It seems that nothing short of a Perry Mason style confession will convince the GOP or Trump's supporters and you know we're never going to get that. The amount of evidence is staggering yet the FBI is berated for doing their job when they launched the counter intelligence investigation on what have been some very suspicious activities by this President and you can be sure they have a lot more info than we have any clue about.
My mind is blown and I am sad that we have come to this place. I no longer recognize this country.
13
When teaching a high school Debate Class discussions sometimes veer into presidential antics. I tell my students that, "When the president has to answer a question about his integrity by claiming, 'I am not a crook,' he is a crook. And, when the president is forced to answer a question about his sexual peccadillos by claiming, 'I did not have sex with that woman,' he had sex with that woman." Now I need to and that, when a president is questioned about being an agent of a hostile foreign power by claiming, "Not only did I never work for Russia, I think it's a disgrace that you even asked that question," you can be certain he worked for Russia.
24
I can recall bumper stickers from the days of the Reagan Administration that said "BETTER DEAD THAN RED"; when the idea of Russian infiltration into the US government would be a travesty, a fate worse than death. Usually, you found them on the backs of rusty pickups in rural areas.
Yet omehow, everyone that felt that way now just thinks, "...meh". The bogeyman now is anyone not white, so Russians don't seem so bad.
I recall thinking that those people were afraid of Russia invasion were paranoid. Russia didn't want to bother us, I thought; they were mostly acting out of self-preservation, not malice.
It turns out I was wrong--Russia never stopped being a threat to out country, and they are succeeding in destroying it but infecting it from within. Every day, there's another sliver of evidence. The fact that virtually no one in the GOP (let alone conservative voters) ever voices concern proves that Russia has succeeded beyond anyone's wildest nightmares.
10
Could we have an American president who is, in fact, an agent for a foreign government? Well, yes, we could.
What does it matter, however, if Trump walks, talks and acts like a foreign agent for Moscow whether he signed on the dotted line? Do we actually need more proof? A pay stub?
Trump clearly aligned his business interests with Russians, eagerly seeking their dirty money to buy multi-million dollar condo apartments in New York and elsewhere. "We get a lot of our money from Russia", was the saying of one of his sons.
The evidence mounts and indifference to this country potentially being sold out grows among power greedy Republicans. The "super patriots", those who condemn kneeling when the anthem is played, are failing our country and, most importantly, failing themselves and the supposed principles of their party. If a Democrat were in the White House, their mere whiff of such scandal would send talk radio and Fox Noise into an unending lather. Now? Crickets.
These crimes will not be forgotten. Eventually, the truth will be undeniable and the voters, if not the courts, will have their just revenge.
14
Putin has co-opted Trump and is using him as his useful idiot. Both of the Trump boys have made bold pronouncements that Russian money is a significant part of their business. Trump was the perfect patsy, a failed businessman with a huge ego, easily flattered and manipulated, and so greedy and needy for attention it was easy for Russian organized (by Putin) crime to flood him with the funds he needed to stay afloat when no reputable banks would touch him. Those are the facts. Did he actively collude? Maybe. Maybe not. He didn't need to. Putin handled it all himself.
14
In an ideal world (it is not) would rather have Russia as your enemy or as your friend? About Russia’s interference in our election(s): Putin would be derelict in his duties if he did not, after all interference has been state policy ever since the NKVD was formed. He’s been eager to note, as Chomsky recently did, that the US has traditionally interfered in other countries’ election for decades. Lamenting that Russia lost the old world standing USSR once had, Putin has repeatedly recited the well known Roman saying: “ Quod licet Jovis non licet bovis”: what is permitted to Jupiter is not permitted to the ox. Most everyone now agrees that our main challenge in foreign affairs is China and besides respect (sic) Putin’s ambitions are quite modest: that the West stop telling him what to do about Crimea and in Eastern Ukraine, remove all economic sanctions and a $70 plus per barrel of crude oil. After all Russia is the only foreign country who can stand up to our nuclear arsenal.
