By Jonathan B. Wight

The President tweeted: “Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!”

This kind of statement, if made by an undergraduate student on a paper, would receive an immediate D (or worse).

I would remind the student to avoid using hyperboles, ridiculous exaggerations, especially about things that easily can be shown to be false.

I would ask the student:

• “Do you mean our relationship with Russia today is WORSE than during the Berlin crisis of 1961?
• “Is it worse than the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when we came within hours of annihilating the planet with nuclear bombs?”

We wouldn’t have time or energy in grading a student paper to get into the “rigged witch hunt” material, except to say that assertions are not the same thing as evidence.

On the same trip, our President called our European allies “foes”—the same nations whose troops fought alongside ours in Iraq and currently do in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

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Congress has a solemn duty to protect and defend America against its enemies. One of these, who gives the appearance of conspiring with the enemy, sits in a position of power in our own government. Will Congress act?