OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JULY 14, 2017
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
JEREMY FELDMAN, Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
ach week we recognize those people and organizations
in the community deserving of public praise for the good
things they do to make the North Coast a better place to
live, and also those who should be called out for their actions.
E
SHOUTOUTS
This week’s Shoutouts go to:
• Ryan Snyder, president of Martin Hospitality in Cannon
Beach, who this month became the chairman of the Oregon
Tourism Commission, which also oversees Travel Oregon. As
commission chairman, Snyder will have one of the most influen-
tial voices in the state’s tourism industry, leading the nine-mem-
ber state board which approves and oversees the budget and stra-
tegic plan for Oregon’s $10.8 billion tourism industry. Snyder
has been a vocal advocate for sustainable tourism, and has
served on the commission since 2011. He became vice chairman
last year.
• Columbia Memorial Hospital, which was recently des-
ignated as a Level IV trauma center by the Oregon Health
Authority. Trece Gurrad, the hospital’s vice president of patient
care services, said the designation sets Columbia Memorial apart
from other hospitals by providing comprehensive trauma ser-
vices that meet national clinical excellence standards. CMH is
the only hospital with the trauma designation in the Columbia-
Pacific region.
• Organizers and the roughly 400 participants of last week-
end’s Clatsop
County
Relay for
Life at
Astoria High
School, which
raised aware-
ness and
more than
$29,000 for
the American
Cancer
Society in the
fight against
Damian Mulinix/For The Daily Astorian
Astoria Relay for Life chairwoman Laura Parvi the disease.
speaks to the crowd prior to the start of Satur-
The event,
day’s event at Astoria High School.
in which 22
teams of walkers took pledges and raised money, included a
survivor’s walk on the high school’s track and also a luminary
service that honored those who have been lost to cancer.
• Walt Ferguson, of Ferguson Timber, who donated
the funding for Warrenton High School’s new indoor bat-
ting-cage facility. The facility was on display during the fifth
annual Warrenton Alumni Baseball game earlier this month at
Huddleston Field. The event drew more than 30 alums to play,
many themselves in their 30s, and benefited the Warrenton
Baseball Club. Participants included players from the Class of
1976 to 2016 and also featured a post-game Home Run Derby
with a celebrity participant, Dane Gouge of Astoria Ford.
• Sue Glenn, of Warrenton, who represented the Astoria
chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution
recently at the organization’s 126th Continental Congress
in Washington, D.C. More than 3,500 members of the DAR
attended the event and Glenn was recognized for her third-
place entry in the Fiber Arts division of the American Heritage
competition.
• The Best Western Astoria Bayfront Hotel, which recently
earned the Champion Green Award at the hotel chain’s District
II meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia. The award recog-
nizes hotels that have a commitment to sustainable resources
and to reducing their carbon footprint while meeting other high
quality and service standards. The Astoria hotel was one of only
87, out of more than 2,100, of the chain’s properties in the U.S.
and Canada to receive the designation this year.
CALLOUTS
This week’s Callouts go to:
• The mindless driver of a car that was dragging its muffler
that caused sparks and ignited a mile-long series of small grass
fires near Oregon City Wednesday afternoon. The fires tempo-
rarily closed a portion of southbound Oregon 213 while firefight-
ers doused the flames from five separate fires, authorities said.
Fortunately, there were no injuries and the incident certainly
could have been worse given the dry conditions and the poten-
tial for wildfires in many areas of the state. It serves as a large
reminder that small things like sparks from a dragging muffler
or hot ash from a dropped cigarette can cause big problems this
time of year,
Suggestions?
Do you have a Shoutout or Callout you think we should know about?
Let us know at news@dailyastorian.com and we’ll make sure to take a
look.
All roads now lead to Kushner
By NICHOLAS KRISTOF
New York Times News Service
F
or a year, the refrain from
the Trump camp has been a
defiant mix of “Lock her up,”
“but the emails”
and “fake news.”
Now it turns out
that what was fake
wasn’t the news
but the Trump
denials, that the
truly scandalous
emails were in the Trumps’ own
servers and that the person who may
have committed a felony is actually
Donald J. Trump Jr.
The writer Stephen King put it
this way: “The news is real. The
president is fake.”
The question is where this goes
next. I suggest two directions.
First, look beyond Donald
Trump Jr. to Jared Kushner and to
President Donald Trump himself.
Second, explore how Trump Jr.’s
attempt at collusion with Russians
may relate to the bizarre effort by
Kushner to set up a secret communi-
cation channel with the Kremlin.
To back up, just in case you’ve
been stuck on a desert island, here’s
what you missed this week. Donald
Trump Jr. received an email in June
2016, eight days after his father
clinched the Republican nomination
for president, that said the Kremlin
had “offered to provide the Trump
campaign with some official
documents and information that
would incriminate Hillary. … This
is obviously very high level and
sensitive information but is part of
Russia and its government’s support
for Mr. Trump.”
In 1960, the Kremlin made a
similar offer to support the candi-
dacy of John F. Kennedy against
Richard Nixon, but the Kennedy
campaign rebuffed it. Likewise,
when the Al Gore campaign in 2000
received confidential materials
relating to the George W. Bush
campaign, it called the FBI.
Trump Jr. didn’t call the FBI;
instead, he responded, “I love it.”
