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Hello Radio Atlantic listeners.

This is Alex Wagner.

I have been on and off the mic for the last few months,

but I am here to tell you that I will be here

in this podcasting booth for the foreseeable future.

I hope that's good news as far as you're concerned.

Let's get right to it.

On Friday, the New York Times published a startling story.

In 2017, days after Trump fired FBI director James Comi, the Bureau opened

an inquiry into whether the president was secretly working on behalf of Russia.

It was an explosive development in an already pretty major story.

The idea that as Atlantic contributing writer Ben Wittis put it, Trump's potential obstruction

of justice was in fact part of the collusion itself a counterintelligence

investigation into the president of the United States because he not his allies or the

Russians because he was a national security threat.

Now Trump claims he's been tougher on Russia than quote any other president

while also proposing that getting along with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing.

...