1
I am a proud Canadian. Canada has been the United State's closest friend for all my 63 years.
It horrified me to see the buffoon promise the "ruination" of my country - and to be selfish about it my retirement. At the same time he praises enemies of the free world.
I will never forget or forgive. As long as Trump is president I will not visit the USA and will not buy American products as much as is possible.
This man is a disgrace. He needs tp be voted out of office. I don't get to vote - but I will be watching. (My tears were equal to Jesse Jackson's on a better election night. I was watching then too!)
12
My guess: his relationship with Russia is perfectly comparable to his shutdown.
It might not have been done with the clear intention to hurt America, but because of his ignorance, incompetence and corruption solidly ingrained in the very core of his character, it ends up damaging America tremendously.
The self-declared "party of values" chose to pick a man without moral values as its leader, all while imagining that he would nevertheless somehow know how to lead America to a better future.
It turns out that your character IS absolutely determining what kind of leader you are and whether you can achieve something good (let alone virtuous) or not.
But how many GOP voters will have the "courage" (another fundamental moral value ...) to admit that they've been mistaken?
6
Strange how GOP voters seem to refuse to recognize that something is wrong here.
Time and again, they take over Fox News talking points that suggest that "Obama did this too".
The fact that when Obama did the thing they now believe is perfectly equivalent to what Trump does, they and Fox News were the first to strongly criticize and denounce it.
So how can you defend a president who in your own perception does what you reject, just because he happens to share your own political affiliation ...?
It shows how utterly cynical FN and the GOP have made their own voters/audience.
By MAGA they clearly didn't believe in real greatness, but just in doing to this country what Obama in their eyes has already done, and merely having the sweet feeling of revenge to now have their own guy do the same.
And then of course we're not even talking yet about the fact that as soon as you leave talking points aside and look at real life, it's obvious that what Trump is doing is incomparably worse than what Obama ever did.
It's not just the GOP that has become rotten to the core, they taken their voters with them in their downfall. And yes that is bad, very bad news for the future of America as a whole, as no democracy can thrive without at least two serious political parties.
5
If you were to begin by asking the readership of The New York Times how many remember the letter addressed to America by the Russian Leader, opining that we are weak and there is no need to support our President, you might draw a blank.
An alarm bell went off and was quickly turned off. The Powers in Authority to handle this foreign intrusion behind closed doors, while the Public remains divided about the Tragedy of Syria. A 48-hour window to assess the temperature of the Nation and to gauge the strength of Putin. The timing is right. America is suffering from the impact of the Recession, with little support for President Obama.
We are now being given a second choice to pay attention to what could happen if we continue to be diverted by this Trump Presidency. Can the last presidential elections be declared null and void if enough evidence is shown that the results were tinkered and tailored to suit a Republican Party with a compromised president.
Americans deserve to know what the president and Putin are talking about, but whether they care or remain in denial is another matter all together at the dawn of the 21st Century.
3
Memo to Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham, and the GOP:
The time for vacillating over the President's veiled alliance with Russia is long over.
Declare your allegiances. You are either with America or against it (passively acquiescing to Putin, Russia, and vicariously, Trump's corrupt business interests).
Treason is no longer too heavy a label to lay at your doorstep, even if the strict definition only applies when giving aid and comfort to an enemy in a time of war. Putin has attacked our electoral system from within...that is a sufficient declaration of cyberwarfare.
Pick your own poison. March in lockstep with America's interests (and likely lose your jobs to the Trump base), or pack your bags and move to Russia.
Declare your patriotism...with due haste.
12
Deserve has nothing to do with it. All Presidents hold private conversations with other world leaders.
Only Obama was caught on microphone promising to help Putin when he thought no one was around.
3
This explains the President's behavior...
But what explains Congress's behavior? What sort of kompromant have our congresspeople and senators accepted?
8
Apparently, due to his abhorrent credit history, Donald Trump couldn't refuse the lure of the Russian money dangled before his eyes once there wasn't an American bank willing to lend him one penny.