He apparently arranged a phone call
to discuss the material (we don’t
know that the call happened or, if it
did, its content), and then set up a
meeting for him, Kushner and cam-
paign chairman Paul Manafort to
meet with a person described in the
emails as a “Russian government
attorney.”
In other words, informed of a
secret Kremlin effort to use highly
sensitive information about a former
secretary of state (presumably
obtained by espionage, for how
else?) to manipulate an American
election, Trump Jr. signaled, “We’re
in!”
“This was an attempt at collu-
sion,” noted U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
of Oregon. It may or may not have
amounted to a felony, for soliciting
a foreigner to contribute something
AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
Jared Kushner, right, senior adviser to President Donald Trump, and
Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, sit in the front row in the
East Room of the White House in June.
“of value” in connection with an
American election. The Predict-It
betting website now lists gambling
odds about whether Trump Jr. will
be indicted.
The Trumps’ defense is that the
meeting was a “nothingburger” with
no follow-up. That would be more
compelling if the Trumps hadn’t
previously denied at least 20 times
that such a meeting had ever taken
place. Their credibility is in tatters.
Crucially, this is bigger than
Donald Trump Jr.
The meeting
gave the
Kremlin
potential
blackmail
material
against the
Trumps, and
thus possibly
leverage over
them.
The Trumps insist that the
president himself was unaware of
the Russian offer. Yet the day after
Trump Jr. received the first email
and presumably had his phone
conversation about the supposedly
incriminating material, his father
promised to give “a major speech”
in which “we’re going to be discuss-
ing all of the things that have taken
place with the Clintons. I think
you’re going to find it very informa-
tive and very, very interesting.”
That speech targeting Hillary
Clinton didn’t take place. But on
June 15, the first leak of stolen
Democratic materials did.
Then there’s Kushner. Trump Jr.
forwarded the emails to Kushner,
whose response was to attend the
meeting, although he apparently left
within 10 minutes. Kushner later
neglected to report the meeting and
others with Russians on his SF-86
forms to receive national security
clearance (intentional omission is a
felony).
The meeting gave the Kremlin
potential blackmail material against
the Trumps, and thus possibly lever-
age over them.
In addition, McClatchy reports
that investigators in Congress and
the Justice Department are explor-
ing whether the Trump campaign
digital operation — supervised by
Kushner — helped guide Russia’s
remarkably sophisticated efforts
to use internet bots to target voters
with fake news attacking Hillary
Clinton.
Then there was the extraordinary
initiative by Kushner in the transi-
tion period to set up the secret com-
munications channel. There’s no
indication that the channel was actu-
ally established, and the assumption
has been that the communications
would have required visits to
Russian consulates — which would
be bizarre.
But Barton Gellman, a careful
national security writer, has another
theory. He notes that James Comey,
the ousted FBI director, in testimony
to Congress referred to the risk
that this channel could “capture all
of your conversations.” Gellman
suggests that this may mean that
Kushner sought mobile Russian
scrambling equipment to take to
Trump Tower.
Look, this is a murky, compli-
cated issue. But this much we know:
Kushner attended a secret meeting
whose stated purpose was to
advance a Kremlin effort to interfere
in the U.S. election, he then failed
to report it, and finally he sought a
secret channel to communicate with
the Kremlin.
One next step is clear: Take away
Jared Kushner’s security clearance
immediately.
WHERE TO WRITE
• U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici
(D): 2338 Rayburn HOB, Washing-
ton, D.C., 20515. Phone: 202- 225-
0855. Fax 202-225-9497. District
office: 12725 SW Millikan Way,
Suite 220, Beaverton, OR 97005.
Phone: 503-469-6010. Fax 503-326-
5066. Web: bonamici.house. gov/
• U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D): 313
Hart Senate Office Building, Wash-
ington, D.C. 20510. Phone: 202-224-
3753. Web: www.merkley.senate.gov
• U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D):
221 Dirksen Senate Office Building,
Washington, D.C., 20510. Phone:
202-224-5244. Web: www.wyden.
senate.gov
• State Rep. Brad Witt (D):
State Capitol, 900 Court Street N.E.,
H-373, Salem, OR 97301. Phone:
503-986-1431. Web: www.leg.state.
or.us/witt/ Email: rep.bradwitt@
state.or.us
• State Rep. Deborah Boone (D):
900 Court St. N.E., H-481, Salem,
OR 97301. Phone: 503-986-1432.
Email: rep.deborah boone@state.
or.us District office: P.O. Box 928,
Cannon Beach, OR 97110. Phone:
503-986-1432. Web: www.leg.state.
or.us/ boone/
• State Sen. Betsy Johnson (D):
State Capitol, 900 Court St. N.E.,
S-314, Salem, OR 97301. Telephone:
503-986-1716. Email: sen.betsy john-
son@state.or.us Web: www.betsy-
johnson.com District Office: P.O.
Box R, Scappoose, OR 97056. Phone:
503-543-4046. Fax: 503-543-5296.
Astoria office phone: 503-338-1280.
• Port of Astoria: Executive
Director, 10 Pier 1 Suite 308, Asto-
ria, OR 97103. Phone: 503-741-3300.
Email: admin@portofastoria.com
• Clatsop County Board of Com-
missioners: c/o County Manager, 800
Exchange St., Suite 410, Astoria, OR
97103. Phone: 503-325-1000.