"March for Truth" rally demands Russiagate investigation
On the 3rd of June, thousands gathered near the Washington Monument for the "March for Truth, one of over 100 events nationally demanding an aggressive investigation of the role of Trump, Sessions, et all in the Russian interference in the 2016 election. Many of the attendees carried signs comparing Trump's adminstration to the former Soviet Union, for which Russian President Putin one worked as a KGB agent.
Russiagate is nowhere near the worst thing Trump has ever done, but it may be the most politically toxic issue he faces. He won't be impeached for his elevation of white supremacists to his cabinet or for repudiating the Paris Climate Agreement, but he just might lose his office to the growing scandal that has drawn comparisons not only to Watergate but to Nixon himself.
The composition of the June 3 rally and it's speakers was similar to the recent protest against Trump's repudiation of the Paris Climate Agreement. Lots of liberal Democrats, though a broader spectrum of the US public seemed to be represented. Many older folks who were around for the Cold War were much displeased about the notion of a Russian puppet taking control of the White House with the outright assistance of Russian intelligence agencies. Thus Soviet emblems like the hammer and sickle were common, no doubt to the discomfort of modern communists who do not support the Soviet model. One said flatly that Russia had now won the Cold War outright.
Some political theorists regarded the Soviet Union as a rebranded fascist state, making the current Russian involvement in putting a fascist in the White House perhaps less surprising. One of the rally speakers cited the thousands who have protested against Putin in Russia and the hundreds arrested in these protests as models for the US, but did not mention the hundreds arrested here in DC protesting against Trump on Jan 20.
The Russiagate scandal and investigation are widening, with Jeff Sessions as well as Trump and Flynn now facing investigation. Some are calling for taking a closer look at Mike Pence on the grounds that he owes his job to former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who lost his job over news reports of taking millions of dollars from Ukraine's former pro-Russian president. This connection was mentioned by one of the rally speakers. When Nixon was forced to resign over Watergate, Agnew was already gone, thus removing Nixon's "impeachment insurance." To remove the immediate legal and police threat to people of color and political enemies of the Trump regime does in fact require removal of Trump, Pence, and Sessions. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is infamous for his racism and known KKK sympathies.
Also on June 3, Trump supporters from the Va GOP held a much smaller pro-Trump event on Penn Ave in front of the White House, and in turn were counterprotested by a group of students. The Trumpers were pushing a "Pittsburgh not Paris" theme even though the Mayor of Pittsburgh has explicitly stated support for the climate treaty and rejected Trump's attempt to exploit the city's name.
On the other side of the White House, students counterprotest a pro-Trump rally which in turn was much smaller than the March for Truth