That abhorrent credit history placed him in harm's way and seemingly in full view of the Russians who, being schooled in these tyypes of situations, were just waiting to pounce, and apparently they did.
By the time Trump showed up for the Moscow Miss Universe pageant the Russians were poised to pounce, as the Steele dossier points out, and apparently did, this ultimately resulting in Trump's being caught in the Russian snare and is what resulted in Trump's repeated denials to James Comey he "didn't even stay the night in Moscow," when, in actuality, his flight log clearly indicates he did.
10
Though I still harbor suspicions that Trump and the Republican Party colluded with Russia in the run-up to the election, let’s for a moment assume thatTrump and the GOP did not. If the Russians singlehandedly delivered the presidency to a Trump, would he not have reason to accommodate their wishes? This makes a review of the interpreters’ notes of meetings between Putin and Trump all the more important. Might Putin have leaned over to tell Trump, “Donald, you owe me big time”? And we know that Trump’s negotiating skills are so feeble that he probably acquiesced.
3
When Donald Trump uses the word "hoax", the Vegas odds that it's "true" are about the same as the rising of the sun.
Which leads us all to one, and only one conclusion, Donald Trump IS a Russian proxy. There's simply no doubt about it, because Donald Trump is genetically incapable of telling the truth. So, the question is, how long will the GOP be OK with that? Hard to tell since they've been OK with it for over two years now.
If you asked every GOP member of Congress, "Would you be OK with a Russian agent running this country if it meant lower taxes on the rich, the abolishment of most federal regulations, and the demonization of the poor, immigrants and people of color?", what percentage do you think would say, "Yeah, I'm OK with that."? 85%? 95%? 100%?
Food for thought.
8
IT does have a wish for better relations with autocrats and despots. IT enriches his thirst for stardom. World leader he is not. Didn't serve. Just got lucky that's all.
"This month, it was revealed that federal prosecutors had accused Mr. Trump’s former campaign chief Paul Manafort of sharing political polling data in 2016 with an associate linked to Russian intelligence, the most direct evidence to date that the campaign may have tried to coordinate with Russia."
I must be missing something.
What "polling data in 2016" would Paul Manafort have had access to that the American public (and Russian intelligence agencies) would not have had access to simply by reading US newspapers and consulting, e.g., Nate Cohen's Five Thirty Eight website?
Trump's chance of winning the Republican presidential nomination or the presidency itself in the general election?
In 2016 we were awash in polling data--we're always awash in such data. If Manafort actually sold polling data to Russian agents, I have a newfound if reluctant respect for him as a con man and a corresponding loss of respect for Russian intelligence agencies.
5
@SMS---Not all polling data is public. Campaigns routinely produce their own polls. Kellyanne Conway did that for a career prior to losing her mind and going to work for Trump.
5
@Pat
I know that not all polling data are public and that campaigns conduct their own polls. I seriously doubt though that these data are more reliable than polls the public sees.
I think that selling the results of private polls is not that different from selling Kickapoo Joy Juice (featured in Al Capp's comic strip "Li'l Abner" of yesteryear).
Maybe that's why erstwhile private pollster Kellyanne Conway enjoys working for a professional huckster like Trump, whose Big Medicine has stupefied so many Americans and rendered the U.S. Senate supine.
2
While I disagree with the premise of this editorial, there is also some selective amnesia here.
It is impossible to read the text messages exchanged by Ms. Lisa Page and Mr. Peter Strzok and not conclude that their professional objectivity was gone on all matters Trump.
These former FBI heavyweights would neither have wanted POTUS Trump to have received a single vote for President nor that POTUS Trump should exercise any of the authority and power invested in the Executive.
Methinks that The Times Editorial Board has an obligation to truly live its Motto, "All the news that's fit to print."
3
@dmanuta
Hold on. If Page and Strzok had been avid Trump supporters as revealed by their emails, would you insist they should have recused? Do you believe that the federal government should consist of mindless, valueless drones? It can be hard to put aside your personal values, but it can be done if one of your overreaching values is the rule of law.
