No Collusion? How Can That Be?

(Cartoon image is by Bill Day at cagle.com.)

Trump said again yesterday that there was "no collusion" with Russian officials. How can that be? The Associated Press is reporting that in the last 7 months of the campaign, Trump aides had at least 18 meetings with or calls to Russian officials -- and that doesn't count Flynn's meetings with the Russian ambassador.

That's an extraordinary number of meetings -- and that's just the ones that have been revealed. The number could actually be higher. What was discussed in these meetings -- the weather? Were they trading recipes? Of course not.

There are two things that could have been discussed. One, the Russian hacking and interference with the 2016 election. That would be collusion. Two, the foreign policy between the U.S. and Russia -- which would be just as bad, since it's against the law (only the president can discuss U.S. foreign policy with the officials of a foreign government -- friendly or otherwise).

There was either collusion or criminality, or both (which I personally suspect).