Moscow On The Potomac

It’s about much, much more than Russia.

- Monika Bauerlein & Clara Jeffery

For a while, it almost seemed as if President Donald Trump’s determined efforts to bury the Russia scandal were work­ing. The punditsphere was itching to move on, Democrats had their hair on fire about health care, and every day brought a new Twitter eruption. And then Trump fired the FBI director—and made it plain for everyone that the Russia story is not merely about how exactly the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 elec­tion, or whether Trump or his associates merely winked and nodded or actively colluded. It’s about the public’s right to know the truth—and a powerful man’s burning desire to keep it hidden.

It’s a battle the public must win. Be­ cause the alternative, as Dan Rather re­cently put it in a Facebook post, is “Armageddon for our form of government.”

What Trump or any one of his associates did in 2016 may or may not have been a scandal. But blocking the public from finding out absolutely is. And with Trump at war against the intelligence agencies and congressional Republicans hostage to their own agenda, it’s up to us, the people, to assert our right to know. That can mean many things, from showing up at town halls to calmly reasoning with friends or relatives. For us as journalists, it means doing our job like never before—no matter who tries to stop us.