It has now been more than nine months since special counsel Robert Mueller, a former FBI director, began his investigation of alleged Trump campaign collusion with Russia, obstruction, and perhaps other things as well. While Trump’s firing of FBI chief James Comey may have been the spark leading to the special counsel’s appointment, a broader mix of suspicion about Trump’s financial opacity, unease at Trump’s behavior, partisanship, and conspiracy theories has fueled the probe and the media coverage surrounding it.

Make no mistake: Vladimir Putin’s Russia is a threat. It was a threat when former President George W. Bush looked into Putin’s soul and left reassured he had one. It was a threat when then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented a silly plastic re-set button to her Russian counterpart, and it was a threat when former President Barack Obama ridiculed Mitt Romney for identifying Russia as a key national security challenge to the United States. The simple fact is that both Democrats and Republicans have acted naively toward Russia since the late President Boris Yeltsin resigned in favor of Putin, a former KGB operative.