TRUMP MAY TOPPLE LIKE A HOUSE OF CARDS

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     Retired United States Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn knows where all the bodies are buried...(figuratively speaking...metaphorically speaking).  White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer - on Friday, March 31st, 2017 - claimed that Donald Trump is "not concerned" that Flynn may have damaging testimony against Trump. But if you believe Trump is not scared out of his begeebies...then you also have to believe that pigs can fly.

     With an approval rating that is lower than any other U.S. President in history - at this point in a Presidency - Donald Trump may soon become a President who virtually no American will want to recognize as our Commander-In-Chief.  

     Since his Inauguration on January 20th, nearly all Democrats throughout the country have not accepted Trump as President.  And now, the vast majority of Independents...and more and more Republicans...are quickly running away from Trump...and the fact they ever supported him.

     Just over two months behind The Oval Office desk, the Gallup Poll - on Wednesday, March 29th - informed the world that Donald Trump's approval rating has sunk to a painfully suffering 35 percent.  And I predict that his failing results... and the troubling issues that face his Administration and his Presidency...will cause Trump's approval rating to enter the disaster zone of 30 percent or lower...perhaps before Memorial Day at the end of May, but definitely by Independence Day on July 4th.  I wouldn't even be shocked by a 25 percent number.  Americans who had embraced Trump for the election...and whose minds were - in some ways - brainwashed in to thinking that he was actually going to help them...are starting to realize that Donald Trump is only out to help Donald Trump.

     But now...there's someone else who may be out to help only himself...and that person was once not just a strong ally of Trump's, but a member of his own team... his inner circle.  Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn is pulling a "Monty Hall" and wants to "make a deal" with Uncle Sam.

     In my February 15th column - IS TRUMP TODAY'S NIXON? LET'S HOPE NOT. - I wrote..."There is a dark cloud hovering over Donald Trump...that is causing The White House to be blackened in controversy and scandal.  With Democrats in both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives calling for a probe in to ties between General Flynn and Russia...and possible ties between Trump and Putin...are Trump and some Republicans on Capitol Hill worried that if Flynn is subpoenaed to testify under oath before Congress...what beans will be spilled?  Has Flynn's friendship with Trump been disintegrated...and, if so...will Flynn throw Trump under the bus?  And should he do so...will we learn through irrefutable evidence...through positive proof...that Trump is an illegitimate President who must be evicted from The White House?"

     I published those words more than six weeks ago.  Now, both the House and Senate Intelligence Committees are tangled in a web of separate investigations in to Russian interference with our nation's 2016 Presidential election.  But on Thursday, March 30th, Flynn told the FBI and members of the House and Senate that he will agree to testify under oath about anything and everything he knows about Russia and their meddling in to the U.S. election, but...BUT...he wants full immunity from arrest and prosecution for doing so.

     The Wall Street Journal scooped everyone on Thursday evening when they first reported - through Flynn's lawyer - that he wants a free pass to tell a truthful tale about the Russians.  His attorney stated..."General Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should the circumstances permit."

     Flynn is apparently willing to give up information in exchange for his freedom, should he admit to committing a crime.  But on Friday, March 31st, the Senate refused Flynn's request for immunity.  Meanwhile...Flynn's call for immunity is raising eyebrows.  California Democrat Adam Schiff - the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee - tweeted on Friday..."The public should learn a lot more about WHY General Flynn wants immunity when (former Acting Attorney General) Sally Yates testifies before the House Intelligence Committee."  At The White House, though - early Friday morning - Donald Trump tweeted..."Mike Flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a witch hunt."  But Trump was careful with his words.  He did not say that Flynn should GET immunity...only that he should ASK for it.

     Despite the official take that Trump asked Flynn to resign as National Security Adviser...let's face it, he was fired on February 13th after it had been confirmed that Flynn conducted a telephone conversation with the Russian Ambassador about U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia by President Barack Obama.  Flynn also lied to Mike Pence when the General denied discussing sanctions.  The Washington Post reports that Flynn continued his lies when he told the FBI that sanctions with Russia were never discussed. Furthermore, The White House says Flynn met with the Russian Ambassador for about twenty minutes in December 2016 at Trump Tower.  All that being said...Donald Trump maintains that Flynn did "nothing wrong" by talking with the Russian Ambassador.

     But Flynn's connection with Vladimir Putin's henchmen apparently goes deeper and deeper in to the belly of the beast that is Russia.  Democrats on Capitol Hill submit that Flynn violated a clause in the U.S. Constitution, which doesn't permit officials of our federal government to receive payments from foreign nations.  And reportedly, Flynn was on the payroll of both Russia...and Turkey.  But Press Secretary Spicer says Trump was unaware of Flynn's work as a foreign lobbyist. However...Trump won't answer yes or no on whether his old friend would have been offered the National Security position if Flynn had been up front, honest and transparent about his work with foreign governments.