2
Someone please investigate how much money Russia gave McConnell. I am sure that many Republicans have been the recipients of Kremlin aka Putin money in the past election. Why is no one investigating? There would seem to me no other reason for their undying loyalty to our Criminal President. It certainly is not an issue of morality--they have none.
9
Americans most certainly do NOT deserve to know what the president is talking about with anybody. Doing business that way would be foolish. Only something like an Editorial Board would think that way, as to them only words matter and they never have to actually do anything constructive.
Let Donald Trump do his job.
4
The only humor I ever glean from our president is when I think of the (well deserved) nickname I gave him, Colludy J. McTreason. The J is for Jester.
5
the man is an agent
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-goldberg-trump-moral-equivalency-putin-20170206-story.html
O'Reilly interjected, "Putin's a killer." And a vexed Trump replied, "There are a lot of killers. We've got a lot of killers. What, do you think our country is so innocent?"
straight from motherland's agent 101 course
13
No surprise that one the very first acts of the Trump administration was to comb through intelligence records for any captured conversations between Trump's people and the Russians.
7
Don't know much about Rohrabacher and the Commies. Will take your word about this man. The one I want to know about is Nunes. You just can't act the way he has without being on the Ruskies' payroll. He most certainly earned their money supporting Trump. Someone pleas check this slime's PAC money and his bank accounts - especially his Bermuda account.
9
The G.O.P. has become worse than pathetic; it has become unpatriotic because it has decided to cede excessive power to a president, who is incapable of using it intelligently, and demonstrates corrupt intent.
The G.O.P.'s hypocrisy and irony abound. If any Democrat in the oval office acted similarly to a tiny fraction of the ways Trump has, the G.O.P., and its morons at Fox would be calling it "treason" and demanding impeachment and conviction.
Any adversary of the United States is likely not only laughing at us but also preparing to gain advantages over our interests. Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush must be spinning in their graves. Roosevelt, Taft, Coolidge, Harding, and Hoover likely in tears. The G.O.P. no longer deserves to be called, "the party of Lincoln."
5
@Chris
No longer the party of Lincoln; rather the party ofPutin.
2
When cornered about keeping his conversations with Putin secret and the suggestion that they might have discussed matters not in the national interest, Trump responded that they talked about “many positive things.” This guy is such an unrepentant, lying moron that he gives as an excuse for non-disclosure the best argument for disclosure.
5
Your Trump Derangement Syndrome and "Kremlin Kollusion Delusion" will not doubt end with Roseanne Roseanna-Danna saying......NEVER MIND!
4
@Captain America--Tell that to the men serving prison time and the ones who are awaiting sentencing.
7
Not just morons, also rivals, A team of rivals striving to be the best morons they can be.
1
The "Russian Hoax" is a great book every socialist democrap should read. Let's see no pictures or stories about the socialist democraps in Puerto Rico or how the Mueller witch hunt is just that. A fake dossier, fake press (biased and leftist); hopefully the smart people can see through all of the swamp sludge.
3
@Jan 33 individuals and three corporations indicted or convicted already. That's a crazy number of "fake convictions" and "fake indictments".
I'll bet Manafort takes a lot of comfort in knowing that he's in "fake prison".
11
@Christopher
Indicted for what?
Trump Derangement Syndrome has bizarre effects on the misinformed. After 2 years the deep state could bust Dolly Madison for burning cakes.
We should all be very afraid that this cover-up posing as an investigation is continuing in a democracy like ours. I am.
Muellers got nothing which is why they are working with the Leftist Media to ameliorate the outcome.
Trumps behavior is nothing compared to whats happening to the Treason to undermine the 2016 Election
3
If one considers that the Russian figures mentioned might actually be at heart crooked capitalists, then why on Earth wouldn't Trump feel more comfortable with them than his own countryfolk?
4
So far we've seen no evidence of Putin "running" Trump.
We've seen conflation, mis-direction, and outright lies from those making these claims. The New York Times had to issue a stunning retraction to the Jan 9th article saying "Manafort gave someone in Russia Trump campaign documents".
