Please Senator Warner! Please find our Great Pumpkin and we will reward you with a presidential nomination!
The Great Pumpkin in this case is proof of collusion between the Donald Trump campaign and Russia to somehow change the 2016 election results. After weeks of fervent searching by both the Democrats and their mainstream media allies, no proof of their Great Pumpkin which could bring electoral salvation has been found.
They still continue to search with the spotlight now on Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, who is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. The reward for finding their Great Pumpkin is a ticket to the presidency as Politico reminded us in their April 13 conditional puff piece by Austin Wright:
To give credence to the Russia investigation, Warner is presenting himself as a force for fairness and bipartisanship: At one point he half-jokingly advised a state Democratic Party official in the room to “maybe occasionally vote Republican.” But the Senate probe, of course, could have huge partisan implications if it uncovers evidence of coordination between Moscow and President Donald Trump’s campaign.
It’s a delicate balance for the two-term, 62-year-old Warner, who a decade ago was seen as potential White House material and perhaps, depending on how his current project goes, might be viewed that way again.
A little reminder there by Politico that Warner's presidential ambitions are strictly dependent on him conjuring up proof of the Trump-Russia collusion Great Pumpkin. That is why this is a conditional puff piece. Nice and friendly for now towards Warner but only on the condition he finds you-know-what:
In a banquet room at the restaurant on Monday with a view of the York River as it empties into the Chesapeake Bay, Warner did not get a single question from the audience about the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Russia investigation. Instead, attendees at the Yorktown event asked Warner about Medicaid expansion, immigration, proposed federal budget cuts and water issues.
This didn't stop the senator from talking at length about what he calls “the most important thing I've ever done.”
Important because his White House prospects are entirely dependent upon finding the Great Pumpkin. In fact if he does not discover it, there is a good chance he could be primaried out of office when Warner is up for re-election in 2020:
“I’m not here to try to relitigate the election,” said Warner, noting that his Russia probe is one of the top three issues cited by constituents when they contact his office. “This is about how misinformation and actually fake news influence enormous amounts of things, and we have to be careful going forward.”
Fake news such as that perpetrated by the infamous Susan Rice who I have a feeling you won't want to subpoena to appear before your committee? Here's more:
With Congress on a two-week recess, Warner is spending this week holding events with voters across the state and delivering stark warnings about Russia’s ability to exploit social media to spread its propaganda. It’s a message he says is all the more urgent because Russia is still trying to undermine democratic elections in Europe, and could continue trying to hack future U.S. elections.
It pretty much sounds like Warner already has his mind made up. All that he is lacking is actual proof of Trump-Russia collusion:
And while Warner insists he has not yet drawn any conclusions from the Intelligence Committee investigation, he isn’t shy about pointing out the web of connections between Trump aides and Russia.
Translation: I have already made my mind up despite lack of actual proof. Moving along:
And, for Warner, there’s the question of whether the national attention he’s receiving because of the probe could put him back in contention for the White House in 2020. Asked by a William & Mary student about a presidential run, the unabashedly moderate senator did not rule out the possibility.
A not so subtle Politico reminder that Warner needs to deliver the Great Pumpkin if he wants to keep his White House hopes in play.
