Portside

If the Trump administration hopes to get ahead of the Russiagate story, it better hurry.

Could this story indeed be another Watergate? No. Its outlines are like Watergate’s, but it’s potentially a lot worse. The Watergate break-in of Democratic headquarters started as an attempt to gather campaign ammunition in a third-rate burglary that likely had little actual impact on the election.

The Russiagate break-in of Democratic headquarters was also an attempt to gather campaign ammunition, but it was not a third-rate burglary. Because Donald Trump spoke so highly of Russian President Vladimir Putin, you can be sure that the Russian cyber break-in of Democratic headquarters was first-rate. The best. And it is entirely possible that this particular break-in actually tipped the election in the direction Russia wanted.

With Watergate, it was said that the coverup was worse than the crime. In Russiagate, with the involvement of a foreign government out to subvert the U.S. democratic process, the crime could be worse than just about anything you can think of. If there was any direct or indirect complicity by an American candidacy in this, it in fact is the very worst. But is there any evidence for that?

Everybody is now saying that Jeff Sessions’s recusal was the obvious move, with so many questions in the air. Don’t want the appearance of a conflict! I have another obvious move: Trump should recuse himself from the presidency, until such time as a thorough investigation determines that his campaign didn’t collude in an effort that may have caused him to be an inappropriate beneficiary of a tainted process.

While we’re waiting for the (commencement and) completion of that investigation, we should look for an appropriate caretaker president to sit in.

We could ask the American people whom they would prefer. I suggest we look back at their votes in November to see what they actually said in the first place.

Tom Toles is the editorial cartoonist for The Post and writes the Tom Toles blog. See all of his cartoons here.