Trump to Putin: no Russian interference in 2016

For some, it was proof that President Trump’s bromance with Russian Federation president, Vladimir Putin, was stronger than media portrayals, yet Trump’s words at the news conference in Helsinki on Monday gave credence to the dangerous denials that were made on U.S. soil: there was no proof that Russian spies interfered with the 2016 presidential election, and anything to the contrary was fake news.

Uttering the denials, and not answering direct questions from reporters about charges of collusion, and asserting that he won the election fair and square, in a “brilliant’ campaign and one in which, there was no collusion at all with his campaign staff, and that of Russians, seemed as one reporter deemed it ‘surreal”; it was also alarming that they were made on foreign soil, and with Putin less than an arm's length away, it seemed to begin the tolling of the doomsday bells, for the Trump administration.

Anderson Cooper, who anchored CNN's coverage from Helsinki before and after the press conference, declared it "perhaps one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president at a summit in front of a Russian leader that I have ever seen."

The Hill, the ultimate inside-the-beltway publication quoted David Gergen, a former adviser in the Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton administrations, called it "embarrassing" for Trump to bring up Hillary Clinton's emails and the 2016 election on the international stage.

“I’ve never heard an American president talk that way, but I think it’s especially true that when he’s with someone like Putin — who is a thug, a world class thug — that he sides with him again and again against his own country’s interests,” Gergen said.

It’s certainly is not far from the charges that critics have dubbed treason, or at best high comes and misdemeanors, coming from his lips, and that of some of his current, and former associates, both from the campaign, and from the West wing.

“Fox News, which is normally friendlier territory for the president, was also largely critical of Trump's performance. Bret Baier called the press conference "surreal,” they also reported.

In his Tweet, Brit Hume, another Fox correspondent said, “Trump, finally asked whom he believes on Russia interference, gives a vague and rambling non-answer, with renewed complaints about Hillary’s server. Says he trusts US intel but made clear he takes Putin’s denials seriously. Lame response, to say the least.”

Then again, we suppose no one should be surprised. We saw Trump being Trump,  only the locale differed, which tilted even his supporters from FOX away from him, in horror --- and the mention of Hillary Clinton, is in keeping, with the “I won, and I am king of the hill” mantra that he has said again, and again.

Conveniently missing was that he won the Electoral College votes, but lost the popular, which Clinton won.  But, then details do not matter with Trump, because as one wag said, “it’s his world, the rest of us just live in it.”

Humor aside, Monday’s statements put him on a dangerous slope, and especially with the midterms coming soon, and where Democrats are predicted to win a majority in the House and maybe a slim majority in the House.

“Ari Fleischer, a former aide in the George W. Bush administration and a Fox News contributor, said Trump's acceptance of Putin's denials gives him a better understanding for why Democrats "think Putin must have the goods on him."

"Something tells me Trump’s easy acceptance of Putin’s POV will send his critics into an even higher state of hysterics," Fleischer tweeted. "Trump’s supporters will not be moved. And the few people left in the middle like me think he should have been tougher on Putin, but we’ll wait for Mueller.”

The fact that there were 12 Russian nationals found guilty by special prosecutor, Robert Mueller, and no mention, or even demand, that they be extradited to the U.S. even if symbolically, has many questioning not just the relationship, with Russia and its president, but his understanding of statecraft.

Dismissing, and dissing, the charges, Trump said, in response, to no one in particular, “There was nobody to collude with. There was no collusion with the campaign and every time you hear all of these you know 12 and 14 stuff that has nothing to do and frankly they admit - these are not people involved in the campaign.”

As if, on cue, Putin said, “I had to reiterate things I said several times, including during our personal contacts, that the Russian state has never interfered and is not going to interfere into internal American affairs including election process,” Putin said through a translator. “Any specific material, if such things arise, we are ready to analyze together.”

He went on to suggest Russia would be ready to collaborate with U.S. officials on a “joint working group on cybersecurity.”

Fox Business Network's Neil Cavuto laid into Trump, calling it “disgusting” that the president did not confront Putin.

