Sunday, November 12, 2017

Trump Believes Putin, Not US Intelligence Community

President Donald Trump continues to make the most incredible statements. Yesterday during his trip to Asia he was asked whether he had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin about Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election. Trump's response:
“Every time he sees me he says, ‘I didn’t do that,’ and I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Putin. Trump also called the American intelligence services that determined Russia had undertaken major efforts to influence the American 2016 presidential election "political hacks." (Source)

It is difficult to believe anyone is that naive or stupid. Vladimir Putin is a former KGB colonel who has said "Above all, we should acknowledge that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a major geopolitical disaster of the twentieth century." (Source)
Putin has systematically dismantled democracy in Russia. Opposition papers and television stations have been shut down. Demonstrators who criticize Putin are arrested. Political rivals have been shot dead on the streets or died of radiation poisoning, and the perpetrators are never caught. He has launched invasions of Armenia and Crimea, has committed Russian forces to prop up the genocidal Assad regime in Syria and and his forces have surreptitiously intervened in Ukraine to support pro-Russian separatists who are fighting the legitimate government there. As Senator John McCain said today,

 "President Trump today stated that he believed Vladimir Putin is being sincere when he denies Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and reiterated that he hopes to cooperate with Russia in Syria," McCain, a strong critic of the President, said in a statement. "There's nothing 'America First' about taking the word of a KGB colonel over that of the American intelligence community. There's no 'principled realism' in cooperating with Russia to prop up the murderous Assad regime, which remains the greatest obstacle to a political solution that would bring an end to the bloodshed in Syria. Vladimir Putin does not have America's interests at heart. To believe otherwise is not only naive but also places our national security at risk."(Source)


If Trump actually believes the word of such a man he is an international babe in the woods whose credulousness is a clear and present danger to the security of the United States. If instead he knows better but is lying to the American people to protect his business ties to Putin's Russian oligarchs, collusion between his campaign and Russian agents, or simply because his ego cannot stand the thought that he may at least partly owe his election to the disinformation and meddling of a foreign power, then he is a corrupt figure deserving of impeachment.

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