Election Interference

Let's set aside for the moment the question of whether Trump or his campaign actively coordinated or conspired with Russia to interfere with and influence the 2016 presidential election, or whether Trump, as president, obstructed justice in his attempts to discredit and hinder the investigation. These are important questions, but the discussion will have to wait for another time. Today's post is about Russia's actual interference and what Trump is doing about it.

Several agencies in the United States intelligence community expressed "with high confidence" their assessment that elements of the Russian government had engaged in a disinformation campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election in favor of Donald Trump. There is no question that this took place. There was no dissension within the ranks of the intelligence agencies. Robert Mueller's Report confirmed that this took place. When it became known in 2016 what Russia was attempting , President Obama took action that, although criticized as weak and ineffectual by some, nonetheless recognized the gravity of the situation. Trump's campaign was informed. Senate majority Leader McConnell was offered the opportunity to make a joint statement with President Obama regarding Russia's actions. McConnell refused. Obama declined to make a unilateral announcement for fear that it would look like a partisan attack.

Trump was elected.

So what were some of the initial reactions by the Trump administration? Open back-channel talks with Russia to remove the sanctions that the Obama administration had placed on Russia in answer to the interference. Tweet that Putin was "smart" not to retaliate for the sanctions. Show unusual deference to President Putin, even while insulting and deriding our allies. Trump's continued attempts to kiss up to Putin's Russia are explained by saying that it makes sense to be on good relations with Russia, which only makes sense if you ignore his continued belligerence toward China and even his on-again-off-again tariff war against our long time allies.

Face-to-face meetings between Trump and Putin are usually accompanied by the press asking Trump if he will confront Putin about election interference. In the past Trump's response has been that he brought it up and that Putin denied it, implying strongly that he believed Putin over our own intelligence agencies. But this time Trump treated it as a big joke, turning to Putin with a smirk on his face and asking him to "Don't interfere, please" in a jovial tone. (Another related subject is Trump's "joke" about Russia not having a "fake news" problem, I guess the joke is that Russia kills off their dissenters, so "problem solved")

It's obvious that since Trump benefited from this attack by Russia he doesn't see it as a problem and will do nothing to discourage it from continuing.