The Silence is Deafening

BY SIERRA FORWARD

This week we learned that U.S. intelligence sources believe that Russia has been offering – and apparently paying – bounties for dead U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. We learned that the president knew this months ago and did nothing to punish Putin’s lawless country. And we watched as Tom McClintock, again, stayed silent when we need him to speak out against a president who has betrayed the people he swore to serve.

As this article explains, “CIA and Special Operations Command officers in Afghanistan (SOCOM) concluded, based on information from human sources, that the Russians were “… ‘incentivizing’ Taliban fighters to kill Americans and Afghans to retaliate against America for Russia’s defeat in 1989 and disrupt the U.S.-sponsored peace negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government.” The NSA questions the conclusion “because there was no convincing evidence of that in intercepted Taliban and Russian communications.” But as one intelligence expert notes, the intel was important enough to be included in the CIA World Intelligence Review, “which is disseminated to thousands of intel, military, Executive Branch, and Congressional officials.” This means that it “was corroborated and not as sensitive as the WH now claims.” The president insists he didn’t know, but as GOP Senator Ben Sasse noted, “if he didn’t know, it’s a big deal.”

Democrat and Republican lawmakers are demanding answers. Our constitution calls for a system of checks and balances and it is Congress’ job to hold the Executive branch accountable. The president should have left no stone unturned in his search for the truth about this threat on the lives of the U.S. soldiers serving our country in dangerous conditions. Instead, he simply ignored this evidence of egregious wrongdoing by Russia, while using all of the influence he possesses as the U.S. President to try to improve Russia’s standing in the world. Once again, President Trump’s loyalties appear to lie with Russia, instead of the U.S. soldiers he is sworn to protect. Congress should demand to know why. But once again, Tom McClintock has remained silent. He votes with the president 96% of the time. You’ll never see McClintock do anything but support the President.

California’s 4th District deserves better. We deserve a representative who sees our challenges with clear eyes and takes meaningful action to fix them. We deserve a representative who truly cares about what happens in this District. We deserve a representative who will fight for us.

Join us, as we fight to send Tom McClintock back to his own District, and to finally stop him from selling us out, one vote at a time. To learn more about the alternative, visit https://brynneforcongress.com/.

Because we know, as Margaret Mead said, that “a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”