Nick Kristof nails the question of the hour in this piece today. Much as we asked during Watergate, what did the president know and when did he know it? Back then, we were talking about Nixon and the break-in at Democratic Party headquarters and a subsequent cover up. Today we’re asking what Trump know and when about Mike Flynn having sustained contacts with the Russian ambassador.
The question is particularly timely because the Russians are clearing testing the new administration. They have deployed a new category of ground-based cruise missiles that the Obama Administration thought were in violation of U.S.-Russian treaties and an intelligence-gathering Russian submarine is working its way up the American East Coast and is now closer than comfortable to a major American submarine base in Connecticut.
What are the Russians thinking? Are they just testing Trump or do they know that he will be unable to respond forcefully? Do they know he is somehow compromised? It is indeed a crucial moment on many levels.
