Calling 72-year-old responses in a joint press conference with 65-year-old Russian President “treason,” Democrats and the anti-Trump press went ape attacking Trump for not confronting Putin more forcefully. Sen. John McCain (R-Az.), ailing from brain cancer in Arizona, blasted Trump for not confronting Putin more directly in the joint press conference, especially when it came to Russian meddling in the 2016 election. A U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Report concluded yesterday that Russia did meddle in the 2016 election, something undeniable when you consider the Democratic National Committee and Hillary’s former campaign chairman John D. Podesta were hacked by operatives from Russia’s GRU military intelligence. Trump said he misspoke when he answered a question whether or not Russian meddled in the election. “I don’t know why they would,” said Trump, when he meant to say “wouldn’t,” stating that he didn’t question U.S. intelligence agencies.
Questions remain about whether or not the Russian hacks, published by Wikileaks’ founder Julian Assange July 6, 2016, tilted the election to Trump. Hillary blamed her loss Nov. 8, 2016 on former FBI Director James Comey, who reopened her email investigation Oct. 28, 2016, only 10 days before Election Day. But voters had been bombarded with her email scandal for months, something that no doubt took a toll on her campaign, not just Russian hacking. Trump stated for the record, with Putin by his side, that he won the election fair-and-square, rejecting the idea that Russia handed the election to him. Democrats and their friends in the press missed completely the gist of the summit to restore U.S.-Russian relations, not to blast Putin with a litany of accusations of how he meddled in the 2016 election. Whatever Putin did in 2016, Trump doesn’t think it affected the election.
When you talk about election meddling, it has to be clarified from attempts to influence voters with social media, election hacking and voter-machine tampering. While there’s some indication that Russian operatives planted fake news on Google and Facebook, there’s zero evidence that it affected voters. When it comes to hacking, even Putin admitted in a joint-press conference with Trump yesterday that he preferred Trump over Hillary. If foreign leaders prefer one candidate to another, is it cheating to express one’s opinions either overtly or covertly? Foreign leaders who lobby for one candidate or another can’t be accused of meddling because they support Candidate A over Candidate B. When Wikileaks posted the hacks July 6, 2016, most people assumed they came from Russian intelligence. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s July 13 indictments of 12 Russia’s GRU operatives surprised no one.
Trump’s problems with the U.S. intel community stem for the fact that he and his campaign were the target of a carefully orchestrated plan by Obama’s FBI, Justice Department and National Security Agency to upend his 2016 campaign. When Trump told the world the former President Barack Obama “tapped his wires” March 4, 2017, Democrats and the media were outraged. Over a year later, it’s now known that Obama’s FBI, DOJ and NSA actively investigated Trump and his associates in the 2016 presidential campaign. Before Comey was fired by Trump May 9, 2017, he told several Congressional committees that he couldn’t answer the questions of whether he investigated the Trump campaign. Former National Security Advisor Susan Rice admitted Sept. 13, 2017 to the House Intelligence Committee that she “unmasked” Trump campaign officials.
Instead of focusing on who “won-or-lost” the summit, either Putin or Trump, the press should focus on steps needed to improve U.S.-Russian relations. Democrats and their media friends wanted Trump to insult Putin in Helsinki, accusing him of tampering with the 2016 election. It’s not a zero-sum-game, one loses while the other wins, when two powerful estranged leaders get together to mend fences. If you listen to Democrats and the press, they’d tell Trump to aggressively confront Putin at a global press conference. Other that driving a bigger wedge, what good would have done? Despite all the recent indictments and toxic political atmosphere in Washington against Russia, Trump did his best to restore U.S. Russian relations. For that, Trump was accused of treason by several hysterical Democrats and news outlets. War hawks like McCain called Trump “feckless” for showing diplomacy.
Putin held little back at yesterday’s joint press conference with Trump admitting he favored Trump in the election. In an hour-long interview with Fox New Chris Wallace, Putin said all the hacked information about Hillary Clinton or her campaign associates at the DNC were true. That was a close to admitting that Russia’s GRU military intelligence got the goods on the DNC and Podesta. Putin offered to let U.S. authorities interrogate accused GRU operatives, while, agreeing that the FSB could interview FBI, DOJ and NSA officials. No one in those agencies wants the truth to come out about the 2016 election. Democrats and press want to keep the spotlight on Russia, not the FBI, DOJ and NSA which, under Obama’s direction, used the national security apparatus to help Hillary win the election. When Putin talks of U.S. political games, it goes far beyond that.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