What the Times is calling's a correction now reads "someone in Ukraine--a Manafort client".
So the Editorial Board should really reject Neo-McCarthyism instead of pushing it.
The NY Times is only helping Trump's chances of re-election with essays like this and that Manafort "mistake".
4
@Yaj
You mean the "someone" mentioned just today in FBI statements filed with the court proving Manafort lied repeatedly to the FBI, the "someone" with long time ties to Russian Intelligence?
Funny, the "retraction" seems to be getting a lot of mentions in the Russian media.
Maybe you ought to read the court filings, rather than Russian propaganda?
11
Dear NYT:
The New York Times article is an astonishing admission of wrongdoing by the FBI’s most senior officials.
The article admits (in negative pregnant fashion) first, that the FBI lacked probable cause to believe Trump was a Russian agent.
The stated reasons are clearly pretextual: Trump did not ask Russia to hack the Clinton campaign; this joking reference was to Clinton's already "bleach-bitted" server emails.
No evidence shows that Trump softened the Ukraine plank, much less that this was a quid pro quo. (See the Byron York article.)
The FBI cannot investigate simply because they disagree with a president's Russia stance. And Trump's subsequent arming of the Ukranian resistance -- plus sanctions and other anti-Russia actions -- vitiates this rationale.
The Times uncritically accepts that it was Trump's interview with Lester Holt that was the last straw. But the full interview sets out several good reasons for firing Comey, and Trump states he wants the inquiry to go forward. See https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/05/11/president_trumps_full_interview_with_lester_holt.html
Finally, this is the same FBI cabal who on August 16, 2016, cooked up the “insurance policy” in a meeting in FBI deputy director McCabe’s office, as disclosed in a text message from FBI agent Strzok to his paramour, FBI lawyer Page.
This investigation was their insurance policy.
Please publish this alternative view.
5
The real problem with Trump is that he's working for Russia and doesn't even know it!
3
The Trump Russian file shows Trump is a Russophile.
3
Actually, he has never worked. He does serve Russia though.
He runs the biggest money laundering real-estate business and
he is owned and paid for by the Russian mob and his main thug.
10
One can only hope that someday, Trump hijacks Air Force 1 to take him and his family to Moscow.
1
President Trump is right about one thing. As he says, there is a "big fat hoax" rumbling around in the bowels of the United States government. He needs a mirror.
6
trump has no interest in anything that does not translate to a dollar in his pocket. thrump is far removed from anything intellectually stimulating. Putin will be spoon feeding his desires to thrump for the desired outcome.
3
In part, they are talking about the fake news your organization publishes. Like the boy who cried "wolf," you have no credibility.
2
Do "The People" really need to know that exact conversation between 2 leaders of Nations? No. Also, since when is Russia "an enemy"?
Should we not strive to have good relations with all nations? Or only ones you approve of?
You are the problem
3
Since when is Russia the enemy? Are you joking? They just haven’t been a serious adversary in quite some time- that is until the meddling of the 2016 election and the Trump Presidency.
4
@fered Ask the Ukrainians how great relations are with Russia. Ask the folks aboard MH-17. Oh, you can't, can you? They were all murdered by Putin stooges.
4
Too bad there wasn't an accidental open mike to hear what he said off the record such as the time Obama was inadvertantly heard reassuring Putin crony Medvedev he go easy on Russia sanctions once reelected. But of course Obama was the Dem's guy, so nothing to see there. Move along, move along. And ignoring that or that Obama laid down for over two years when it was lnown Russia ised cyber meddling tactics in the US freed up the NYT for more pressing matters such as the usual Israel-bashing or whatever.
In any case, the NYT also reported Rex Tillerson was in on the meetings. So instead of goosing the grand collusion conspiracy one more spirited try before Mueller finishes officially with nada on this leaving a lot of egg on a lot of faces and Trump still standing, why not just ask Tillerson what was said? Unless you think he's also a Russian spy.
