Treason Summit

Ken AshfordL'Affaire Russe, Russia, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

On the heels of the NATO summit, where President Trump dissed our strongest allies, Trump is now visiting Vladimir Putin in Russia. Just moments ago, he and Putin ended their special two-hours-and-10-minutes one-on-one meeting with no advisers and no witnesses and no note-takers. One official, according to CNN, said it was because he doesn’t want his aides interrupting or undercutting him (his aides being people knowledgeable about things, in theory).  But who knows what the real reason is for the private meeting?

Some call the meeting Trump’s annual performance review, as he has become a virtual Russian asset in his speech and in his policy.

It is also important to remember the context — just 3 days ago, Mueller indicted 12 Russian military intelligence officers for their role in hacking Americans — the DNC, especially, and attempting to get into the voter rolls of many states.

Today saw one of Trump’s most anti American tweets ever:

Yup.  This was even too outrageous for Fox & Friends.

Trump’s tweet was met with approval by… wait for it… Russia itself.

Russia applauds Trump for spreading Russian disinformation.

But that’s not all And he gave an interview in which he said that the European Union is a foe and a tweet yesterday criticizing the American press:

It’s already being called the Treason Summit. Trump has SAID he would bring up the Russian hacking, but nobody expects him to berate Putin over it. Trump himself indicate that he would merely ask Putin if Russia was involved, and he expected Putin would deny it. That, it seems, would satisfy the President of the United States.

It’s not the first time Trump’s rhetoric has mirrored Russia’s. Trump and Putin have also used the same talking points to dismiss concerns about Russia’s election interference. Both world leaders have suggested Russia has been unfairly blamed because the hacks could’ve originated from anywhere in the world. Mueller’s latest indictment indicates Trump and Putin are mistaken.

During remarks made to the press pool on Monday at the beginning of the summit — just ahead of a 90-minute meeting with Putin in which no notetaker would be present — Trump didn’t so much as mention Russia’s attack on American democracy or the country’s illegal invasion and occupation of Ukraine.

Instead, Trump appeared to wink at Putin — and told him, “I think we will end up having an extraordinary relationship.”

Charles Blow at the New York Times has an opinion piece titled “Trump: Treasonous Traitor”:

Put aside whatever suspicions you may have about whether Donald Trump will be directly implicated in the Russia investigation.

Trump is right now, before our eyes and those of the world, committing an unbelievable and unforgivable crime against this country. It is his failure to defend.

The intelligence community long ago concluded that Russia attacked our election in 2016 with the express intention of damaging Hillary Clinton and assisting Trump.

And it was not only the spreading of inflammatory fake news over social media. As a May report from the Republican-run Senate Intelligence Committee pointed out:

“In 2016, cyber actors affiliated with the Russian Government conducted an unprecedented, coordinated cyber campaign against state election infrastructure. Russian actors scanned databases for vulnerabilities, attempted intrusions, and in a small number of cases successfully penetrated a voter registration database. This activity was part of a larger campaign to prepare to undermine confidence in the voting process.”

And this is not simply a thing that happened once. This is a thing that is still happening and will continue to happen. As Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told the committee in February, “Persistent and disruptive cyberoperations will continue against the United States and our European allies using elections as opportunities to undermine democracy.” As he put it, “Frankly, the United States is under attack.”

***

Now Trump is set to pursue just such a relationship as he meets one-on-one with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on Monday in Finland. As Trump said earlier this month at a rally:

“Will he be prepared? Will he be prepared? And I might even end up having a good relationship, but they’re going, ‘Will President Trump be prepared? You know, President Putin is K.G.B. and this and that.’ You know what? Putin’s fine. He’s fine. We’re all fine. We’re people.”

Actually, none of this is fine. None of it! Trump should be directing all resources at his disposal to punish Russia for the attacks and prevent future ones. But he is not.

America’s commander wants to be chummy with the enemy who committed the crime. Trump is more concerned with protecting his presidency and validating his election than he is in protecting this country.

This is an incredible, unprecedented moment. America is being betrayed by its own president. America is under attack and its president absolutely refuses to defend it.

Simply put, Trump is a traitor and may well be treasonous.

Technically, it is neither. But as hyperbole goes, it is pretty close.

UPDATES: Following the one-on-one meeting, Trump responded to a reporter’s shouted question by saying that it had been a “very good start” … but the question is, a very good start on what? What exactly are Trump and Putin trying to work out here?

The sign was something about nuclear weapons ban.

UPDATE – PRESS CONFERENCE EDITION:

And now this… a joint press conference

ANALYZE TOGETHER?!?

Trump now saying that the “probe” is separating the two countries.  Now claiming that he beat Hillary “easily” and repeats “zero collusion”.  All this standing next to Putin.

Trump says there was “nobody to collude with”.  Um, WHAT?!?

OMG, now PUTIN is saying “Could you name a single fact that would definitely prove the collusion? This is utter nonsense. Just like the President recently mentioned”  These two are on the same page.

About the 12 intelligence officers indicted, Putin says he will “look into it”.

Asked by Reuters reporter if (1) he will condemn Russia in front of the world for election interfering and (2) whether he believes his own intelligence community over Russia. Trump talks about the Hillary Clinton servers and other irrelevant issues (Hillary Clinton emails).  He says he asked Putin and Putin denied.  Trump also says, “I don’t see any reason why” Russia would interfere.  This is incredible.

And now video of his abomination the world just saw:

Even Neil Cavuto at Fox News can’t handle it:

Former CIA director now calling for impeachment:

No response from ANY congressional Republican yet, except this:

Now more coming in fro GOP leaders. Lindsay Graham lacks outrage, but is critical:

These are better…

And here’s Speaker Ryan…

Here’s one from the daughter of the US Ambassador to Russia, John Huntsman (she’s also a weekend host on Fox):

But there’s this too…

This is interesting…

I think of all those people asking, on the lead-up to the summit, “What is the plan? What is the agenda?” That is why these things are worked out in advance.  Related…

Well, this explains the private meeting.

Oh, look, Trey Gowdy —

They haven’t so far, Trey!!

I’ll end up with McCain. “Today’s press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory. The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate.” Thank God for McCain.

UPDATE — I lied. More fallout, first from Trump’s Director of National Intelligence.

The New York Daily News reports:

Rudy Giuliani came out batting for President Trump after his softball press conference with Vladimir Putin on Monday, claiming he doesn’t see what good it would do to confront the Russian leader over his government’s interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

“I don’t know what it would have accomplished if Trump said, ‘I believed Putin did it,’” the former New York mayor told the Daily News minutes after Trump wrapped up his joint appearance with the Russian leader in Helsinki, Finland. “I don’t think we need to call Putin a liar.”

Like Trump, Giuliani disputed the U.S. intelligence community’s consensus that Russian government operatives interfered in the 2016 election with Putin’s knowledge and endorsement. “As far as I know there’s nothing showing that Putin knew about it,” Giuliani said. “We just assume Putin knew something.”

“I don’t think we need to call Putin a liar”???????  Yes, we do!!

UPDATE — TRUMP TRIES DAMAGE CONTROL

Um, that’s NOT what you said. And your emphasis on MY makes it only worse, as does your “that’s in the past” rhetoric. They will do it again!

Axios quotes unnamed WH sources for the explanation of Trump: