ICYMI: From Russia (to Biden) With Love

 

 

When Democrats look at Russia, they don’t see a geopolitical threat. They see the political gift that keeps giving. They now hope it produces for Joe Biden.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Oregon’s Ron Wyden on Wednesday accused a GOP colleague of essentially working as a Kremlin operative. They called Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson’s work a “disgrace,” claimed his committee was funneling “Russian disinformation,” and introduced a resolution demanding he cease. The only thing missing from this spectacle was the supporting cast: James Comey, John Brennan and Peter Strzok.

 

The catalyst for these surreal claims: Mr. Johnson [and Senate Finance Committee Chair Chuck Grassley] will soon release the findings of [their] investigation into the Biden family’s dealings with Ukraine. It’s a probe for which Democrats can thank Rep. Adam Schiff. Since 2016, the left and their press cheerleaders have insisted there is no greater risk to this nation than foreign interference in our elections.

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The nation is about to be vividly reminded of Burisma, the young Mr. Biden’s Ukrainian employer. And Messrs. Johnson and Grassley have every right to provide America the facts about Mr. Biden’s official acts in 2014-15, no matter that he is today the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. Some might even call it a duty. Mr. Biden is defining this election as a referendum on Mr. Trump’s judgment—and fair enough. But Americans also need to evaluate Mr. Biden’s judgment—to know whether he was too conflicted or too blind to deal with a son cashing in on the Biden name.

 

Which is why Democrats are terrified, and again playing the cracked and moldy Russia card. The effort to smear and delegitimize Mr. Johnson ramped up in summer, when Democrats in the Gang of Eight congressional intelligence leaders—Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Mr. Schumer, Mr. Schiff and Sen. Mark Warner—sent a letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation expressing concern that Congress had become “the target of a concerted foreign interference campaign.” Democrats claimed to have classified information (immediately leaked to the press) showing that Mr. Johnson’s Ukraine investigation had become a vehicle for “laundering” Russian claims that would damage Mr. Biden.

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It turned out Democrats and the media were relying on the claims of the two Ukrainians themselves that they sent info to Republicans. Put another way, Mr. Schumer and the Washington Post were using two men they accuse of spreading Russian disinformation to spread disinformation about the GOP. Vladimir Putin couldn’t ask for better helpmates.

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 The unearned mileage Democrats continue to get out of the false “Russia collusion” claim is mind-boggling. They used it to gin up an investigation into their political opponents. They used it to try to discredit the results of an election. They used it to keep a three-year cloud over a presidency. They used it to give cover to the weakest impeachment proceeding in history.

 

Now, they are using it to muddy up straightforward questions about their own nominee for president. Mr. Putin poses real security threats to this country. Unfortunately, Democrats are turning the Russian danger into a joke.

 

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