     The amount of "sketchy stuff" that is going on with Donald Trump is bordering beyond suspicious.  And Michael Flynn has nothing to lose by painting a target on the forehead of his old boss.  Flynn is willing to trade Trump's life to save his own skin.  Therefore...Flynn is going to try to cover his own butt...in case whatever it is he acknowledges...to the FBI and/or Congress...doesn't add to his troubles.  By requesting immunity, the assumption has to be that Flynn wants to speak openly and freely about exactly what Donald Trump knows...and when he knew it.  It is not too far out of the realm of possibility that Flynn wants to tell the FBI, the Senate and the House of Representatives that it was Trump who instructed him to discuss U.S. sanctions against Russia with the Russian Ambassador.  And that such contact happened before Trump had taken the oath of office as President.  Therefore...it raises the question...was Michael Flynn...was Donald Trump...was anyone in the Trump campaign...involved in Russia's meddling in to the 2016 election?  And was that tampering to do...whatever they could...to sabotage former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton...so that she would lose...and Trump would win?

     It's ironic that it was Michael Flynn - at the Republican National Convention in July 2016 - who led delegates in a chant of "lock her up"...when he stooped to a disgraceful low of slamming Mrs. Clinton.

     To put a cherry on top of the irony sundae...is a remark Flynn made on September 25th, 2016 to NBC News Political Director and Moderator of Meet The Press Chuck Todd.  Flynn expressed that Secretary Clinton belongs in "jail."  And that "five people around her have been given immunity."  Flynn went on to tell Chuck Todd..."When you are given immunity...that means you have probably committed a crime."  Of Michael Flynn, I quote Scottish novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott.  "O, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive."

     A 5-year old child can add two plus two and come up with an answer of four. Flynn's immunity comment to Chuck Todd - 6 months ago - is now biting Flynn in the behind.  He has requested immunity so I guess - based on his own declaration on Meet The Press - Flynn has "probably committed a crime."  And Donald Trump - on September 27th, 2016 - while at a campaign rally in Melbourne, Florida...echoed what Michael Flynn said two days before on Meet The Press.  "And if you're not guilty of a crime, what do you need immunity for, right?"  

     There has been suspicious smoke around Donald Trump for quite some time.  If and when Michael Flynn speaks...he could be lighting the match for the biggest political fire since Watergate.  So therefore...Democratic Representative Jackie Speier of California - who spoke on Friday to CNN's Wolf Blitzer - admitted she might consider granting immunity to Flynn...if it means catching "a bigger fish."  And that being...Donald Trump.

     It behooves me to wonder what Donald Trump's kids - Donald Jr., Ivanka, Eric, Tiffany and even 11-year old Barron - are thinking today?  The Trump brand is being tainted with the passing of every day.  And if it is proved - and I did say IF - that their father participated in any way with the Russian interference of the 2016 election...Trump may end up being America's first President to be impeached, convicted and removed from office...on what could wind up being charges of treason.  And then...nobody would ever want to stay at a Trump hotel...live in a Trump apartment...or play golf at a Trump country club.  Nobody could stand seeing the name Trump on any building.  Donald Trump...and his family...would be ruined.

     I will state, however...with much emphasis - as I have in columns before - that I am one who always believes that a person is innocent until proven guilty beyond the shadow of a doubt.  So it is genuinely possible that Donald Trump's hands are as clean as a surgeon who is ready for the operating room.  That is, at least regarding Russia and the notion that Trump could have been involved in a plot to affect the outcome of our national election.  Trump may not have one speck of Russian dirt on his two palms and ten fingers.  But I do have my doubts.  And then of course...as we learned with President Richard Nixon...the cover-up was worse than the crime.  But there is always the chance that Trump was deliberately insulated from any criminal activity by those Americans who might have been engaged in the initial felony or obstruction of justice.  

     No matter what, though...Donald Trump's "fine-tuned machine" is quickly becoming an Edsel.  And should evidence be discovered...proving Trump helped to orchestrate the biggest conspiracy in United States history...or that he is responsible for covering it up...Trump and his Administration will topple like a house of cards. And the Russian scandal...will make Watergate...look like shoplifting.

     And that's The Controversy for today.

     I'm Gary B. Duglin.

     "We'll talk again."

The Controversy is a publication of GBD Productions.  Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B. Duglin.

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