According to Doyle McManus, Vladimir Putin will "move to center stage" at this week's impeachment hearings.  McManus writes, "Trump has been indulgent, even deferential toward Putin."  He goes on to say, "No one has determined whether the President's fawning relationship with Putin is driven by his desire to shake off the charge that he was put in office with the Kremlin's help, or something more sinister."

What a piece of work the above sentence is.  First of all, there's this: (1) the NeverTrumps continue to insult Republicans long after the Mueller report laid "Russia collusion" utterly to rest, by holding on (for dear life) to the idea that Trump has a fawning relationship with or kisses up to Putin.  So much for the unbelievable.  Then there's this for the preposterous: (2) the Kremlin helped put him in office (i.e., Republicans couldn't have elected Trump without help from Russia).

McManus states that "no one has determined" (as if determination is just a matter of time), combines (1) the unbelievable with (2) the preposterous, and then tacks on "something more sinister" for good measure.  It's an elaborately constructed sentence, a confection, that makes no sense to me: 

Trump is driven by his desire to (shake off the charge) that he was put in office with the Kremlin's help, so he kisses up to Putin?  How on Earth would kissing up to Putin do that?  Am I missing something here? 

Kissing up to Putin is a funny way of shaking off the charge that Trump was put in office with the Kremlin's help.  It seems to me that Trump would do something like send Ukraine javelin-anti-tank-missiles if he were driven by a desire to shake off the charge(s) that he was put in office with the Kremlin's help, and that he would look forward to seeing Ukraine taking out a tank or two, which is exactly what he did.

But never mind: Trump kisses up to no one, as everyone knows, and the voters and Electoral College put him in office, obviously.  He knows that.  We know that.  Pity about those who don't.