July 19, 2018: Who Is the Real Enemy of the American People?

 

7/19/18: The president continues to try to dig his way out of the mess he made in Helsinki.

The best way he can think of is to take his shovel and bang reporters on their heads. He fires off this tweet: 

The Summit with Russia was a great success, except with the real enemy of the people, the Fake News Media. I look forward to our second meeting so that we can start implementing some of the many things discussed, including stopping terrorism, security for Israel, nuclear........

 

You may recall that Putin offered to allow American investigators to come to Russia and interview the twelve Russian officers indicted for interfering in our last election. In return, the Russians would be allowed to grill 11 Americans, who, Putin insists, committed crimes while in Russia. This would include former U.S. ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul. 

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“Over the course of my career…I saw Russian intelligence manipulate many people. I never thought I would see the day when an American president would be one of them. 

Rep. Will Hurd, a Republican

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Apparently, Trump has never heard of diplomatic immunity or U.S. sovereignty. Nor does he realize that Putin prefers to deal with critics by having them shot, poisoned, or clubbed dead. 

On Monday, the president responded to the question of whether or not Russia had interfered in our election like so: 

I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today [of Russian interference in 2016] and what he did is an incredible offer. He offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigations with respect to the 12 people. I think that’s an incredible offer.

 

Sadly, the “Deep State” once again shot down another muddled proposal that seeped from Trump’s lips. 

On Wednesday, a State Department spokeswoman read the following statement to reporters: 

The overall assertions that have come out of the Russian government are absolutely absurd: the fact that they want to question 11 American citizens and the assertions that the Russian government is making about those American citizens. We do not stand by those assertions that the Russian government makes.

 

On Thursday, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution, by a vote of 98-0, warning Trump not to allow Russians to interrogate American citizens.

 

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IN AN EDITORIAL in The New York Times, Republican congressman Will Hurd writes: 

Over the course of my career as an undercover officer in the C.I.A., I saw Russian intelligence manipulate many people. I never thought I would see the day when an American president would be one of them.

 

The president’s failure to defend the United States intelligence community’s unanimous conclusions of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and condemn Russian covert counterinfluence campaigns and his standing idle on the world stage while a Russian dictator spouted lies confused many but should concern all Americans. By playing into Vladimir Putin’s hands, the leader of the free world actively participated in a Russian disinformation campaign that legitimized Russian denial and weakened the credibility of the United States to both our friends and foes abroad.

 

…Russia is an adversary not just of the United States but of freedom-loving people everywhere.

 

Who, then, is the real “enemy of the people?” Putin fits the description. Donald J. Trump may be another.