The recent election in Montana of a candidate charged with assault (attested to even by Fox news) and whose initial response was to lie about it and accuse the “Liberal reporter” of doing the assaulting, was shocking!

Is this what our nation has become? Has the standard for our public officials sunk so low? We have a new administration which has already been forced to fire four of their appointees and is currently being investigated by the CIA, FBI and now a special council for their contacts and possible collusion with a hostile foreign government, Russia. This brings up so many questions.

We know Russia did indeed intrude in our election by using propaganda, fake news and hacking to damage Hillary and attempt to give the win to Trump. We know Russia invaded Crimea and is attempting to take back by force the countries that were part of the old Soviet Union. We know that Russia is anxious to have sanctions lifted so they can develop their oil resources. We know Russia is not our friend, nor the friend of NATO.

Evidently Trump, who has nothing but admiration for Putin and his authoritarian tactics, didn’t get that message. Why would a candidate and his administration meet 18 times with representatives of Russia prior to the election? Why would he host Russians in the Oval Office while our free press was barred from entry? Why would he give Russia highly confidential information? Why would he go to Europe and openly denigrate NATO, which has been at our side, fighting in Afghanistan, ever since 9-11?

The obvious answer is that he cares about pleasing Putin much more than pleasing our allies. Why? What control does Russia have over Trump? We need to know in order to protect our government from Russian influence.