Trump congratulates Putin, despite being warned NOT to
Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2018 2:37 am
Before the President talks with an important foreign leader, he is given a set of briefing notes, as he was prior to having his recent conversation with Vladimir Putin. With respect to the election outcome, the briefing notes said DO NOT CONGRATULATE in capital letters. So what does Trump do? Congratulates Putin, of course.
Now there are a couple of interesting things about this. Obviously Trump either ignored, misread or did not read the DO NOT CONGRATULATE instructions. But what is really significant is that the information about what was on the notes was leaked. To me, this indicates two things: One, the person who leaked was really pissed off. Two, whoever leaked the notes thought it was important enough to risk being fired, as they will almost assuredly will be if their identity is discovered. This came out because that person thought it was significant.
For me this comes down to Trump's motivation, and I find a hard time finding a good reason for him to ignore the admonishment not to congratulate Putin. The Russian election was a sham. People were caught stuffing ballot boxes on camera. Putin had to approve the list of the candidates that would run against him. But again, Trump congratulated him. Trump made a totally unsubstantiated claim that between 3-5 million illegal votes were cast in the 2016 U.S. election, even setting up a commission to investigate the matter. But when there is video of people stuffing ballot boxes in Russia, he is silent.
Look at it this way: the simple, expedient thing would have been to follow instructions and not congratulate Putin. Trump is being investigated with regard to Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump says it's a Witch Hunt, but where is his leadership against the threat of Russian interference in the 2018 elections? Why congratulate Putin when specifically asked NOT to do so? In addition, Trump said he and Putin would be meeting soon, something that surprised his advisors. How does this make sense, OTHER than Trump is altering our relations with Russia for some unknown reason.
Investigate, Mr. Mueller, investigate.
Now there are a couple of interesting things about this. Obviously Trump either ignored, misread or did not read the DO NOT CONGRATULATE instructions. But what is really significant is that the information about what was on the notes was leaked. To me, this indicates two things: One, the person who leaked was really pissed off. Two, whoever leaked the notes thought it was important enough to risk being fired, as they will almost assuredly will be if their identity is discovered. This came out because that person thought it was significant.
For me this comes down to Trump's motivation, and I find a hard time finding a good reason for him to ignore the admonishment not to congratulate Putin. The Russian election was a sham. People were caught stuffing ballot boxes on camera. Putin had to approve the list of the candidates that would run against him. But again, Trump congratulated him. Trump made a totally unsubstantiated claim that between 3-5 million illegal votes were cast in the 2016 U.S. election, even setting up a commission to investigate the matter. But when there is video of people stuffing ballot boxes in Russia, he is silent.
Look at it this way: the simple, expedient thing would have been to follow instructions and not congratulate Putin. Trump is being investigated with regard to Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump says it's a Witch Hunt, but where is his leadership against the threat of Russian interference in the 2018 elections? Why congratulate Putin when specifically asked NOT to do so? In addition, Trump said he and Putin would be meeting soon, something that surprised his advisors. How does this make sense, OTHER than Trump is altering our relations with Russia for some unknown reason.
Investigate, Mr. Mueller, investigate.