Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher is convinced there are ruins of ancient civilizations on Mars (yes, really), and he’s also quite certain about where to find the greatest civilization on Earth. When a critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin was schedule to speech at a Capitol Hill hearing, Rohrabacher was ready for him.
During the hearing, Rohrabacher had planned to confront Browder with a feature-length pro-Kremlin propaganda movie that viciously attacks him—as well as at least two witnesses linked to the Russian authorities, including lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.
Bill Browder was once a large investor in Russia. It was the death of his tax account, Sergei Magnitsky, that triggered the outrage leading to the Magnitsky Act. However, other House Republicans got wind of Rohrabache’s Putin-friendly intentions and put a stop them them in a firm, decisive way.
The hearing was canceled when senior Republicans intervened and agreed to allow a hearing on Russia at the full committee level with a Moscow-sympathetic witness, according to multiple congressional aides.
That’ll teach them. But Rohrabacher was done. He still had an important role to play in convincing lawmakers that Magnitsky, beaten to death by people who were supposed to be there to attend to a medical issue, was no angel.
Although House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) had prohibited Rohrabacher from showing the Russian propaganda film in Congress, Rohrabacher’s Capitol Hill office still actively promoted a screening of the movie that was held at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., on June 13, 2016. Veselnitskaya was one of those handling the movie’s worldwide promotion.
Invitations to attend the movie screening were sent from the subcommittee office by Catharine O’Neill, a Republican intern on Rohrabacher’s committee. Her email promised that the movie would convince viewers that Magnitsky, who was murdered in a Russian prison cell, was no hero.
This is far from Rohrabacher’s first bull on the Russian rodeo circuit. There was that trip to work with the Duma back in January.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican ally of President-elect Donald Trump and a longtime enthusiast of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Wednesday that he is planning to lead a congressional delegation to Russia next month and expects to meet with Russian officials to discuss “how we can work with the Duma.”
That time he defended Michael Flynn for secret meetings with Russian officials.
Rohrabacher told the right-leaning news site Independent Journal Review that Flynn’s resignation was a growing pain of a new administration, and equated further investigation of Flynn’s contacts with Russia to “people waiting to beat this person up when he’s on the ground and kick his face in.”
And Jefferson Sessions.
When U.S. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions recused himself after revelations he hadn’t been truthful during his Senate confirmation hearings about meeting with the Russian ambassador, Rohrabacher said, "the Democrats and their allies in the elite media are clearly obsessed with placing blame for their rejection at the polls on their fantasy of a nefarious Russia-Republican cabal.”
The time he backed Putin by trying to block loans to Ukraine and supporting the annexation of Crimea.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican from Orange County, was among a handful of lawmakers who voted against loan guarantees for the new government in Ukraine. …
"The Cold War is over," he added. "Putin is not Satan."
The time he said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was like the Revolutionary War.
“Starting with our own American Revolution, groups of people have declared themselves, rightfully, to be under a different government or a government of their choosing,” he tells U.S. News. “People forget that’s what our Declaration of Independence is all about.”
And then there was this 2014 tweet.
That’s an American Congressman supporting the idea of having a vote to see if Alaskans want to move their state to Russia.
All of it goes toward Rohrabacher’s star turn as Putin’s favorite Congressman.
Two decades ago, he got to know Vladimir Putin while drunkenly arm-wrestling the then-deputy-mayor of St. Petersburg over who actually won the Cold War. (Putin won the matchup, and quickly, Rohrabacher notes.)
Rohrabacher insists he’s not standing up for his old drinking buddy. “I’m sure he’s done things that are totally unacceptable, but he is the elected leader and I think he runs the country the way the Russian people basically want it run,” Rohrabacher said.
Yes. With dozens of journalists and political opponents assassinated, hundreds of innocent civilians blown to bits, and tens of thousands more killed to propel Dana’s pal to the leadership. Exactly what people want in a president.