“These are the times that try men’s souls,” Thomas Paine said in 1776. Now we can update his declaration to include women!

On Monday, Donald J. Trump announced clearly, as if there previously had been any doubt, that he is a traitor acting in the aid and comfort of a foreign adversary, Vladimir Putin. Trump rejected the findings of the 17 organizations that make up the U.S. intelligence community and took Putin’s side on his pathetic denial of election interference. This is after calling the European Union a “foe” – more of a “foe” than Russia!

It is time for the Republican Party to either man up and impeach Trump (an appropriate admonition in this case, as there are relatively few Republican women in Congress) or announce their allegiance to the Russian Federation as well. Trump is a traitor who needs to be impeached, convicted and tried for treason. We don’t need the special counsel’s findings – although he later tried to backtrack, the president of the United States told the entire world that he believes Putin over our country’s brave intelligence career professionals and the rest of the free world’s intelligence agencies.

We are now in a period of history equivalent to 1933 Germany. Either choose democracy or enable fascism. I pray we stand up for our American values and get rid of the Russian agent Trump.

John Riley

Falmouth