2
If Obama has been trying to built a hotel in Moscow at the time, that quote would have been extraordinary.
2
@JW--Obama did not say that. The Russians wanted a State meeting and Obama just told them he was too busy during the election time but that he would have some available time for a meeting after that.
And, yet, you made up an entire scenario. That makes your entire post suspect. You have lost your credibility.
5
Which POTUS said "tell Vlad that I'll have more flexibility after my election".
Fake News Times is ridiculous pedalling conspiracy theories conjured by corrupt deep state
2
Personally I am happy Russia is back. Nobody laughs at the Chinese. The Russians are funny. Like Trump. Russians invented the troll. My long dead grandfather was Russian. Every black and white photo I see of him, he is smirking. Russian. They also know how to take a joke, There is no Chinese Boris and Natasha. Glad the Russkies are back.
2
Giulia Sagramola's illustration says it all!
2
~Americans deserve to know what the president and Vladimir Putin are talking about.~
And yet they keep skipping the elections.
If, as the Times claims, "the truth is worth it" then you cannot write: "The Russian government interfered in the 2016 election in order to get Mr. Trump elected, of course. America’s intelligence community agrees on that." As you yourself said back in September there no public evidence yet and you ask your readers to blindly believe the secret services, including two liars to Congress, Brennan and Clapper. One of them lied about surveillance for hundreds of millions of Americans and the other had the computers of the Senate bugged as the Senate was investigating torture by the CIA! and he lied about his attempt to cover up torture, for God sake's.
So yes Trump is a liar and a conman and he likes strong men but your have abandoned your journalistic ethics in the same way you did back then over Iraqi WMDs.
Does it mean I support Trump? No he's a disaster. Do I like Putin, no he is an autocrat (helped a lot by US support for the neoliberal policies of Yeltsin).
And yes the US under Trump has been tougher on Russia than under Obama (lethal weapons to Ukraine, sanctions, attack on Nordstream...).
Every day there is an article on Russia when the real issues, the environment, tax cuts for the ultra rich, creeping fascism instigated by the whole GOP, take a back seat (not to talk about African Americans robbed of their franchise by the fraud of fraud).
I suggest readers peruse Glenn Greenwald, a man with a brain and integrity. https://theintercept.com/greenwald/
3
you people are beyond the pale. the FBI launches an unwarranted investigation into Trump because they felt threatened after he canned Comey -- a move most progs would have applauded in Oct 2016. But they were already investigating Trump Russia collusion for almost a year at that point. And guess what, it's been almost 3 years (we don't know when the FBI brass originated the original investigation into Trump Russia collusion) -- and not a shred of evidence that Trump colluded with Russia, works for Russia,etc.
The rest is all a product of your febrile imaginations -- he went to the Russian tea room once and didn't tell anyone he was going. He suddenly switched to liking Russian dressing. He read War and Peace -- it's the only book he's ever read. We all better be very afraid.
Meanwhile, Obama made fun of Romney in 2012 for saying Russia was our biggest threat. He also, not knowing the mic was on, told Medvedev to tell Vlad he could be more flexible after the election. Then he ignored the Russian incursion into Crimea, efforts to retake the Ukraine, and ignored the possibility Russia was meddling in our election until HRC lost. He also let Russia take a prominent role in the middle east -- but not a word from the EB.
Now I don't think Obama worked for Putin. And Trump doesn't either. Being on good terms with Russia might be a good thing, don't you think? Or let's break out the nukes - if that makes you happy.
3
So what conclusion does one draw other than Republican leadership are comprised of complicit traitors that subvert and pervert democratic process? I'd like to see all of them investigated and publicly executed for treason if found guilty.
3
Vladimir Putin pulled off the intelligence coop of all time. He put a compromised lackey in the Presidency. As lie after lie had fallen the conclusion that Trump is Putin's puppet is the only one that makes sense.
