Do you think the Dems are focusing too much on the Russia narrative?

[Virginiá]

I do agree that Democrats should make major efforts to undermine the GOP's agenda and highlight just how hard they are trying to stack the system against workers and in favor of corporations / the wealthy, but Democrats are not manipulating time and space to create meetings between Trump administration officials and Russian officials. These are all things Trump's circle has engaged in, and at this point there is a real question of whether there was deals made between Trump and the Russians. With all this thick smoke, there is probably a fire. Democrats can't really stop these tidbits from coming out and dominating the headlines. In fact, Trump himself seems to constantly make things worse as well.

So I wonder what exactly Democrats can do to reduce the focus on Russia short of actually defending Trump or being a party of Trump apologists/rationalizers like the GOP is right now. The bigger question is how Democrats begin to take control of the conversation and shift it to policy issues that will undermine the Republican Party. Right now, the news cycles are like one storm after another, the Democratic Party is just a boat in it, trying to stay the course.

[Virginiá]

I am not convinced there will be any consensus on the Russia issue until at least after the midterms, when we can see how well Democrats performed. All this speculation is leading to some funny conclusions. Trump supporters obviously don't believe it because Trump denied it, so God as spoken on that. Some liberal factions see it simply as a way of ignoring how bad of a choice Clinton was, and feeling so vindicated here they seem to be unable to appreciate the scandal for what it is. Then you have some liberals/Democrats who are pushing the scandal who may be pushing too hard on something that appears to have very long legs. However, in the end, as someone already said, the story has taken on a life of its own. Democrats are not standing over America controlling everything like a surgeon. They can only try to guide the discussion but ultimately constant leaks and revelations just carry it beyond anyone's control.

As stated before, Democrats would be wise to focus more on undermining the GOP's economic agenda (which is pretty vulnerable to criticism if you ask me), but this Russia story and Trump's daily hijinks will make that very difficult. They are simply more popular with the media and its viewers.