Editor:

On Feb. 5 Representative Tom Garrett claimed on CNN, “Imagine that there was a partly-political funding into President Obama’s place of birth. This Russian investigation is essentially birtherism.” This statement is a truly awful analogy.

For Rep. Garrett’s enlightenment, I’d like to point out that “birtherism” was an exercise by Citizen Donald Trump in racism and shameless self-promotion. It had no substance in that President Obama’s birth in Hawaii could be easily verified. The investigators that Trump claimed to have sent to Hawaii probably spent more time on the beach at Trump’s expense than doing research.

On the other hand, the Russian investigation is real and serious. Rep. Garrett seems to have forgotten that the investigation has already yielded two indictments and two guilty pleas. There are still serious allegations against Trump and his family, including treason, conspiracy, money laundering and obstruction of justice. So far, Trump has acted like he has something serious to hide. He and his minions yell “Hoax!” and “Witch hunt!” while making more and more desperate attempts to shift focus away from the investigation. Since Rep. Garrett is a former prosecutor, I wonder how many times he told the police to shut down an investigation just because the prime suspect claimed to be innocent. None, I wager.

Rep. Garrett then made it worse by saying that the Russians have somehow interfered with every U.S. election since 1919. As a source, Garrett claims the L.A. Times said Russia meddled 84 times in elections. Rep. Garrett should have read the article. The real story is that the U.S. tried to influence foreign elections 81 times between 1946 and 2000. Not the other way around.

Rep. Garrett appears to be uninterested in getting to the truth that American people deserve regarding the Trump-Russia connection. He is focused on the wrong things. Who paid for the “Steele dossier” is immaterial. Rep. Garrett should be asking how much of it is true. I would have thought that he was for law and order. I see that when it comes to Trump, that doesn’t apply.

James Peca

Farmville