2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumDonald Trump, Putin’s puppet - by the Washington Post Editorial Board
By Editorial Board October 10 at 7:26 PM
ON FRIDAY, while much of the country was preoccupied with the latest revelations about Donald Trump, the U.S. intelligence community made an alarming and unprecedented announcement: Russia was seeking to interfere with the U.S. election process through the hacking of political organizations and individuals, including the Democratic National Committee. The statement rightly alarmed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who said in Sunday nights debate that we have never in the history of our country been in a situation where an adversary, a foreign power, is working so hard to influence the outcome of the election.
And Mr. Trump? Once again, the GOP nominee played the part of Vladimir Putins lawyer. She doesnt know if its the Russians doing the hacking, he said of Ms. Clinton. Maybe there is no hacking. Mr. Trump is receiving classified intelligence briefings, so he is certainly aware of the evidence that hackers backed by Moscow have stolen email and other records from the DNC and tried to penetrate state electoral systems. So why does he deny it? Mr. Trumps advocacy on behalf of an aggressive U.S. rival, and the opaqueness of his motivation, is one of the most troubling aspects of his thoroughly toxic campaign.
Experts differ on whether the Putin regime is trying to tip the election to Mr. Trump, as Ms. Clinton suggested, or merely to sow confusion and distrust about the integrity of U.S. democracy. But the leaks traced to Russia through the WikiLeaks website have been aimed at Ms. Clinton most recently emails from her campaign chairman revealing excerpts from her private speeches on Wall Street. The timing of the WikiLeaks releases, clearly calculated to do maximum damage to the Democrats, confirms (again) that the website is not a crusader for transparency, but a willing political agent of the Kremlin. Perhaps Mr. Trump knows nothing about all this, as he protested. But he has defended Mr. Putin and his crimes throughout his campaign. He brushed off the fact that journalists and other opponents of the Russian ruler have been murdered and claimed Russia had not invaded Ukraine. He has repeatedly called Mr. Putin a better leader than President Obama.
In Sundays debate, Mr. Trump reeled off a series of false statements about Russias intervention in Syria, saying it was aimed at the Islamic State even though almost all of Russias bombs have fallen on rebel groups fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad, or on civilians. He then rejected the statement by running mate Mike Pence that provocations by Russia need to be met with American strength and the United States should consider using military force to strike military targets of the Assad regime if Russias bombing of Aleppo continued. (Abjectly, Mr. Pence on Monday attempted to deny that he said those words in the vice-presidential debate.) I think it would be great if we got along with Russia because we could fight ISIS together, Mr. Trump said at Sundays debate.
Heres what we dont know: Does Mr. Trump propose this collaboration with a regime obsessed with thwarting and weakening American power out of ignorance and naivete, or because of personal and business interests he has not disclosed? Mr. Putin surely knows the answer to that question but U.S. voters do not.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/donald-trump-putins-puppet/2016/10/10/451f099e-8f0e-11e6-a6a3-d50061aa9fae_story.html?utm_term=.2992675182f2&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)spooky3
(34,481 posts)Not sure whether it's motivated by retaliation from his banning them, a commitment to journalism, or genuine concern about the future of the country.
Gothmog
(145,567 posts)BSdetect
(8,999 posts)If he were ever elected what chance would we have of getting to the truth on any point?
He is a fuckin monster.
David__77
(23,511 posts)If the US could have business like and normal relations with the Soviet Union during detente, the US can do so with Russia now.