In a late development, on Monday afternoon, “A criminal complaint was unsealed today in the District of Columbia charging a Russian national with conspiracy to act as an agent of the Russian Federation within the United States without prior notification to the Attorney General.”

The announcement - from the U.S. Department of Justice - was made by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jessie K. Liu, and Nancy McNamara, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

“Maria Butina, 29, a Russian citizen residing in Washington D.C., was arrested on July 15, 2018, in Washington, D.C., and made her initial appearance this afternoon before Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She was ordered held pending a hearing set for July 18, 2018.

According to the affidavit in support of the complaint, from as early as 2015 and continuing through at least February 2017, Butina worked at the direction of a high-level official in the Russian government who was previously a member of the legislature of the Russian Federation and later became a top official at the Russian Central Bank.  This Russian official was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control in April 2018.”

Despite this news and in favor or what was heard on Monday, and cheerleading from the sidelines was former Trump advisor, Sebastian Gorka, who in an opinion piece wrote, “Unlike his predecessor, President Trump is a pragmatist who sees the world as it is. His is not hobbled by a default setting that sees America as the cause of the world’s ills. At the same time, he understands how the clear expression of power and success shapes relationships and can influence the behavior of bad actors. That is why he is the right man to meet with and rein in the former KGB colonel.”

Using much of the same language that he did with the Charlottesville demonstrations, and counter demonstration, where white supremacists marched on a sleepy southern college town, Trump said, again, on foreign soil, and with a leader whose legendary obfuscation and posturing, are well known, “Yes I do. I hold both countries responsible. I think that the United States has been foolish. I think we've all been foolish we should have had this dialogue a long time ago a long time frankly before I got to office. And I think we're all to blame.”

It’s also becoming crystal clear that Clinton’s calculated wariness to Putin was another nail in her coffin, in her quest to become president, because as Putin noted, “President Trump, when he was a candidate, he mentioned the need to restore Russia U.S. relationship and it's clear that a part of American society felt sympathetic about it and different people could express their sympathies in different ways.

But isn't that natural? Isn't it natural to be sympathetic towards a person who is willing to restore the relationship with our country who wants to work with us? We heard the accusations about the Concorde country. Well as far as I know this company hired American lawyers and the accusations doesn't have a fighting chance in the American courts. So there's no evidence when it comes to the actual facts. So we have to be guided by facts not by rumors.”

It’s not too easy with this reasoning why the former KGB agent gets along so well with the U.S. president, who in their statements echo each other in denials and dismissals, a tactic honed by his years as KGB, or as he said in 2004, “There is no such thing as a former KGB man.”

Much like Putin who destroyed the newfound freedoms of his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, “took control of the news media,” and created a “managed democracy”, noted the magazine THE WEEK, this past April.

Putin also destroyed anyone, and anything, he deemed in opposition, a posture that Trump seems to admire; and in his quest to reshape the Republican party, has set course, say critics, on destroying public education, environmental protections, the voting rights act, reproductive health for poor women, housing and food vouchers - the list is endless.

While restoring economic stability after Russia's deep recession and runaway inflation in the 1990s, Putin’s moves are mostly popular, for his “social contract”.

Trump, in turn, is willing to destroy NATO’s reputation for Republicans, and in this sense, it is what seems the be the underlying methods these past few days, while abroad, and in one poll, the results may be mostly successful where over 50 percent of Republicans now distrust NATO.

As seen in The Washington Post, Fareed Zakaria, said this” “Jonathan Chait writes in New York magazine that “Trump is training his base to hate NATO and like Putin.” Indeed, Trump has been remarkably successful: Fifty-one percent of Republicans now believe the United States shouldn’t defend NATO allies unless they increase defense spending. Even more astonishingly, Trump seems to have reversed Republican attitudes toward Russia and its dictator, Vladimir Putin. At a recent rally, Trump said, “You know what? Putin’s fine. He’s fine. We’re all fine. We’re people.” Republicans are now twice as likely as Democrats to express a favorable opinion of Putin, and 56 percent of Republicans want to cooperate and engage more with Russia.”

The proof of that pudding is in the eating, and it seems that desert is now being served.