Republican Congress won’t rein in Donald Trump – USA TODAY

Jason Sattler, Opinion columnist Published 3:22 p.m. ET May 16, 2017 | Updated 5 hours ago

A bombshell report by the Washington Post cites government officials who reportedly say the President discussed classified information with Russians. USA TODAY

President Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan , Washington, March 1, 2017.(Photo: Evan Vucci, AP)

If you arent wondering whats going on between President Trump and Russia, maybe you arent paying attention. Maybe youre a Republican member of Congress. Or maybe theres nothing to wonder about, because we've seen it all on TV.

We have already watched Trump tell NBC Newshe was thinking about the FBI's Russia investigationwhen he fired FBI James Comey. We've seen him beg Vladimir Putin'sgovernment to hack Hillary Clinton's emails jokingly. We saw him repeatedly embracewhat former FBI Special Agent Clint Watts called Russian active measures at televised rallies. Now he confirms that yes, he did indeed sharesensitive intelligence information with Russian officials in the Oval Office.

Despite his peacocks strut of Russian connections, Trump still seems desperate to squelch the investigations into his campaign.And he just may do it, because he currently has something PresidentNixon never did immunity by congressional majority.

Five months into the Trump presidency, the swamp is still bubbling over. But weve already drained our strategic reserve of Watergate analogies.

In this history replayed as farce, 18 missing minutes of recordings becomes 18 days of the president knowing his national security adviser might be compromised by the Russians before firing him, a Saturday Night Massacre moves to Tuesday (where it presumably got better TV ratings) and the madman in Oval Office brags about having secret tapes on Twitter instead of hiding them.

Of course, there are still profound differences between Nixons follies and Trumpspotentially far worsefoibles.

For instance, Watergate was about a third-rate burglary of little practical consequence in one of the biggest landslides in American history. And our current catastrophe involves foreign meddling with possible collusion by the campaign of the current commander in chief in one of the closest elections ever, swung by about 60,000 votes in just three states.

And don't forget the hugest difference between Watergate and now:Nixon faced a Democratic Congress. Even so,the whole calamity tookforeverto ripen. More than two years passed from the burglary at the Watergate hotel on June 17, 1972 to Nixons resignation on Aug.9, 1974.

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You could argue that Russiagate is moving faster than the greatest scandal in presidential history. Consider what happened in just a three-day period last week. First Trump fired Comey. Then he met with the Russian ambassador and foreign minister in the Oval Office and not only let in a Russian photographer while keeping out the U.S. press, he gave his gueststhat highly classified information.

Trump capped it off by turningMay 11, 2017into a date thatcould go down in American history as the newJune 23, 1972, the day Nixon insisted CIA officials tell the FBI to kill the Watergate investigation.

On that day, NBC broadcast an interview in which Trumpdirectly contradicted his administrations reasoning for firing Comey. He said he "decided to just do it" regardless of a recommendation fromthe deputy attorney general and added, I said to myself I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story. He also said that afterlearning national security adviser Mike Flynn could be blackmailed by the Russians, he waited 18 days to fire him because it did not sound like an emergency.

Meanwhileon Capitol Hill, in a hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the assembled leadership in the intelligence community answered with a collective"yes" when asked if they stood by their conclusions thatRussian intelligence agencies were responsible for the hacking and leaking and using misinformation to influence our election."

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For some reason, this president not only does not share his intelligence communitys alarm about a country determined to undermine our democracy, he mocks it. This kind of disdain for his experts suggests a divide in executive branch unlike anything weve seen in recent history.

And with few exceptions, at least for now, Republicans in Congress are going along. This is how we got a bungled investigation of Russias meddling in the House trailing another in the Senate that isled by a member of Trumps transition team, and a House speaker who prioritizes tax breaks for the rich over everything includingbasic oversight.

By firing Comey, Trump has stunted the closest thing to a trusted investigation into Russias involvement in the 2016 election. According to an NBC/Wall St. Journal poll, 65% had confidence in the FBIinvestigation compared to 40% for efforts by Congress.That same poll found 78%of Americans want an independent probe of the meddling.

To get that, we need what Nixon had a Democratic Congress.

Republicans stuck with Trump after theAccess Hollywoodtape revealed him beating his chest over things Mike Pence's wife wouldn't let Penceread about. And they won big. They won't learn their lesson unless they feel the pain at the ballot box.

Jason Sattler, a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors, is a columnist forThe National Memo.Follow him on Twitter@LOLGOP.

You can readdiverse opinions from ourBoard of Contributorsand other writers ontheOpinion front page,on Twitter@USATOpinionand in our dailyOpinion newsletter.To respond to acolumn, submit a comment toletters@usatoday.com.

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Republican Congress won't rein in Donald Trump - USA TODAY