from local election officials who can’t be relied on favor the GOP. The most popular Fox News host tells viewers night after night that there’s a nefarious plot afoot to “replace” true (i.e. White) Americans with “Third World” immigrants who after becoming citizens will prove their unworthiness by voting for Democrats.
We know this: Had Russia been as successful in helping Trump get reelected in 2020 as it was in 2016, Republicans would have defended it. If they can change the rules to make it impossible for Democrats to ever win another election, no matter what the voting public wants, they’ll do it.
And if they can steal the next election, they’ll do that, too. When you decide that democracy is your enemy, there’s almost nothing you won’t do.
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