6
I'm afraid that we are experiencing a renaissance of McCarthyism. Just a few years back Obama mocked Romney for calling Russia a threat. Now the media, the Democrat party and warmongering Republican neocons are fanning the flames of paranoia on a scale not seen since Saddam Hussein's supposed weapons of mass destruction. Donald Trump has always been open about his attitude toward Russia. He agrees with Putin that America's foreign policy in the Middle East has been a catastrophe for the world. Trump was elected to change things. To me, the FBI kooks and fanatics like Brennan and Clapper are straight out of Dr. Strangelove. And the Democrat party and media are colluding with the lunatics.
3
I don't care if Trump is a witting agent for Putin or an unwitting "useful idiot." The very fact that he wanted to withdraw from NATO -- the western alliance that every Soviet leader, every KGB agent and now Putin himself has sought to weaken or destroy -- is proof enough that Trump is a Russian asset, not only a threat to our national security but a threat to European if not global security.
7
The only thing in Trump's Russia file is the fake Steele dossier that Crooked Hillary and Obama's corrupt DOJ colluded with Russians to produce.
Kudos to The All The Fake News That Fits The False Narrative Times for it's "bombshell" piece explaining that the Trump Russia probe is the spawn of the corrupt and vengeful FBI. A stopped clock tells the correct time twice a day.
1
"The Times reported last week that the F.B.I. started (an) investigation into Mr. Trump in 2017..."
The Times? Is this the same Times that endorsed Hillary Clinton, ran huge "I'm With Her" ads (did she pay for those?), anti-endorsed Trump and has run 100% negative Trump OpEds and unfavorable coverage since he announced his candidacy?
Is this the same Times that "broke" the news about Hillary's private server after "sources at the State Department" told the Times and only the Times. They didn't issue a press release and didn't make public statement. They only told the Times.
Is this the same FBI that now grants the Times access to unprecedented investigations on a sitting president but when questioned under oath won't answer a single question from congress about an ongoing investigation into Hillary?
Are these the same FBI agents that Trump "lashed out" against because they were texting before the primaries that Clinton should win in a landslide even though they were investigating her for potential criminal activity?
Are they the same ones who said the President should be impeached before he was sworn in and before they interviewed a single witness in the Mueller investigation?
Was this Comey the same Comey who leaked classified information to the press?
NATO? Is this the same NATO that Trump has suggested member countries pay what they owe if they want the US to continue to protect them?
Editorial Board, you do know you have zero credibility, right?
4
For the moment let's take Trump at his word that he is not working for Russia. Now let's try to find other suitable explanations for his pro-Russia positions.
1. It's a business deal: This is the most likely scenario. Trump promised to run the country like a business, and a profitable relationship with Russia fits this model to a T. The Russian economy is constructed mostly on corruption, with oligarchs and politicians alike profiting. This is the perfect environment for Trump's business model, which is also built primarily on fraud and corruption.
2. Trump is a political moron being played by Russia: This is also a likely scenario. Trump has all the political personality of your average house cat: He is the best friend of whoever feeds him, and the Russians did this expertly with their meddling to get him elected. It's no wonder he continues to lick Putin's hand.
3. Trump and Putin want to take over the world: This bumps up against Hollywood blockbuster-type movies, but it's not completely out of the realm of possibility. Two of the most powerful political leaders in the world, holding secret closed door meetings with no record of what's being said (you think Putin let his translator keep his notes?). Firm, warm handshakes accompanied by knowing smiles. Mutual admiration. Trump antagonizing Mexico and Canada while making it easier for Putin to move on eastern Europe.
So, maybe he's not working FOR them. If not, then he is most certainly working WITH them.
8
My question is this: why didn't the reporters then ask him, "Will you show the American people your tax returns just to prove that you've had no business dealings with the Russians?...just as you demanded proof from President Obama to show his birth certificate?"
7
Trump is either working for Russia, or behaving exactly like someone who is working for Russia. Take your pick.
