The Manhattan Mercury
Manhattan Mercury Editorial Board

Let’s cut to the chase: We believe Jerry Moran more than we believe Vladimir Putin.

Sen. Moran earlier this month joined seven other Republican lawmakers in Russia. They said they were there to confront the Russians about their interference in the 2016 U.S. elections.

What’s tricky when you visit a country run by a dictator is that you can be used to suit his purposes, since he controls the news media. In this case, one of Putin’s henchmen described the meeting as one of the easiest of his life, and that there was no conflict over election meddling.

That allowed room for critics in the U.S. to question the whole point of the trip, and to question the resolve of the American lawmakers, including Sen. Moran. Since he’s a Manhattanite, we know him better than most, and here’s what we’d say: There’s no way he’d allow himself to be used in that way, and not stand up for the principles involved.

“None of the meetings were easy or enjoyable,” Moran said.

“I think it’s clear that the Russian media or the Russian government have a narrative that they’re trying to portray,” he said. “I don’t believe the Russians when they say they didn’t interfere with the elections, and I don’t believe them when they portray the meetings so different from how they occurred.”

Moran said that some of the criticism of the visit in the United States could be due to Americans believing the narrative being pushed by Russia’s state-run media.

He described the meetings with Russian officials as intense and said the topics included Russia’s military incursion into Ukraine, its role in the conflict in Syria and interference in elections in the United States and Europe.

He said that there was “no equivocation about election interference” but that the reaction from Russian officials to questions about the issue was mostly “denial, obfuscation, long diatribes and lots of complaints about the United States.”

As we said, we believe him.

It’s unfortunate that partisanship here is causing some Americans to believe the spin of a dictator more than the say-so of a straight-shooting senator from Kansas.

Click here to read more.