The US shut down a Chinese consulate in Houston due to allegations of spying and other misdeeds. Trump has a phone call with Putin and, according to the read out of the call, the topic of Russia paying Taliban fighters in Afghanistan to kill American soldiers, never came up. Nor did the topic of ongoing interference in the upcoming presidential election. Hmm?
Bill Evanina, a top US counterintelligence official issued a statement warning that China, Russia and Iran are attempting to interfere with the upcoming 2020 presidential election. “Specifically, Evanina called out Russia, China and Iran for seeking to interfere in the American democratic process, an effort that includes targeting ‘the private communications of US political campaigns, candidates and other political targets.’”1
With respect to Russia, Evanina said, “Russia’s persistent objective is to weaken the United States and diminish our global role. Using a range of efforts, including internet trolls and other proxies, Russia continues to spread disinformation in the United States that is designed to undermine confidence in our democratic process and denigrate what it sees as an anti-Russia ‘establishment’ in America.”
Given that Trump is doing everything in his power to ‘diminish our global role,’ I’d say that particular objective is well on its way to being realized. Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Accords; is pulling out of the World Health Organization in the middle of a pandemic; pulled out of the Trans Pacific Partnership; pulled out of the Open Skies Treaty; wants to pull a significant number of troops out of Germany; pulled out of Syria; has threatened to pull out of NATO and wants Russia re-admitted to the G7. It would certainly seem like Trump is the best friend Putin could have.
With respect to the other part Evanina’s statement, “Russia continues to spread disinformation in the United States that is designed to undermine confidence in our democratic process and denigrate what it sees as an anti-Russia ‘establishment’ in America.” Once again, it would appear that Trump might be, once again, the best agent that Putin has.
Trump has been sowing the seeds for months about how the results of this election will be rigged. He has stated repeatedly, with absolutely no basis in fact, that mail-in ballots will be a great source of fraudulent voting. Just think about this – one of Putin’s primary objective is to undermine the confidence in our electoral process. And we have the President of the United States doing the exact same thing. This is happening in plain sight!
A ’real’ president, would address this issue head on and reassure the American people that the government is doing everything in its power to ensure the election is free and fair. He would talk about how that is the bedrock of our democracy. When have you heard this president say anything even closely resembling that? Never?
He continues to downplay the Russian interference in the 2016 election despite overwhelming intelligence to the contrary. And he continues to sow distrust amongst the American people about the upcoming election. You can bet that if he loses the election, there will be loud and unending cries about how the election was fraudulent. This is part of Putin’s playbook.
Remember how Trump claimed that he would have won the popular vote had it not been for 3 to 5 million fraudulent votes. He even appointed a commission to look into that. The commission came up with zero and was disbanded.
It is unconscionable that the President of the United States is doing everything in his power to sow the seeds of distrust about the upcoming election. It’s crap like this that makes one wonder what the hell is going on between Trump and Russia. There are just too many things that can’t be explained and there are just too many people in Trump’s orbit who have connections to Russia to be a coincidence. Someday, somehow, it will all come to light. I don’t think it will be a happy story.
We have had bad presidents before but I’m not sure we have ever had a president who has worked so diligently to undermine the very foundations of our democracy and sow such distrust amongst the American people. As America continues to cede its leadership position on the world stage and struggle with the increasing divisive amongst our citizens, Vladimir Putin must be a very happy man!