Washington – The Washington political playbook suggests President Donald Trump should make clear — and fast — that the U.S. isn’t in the pocket of Russia President Vladimir Putin. But apologies and clarifying statements just aren’t Trump’s style.
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Here’s a look at Trump’s dilemma and what his options are:
UNDER PRESSURE TO RETRACT
Trump is under tremendous pressure by his own party to apologize for his remarks. America’s collective groan seems to have already reached his ears because he fired off a tweet from Air Force One on Monday saying he has confidence in “MY intelligence people” and on Tuesday he blamed “Fake News.”
But those tweets still don’t align Trump with U.S. intelligence agencies, which long ago concluded Russia tried to sway American voters in the 2016 election. With Putin at his side, Trump blatantly rejected that finding by saying he didn’t “see any reason why” Russia would try to interfere.
“He’s got to reverse course immediately,” said Anthony Scaramucci, who briefly served as Trump’s White House communications director, on Tuesday to CNN.
Newt Gingrich, a close ally to Trump, called it “the most serious mistake of his presidency” and tweeted that it “must be corrected_immediately.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan piled on Tuesday, saying “there should be no doubt” about Russia’s actions.
QUESTIONS FROM CONGRESS
The optics matter. Trump remains under investigation for obstruction of justice, and special counsel Robert Mueller last week laid out detailed indictments of 12 Russian military officers for hacking Democrats’ computers. Meanwhile, Republicans this fall will have to defend their majority in Congress by running against Democrats who claim Trump has bowed to Putin, a former KGB spy.
Some lawmakers are talking about passing a resolution denouncing Russia’s election meddling, or even considering new sanctions against Moscow. But those moves are unlikely to change much in the minds of American voters or keep Russia from interfering in future elections. (Congressional resolutions don’t carry the force of law.)
“The Russians have been manipulating elections for the past couple of decades,” Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, a former undercover CIA officer, told CNN. “And guess what? They’re going to continue.”
So far, the only GOP lawmaker aggressively defending Trump’s performance with Putin is Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, leaving the two mostly isolated. On Tuesday, Trump thanked Paul by tweeting “you really get it!”
Trump might be forced to say more to lawmakers when he meets later Tuesday with House Republicans at the White House. The topic is tax policy, but people will be looking to see if he says more on Russia.
DIGGING IN
Washington’s playbook typically calls for swift damage control in the form of a clarifying statement. But that’s not Trump’s style.
Last year, the president dismissed his staff’s carefully prepared statement on violence between neo-Nazis and anti-hate group protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, and blamed “both sides.” (Trump’s then-economic adviser Gary Cohn offered a rare rebuke of his boss, saying “citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK.”)
And earlier this year, at a private meeting at the White House, Trump offered shifting explanations on whether he used a vulgarity to describe some African nations.
Scaramucci and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. say Trump has a way out. He could denounce Russia election meddling, while making clear his campaign took no part in it.
By late Tuesday morning, Trump seemed to move in the direction of blaming the media, tweeting that he had a great meeting with NATO members and “an even better meeting with Vladimir Putin of Russia. Sadly, it is not being reported that way – the Fake News is going Crazy!”
The betting bookies just increased the Odds of impeachment from 8:1 to 2:1
Can a sitting POTUS be tried for Treason? If not what will stop the next (Maybe Communist) POTUS
Russia State Media mocked Trumpf today. Western media aghast at Trumpf appeasement of Pootinski. GOP leader in Ohio resigned position over Helsinki disgrace. Right wing media incl WSJ, Fox, New Republic etc, come out vs Trumpf. Newt , Ryan, Rubio, Hatch, Faso offer criticism. TRAITOR TRUMPF BLAMES MEDIA! Time to resign or IMPEACH! FEH!
Again…Speaker Ryan released a statement this morning saying he “…does not think…” Trump’s performance in Helsinki amounts to Treason. Take that in. “…does not think..!” It’s that close a call….and that bad.
I believe history will show that the Russians have been “grooming” Trump for decades, as they do with thousands of targets, ingratiating themselves through investments in business deals, invitations to Russia, arranging meetings with oligarchs, etc.
That the Russians do this with literally thousands of businessmen and others is no secret…just read any national security oriented blog. Trump’s history of business dealings with the Russians is right out of this playbook. In Trump’s case it paid off, as I think it’s pretty clear that he’s too close to them.
And did you see Putin’s chuckle when he was asked if they had anything on Trump?
And I care not what Detacude Yhcra thinks about this.
The comments have become so weird they look more like parodies of themselves. So far, it was mainly under Obama that Russia flexed its muscles and received little backlash for it (even the alleged election interference was under Obama and Obama still had months remaining in his term to do something after the election). No such Russian muscle flexing appears to any similar degree under Trump. Yet, for example, even the New York Times of February 2018 admits that the U.S. had killed at least four (up to dozens according to NYT but up to hundreds according to others) of Russians in Syria with no retaliation from Russia. In true 1984 Newspeak fashion, this is taken to show just how much Trump is under Putin’s thumb.
what SHOULD happen is IMPEACHMENT
ENOUGH OF THIS PUTZ AND HIS ANSWERS AND COUNTER-ANSWERS