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Biden aide stops short of blaming Russia for cyberattack

Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, shakes hands with a campaign volunteer who is helping him in his race for the 21st Congressional District. Since regaining the seat in Congress in 2020, and then voting to impeach Donald Trump, he has lost the support of many constituents in his home city of Hanford.

Casey Christie/The Bakersfield Californian/Zuma Press/TNS

Many Hanford residents feel let down by their GOP leader

Tribune ConTenT AgenCy

HANFORD — It’s been a year now, but in this Central Valley farm town, like the nation, the divide has only grown.

Todd Cotta was working in his gun shop when a customer came in with the news about David Valadao, the Republican congressman for whom Cotta had campaigned across Kings County and beyond just months before.

Bewildered, Cotta turned to his phone and tapped in a text message to a man he considered a friend.

“Hey David. Somebody’s spreading a nasty (rumor) that you voted to impeach Trump,” Cotta wrote. “I certainly hope that’s not true.”

Within seconds, Valadao responded.

“It’s true.”

The two haven’t talked since.

And, really, neither have the two sides of the country.

A year after President Donald Trump was impeached for a historic second time, few places better illustrate America’s lost middle ground.

Historians will look back to Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, as a day of infamy. But in Valadao’s hometown of Hanford, they point to Jan. 13, 2021, when, as local mechanic Joe Flower puts it, the local congressman “not only stabbed the president but stabbed us all in the back.”

Valadao was one of just 10 Republican House members – and the only one in California – who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the insurrection.

That decision put the 44-year-old dairy farmer and the other reviled Republicans in the crosshairs of Trump himself, who gloated after two of them announced last fall they would not seek re-election: “2 down, 8 to go!” Indeed, a third – Rep. John Katko of New York – announced Friday he too was done with Congress.

For Valadao, vilification over the vote – and a redrawn congressional district that cuts out some of his conservative base and adds more Democratic voters – has left him in a political no man’s land. On the nation’s political map, the backlash in California’s cattle country could also cost the GOP a precious seat as Republicans hope to flip the Democrat-controlled House during the November midterm elections.

“Those angry Trump supporters aren’t going to vote for a Democrat in November, but it’s entirely possible that they simply don’t vote at all,” said GOP political consultant Dan Schnur. “This could end up being the greatest challenge to congressional Republicans regaining their majorities.”

While Democrats called Valadao’s impeachment vote courageous, there’s no chance they’re crossing party lines to give him their vote. For Republicans, there is no getting past his egregious lapse in loyalty. A year later, who remembers that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, whose district nuzzles against Valadao’s, said at the time “the president bears responsibility for (Jan. 6’s) attack on Congress by mob rioters”? They only remember the impeachment votes.

For a moment there, in the days after the Capitol breach, it seemed safe, maybe even smart, for a Republican to condemn Trump.

Tribune ConTenT AgenCy

WASHINGTON — The U.S. is working to determine who carried out a cyberattack on Ukrainian government websites and it wouldn’t be surprising if Russia was behind it, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser said Sunday.

Ukrainian officials say “all evidence” points to Russia, while Russia denies it was behind the hacks. It’s the latest source of tension after President Vladimir Putin massed 100,000 troops on the Ukrainian border for what the U.S. says is a possible invasion.

“We’re working hard on attribution,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “This is part of the Russian playbook, so it would not surprise me one bit if it ended being attributed to Russia.”

“And yes, of course, if it turns out that Russia is pummeling Ukraine with cyberattacks and if that continues over the period ahead, we will work with our allies on the appropriate response,” he said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN that last week’s inconclusive diplomacy by the U.S. and Europe to head off a possible Russian military move against Ukraine was

a “disturbing” outcome. “There are some understandings between us,” Peskov said in an interview with “Fareed Zakaria GPS” aired Sunday. “But in general, in principle, we can now say that we are staying on difSULLIVAN ferent tracks, on totally different tracks, and this is not good, and this is disturbing.” The Biden administration said Friday that Russian actors are preparing potential sabotage operations against their own forces and fabricating provocations in social media to justify an invasion into Ukraine if diplomacy fails. Russia says it wants NATO to bar Ukraine and other ex-Soviet states from membership and to roll back its forces to positions they held in 1997. Sullivan reiterated that the U.S. and its allies have warned Russia it will face “severe economic consequences and a price to pay” if its troops move into Ukraine. Republican lawmakers called for more forceful action now, such as a permanent halt to the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. The U.S. should let Putin know “that Nord Stream 2 pipeline is not going to operate,” Sen. Mitt Romney said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

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