7
Trump sees Putin as another wheeler-dealer willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants—adulation, power, money, sex. Most officials are rule followers who are motivated by ideals and values other than maximizing the satisfaction of their own base desires. Trump sees these people as losers. He thinks other winners like him and Putin will join him in the grift. Eat or be eaten America. This is your new ideal. You voted for it. And to date you’ve not stopped it.
1
Republicans need to be taken down permanently. This is the party that loudly fought every policy, every action, every minutia of the Obama administration. Obama was tarred with being un-American by the GOP and their noise machine from his birth certificate to his foreign policy. According to them, Obama sabotaged our democracy by bowing to a Saudi royal, by not wearing a flag pin, by wearing a tan suit. These were the Republican complaints when a black, democratically-elected Democrat was in the Oval office.
Now that a supposedly rich (we don't know because he never showed us his tax returns) white conservative is in the White House with Russian help, it's all kid gloves and lying to protect the liar-in-chief from our Republican sycophants. If there had been even one of facts you list here in play about Obama the GOP would have impeached him in a flash. That they ignore the huge pile of evidence against Trump, that they allow him to flaunt norms of the Presidency, like keeping transcripts of discussions with enemy governments (can you imagine them allowing Obama similar leeway with even the PM of Canada?) means that they are complicit in his desire to destroy the USA. Until the lot of them are removed from office and the treachery of the Trump presidency expunged from the record, and that includes every law he signed, every judge he appointed, and every policy he subscribed, American democracy will remain in chains. Russian chains.
4
Trump swore to be loyal and to serve the United States of America, not Russia.
American people have the right to know if their president is a traitor.
4
Blah blah blah Trump is a bad guy, this is merely flogging the dead horse even deader. Who is the alternative? Who takes over from Trump? THAT is the information we desperately need to hear.
Hint: if name recognition has any value (hint: IT DOES) then Trump has already won 2020, because there's nobody to take his place. Nobody comes to mind. News media is paralyzed. News media has become Trump's zombie publication machine, mindless, relentless.
2
Take your pick. One, Trump is bonkers. Two, Trump is working for Russia. Three, Trump is really only interested in money, and Russia gave him some. Four, Trump is being blackmailed by Russia over (fill in the blank). Five, Trump is just an idiot with the attention span of a two year old.
I no longer care what is causing Trump to do what he does, what I really desperately want is him out of the White House and the GOP Senate in the minority. I need sanity and a government that works. Without that, I doubt it will matter in a couple decades, except to historians, what caused Trump's or the GOP's behavior. The US ,as we know it, will be a distant memory. A failed experiment in self governance. I am scared and I am weary.
6
Dear NYT:
The New York Times article is an astonishing admission of wrongdoing by the FBI’s most senior officials.
The article admits (in negative pregnant fashion) first, that the FBI lacked probable cause to believe Trump was a Russian agent.
The stated reasons are clearly pretextual: Trump did not ask Russia to hack the Clinton campaign; this joking reference was to Clinton's already "bleach-bitted" server emails.
No evidence shows that Trump softened the Ukraine plank, much less that this was a quid pro quo. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/byron-york-what-really-happened-with-the-gop-platform-and-russia.
The FBI cannot open secret counterintel probes simply because they disagree with the president's Russia stance. And Trump's subsequent arming of the Ukranian resistance -- and other anti-Russia actions -- vitiates this rationale.
The Times uncritically accepts that it was Trump's interview with Lester Holt that was the last straw. But the full interview sets out several good reasons for firing Comey, and Trump states he wants the inquiry to go forward. See https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/05/11/president_trumps_full_interview_with_lester_holt.html
Finally, this is the same secretive cabal at FBI who on August 16, 2016, cooked up the “insurance policy” in a meeting in FBI deputy director McCabe’s office, as disclosed in a text message from FBI agent Strzok to his paramour, FBI lawyer Page.
This investigation was their insurance policy.
2
Let's not forget that during his campaign, the president mentioned specifically that if he loses PA and FL, then we would know that the system was rigged. During election day, both FL and PA were both going blue early. By midday they were both purple. And by the end, they both went red. The way the numbers came in for both those states was very unusual and almost in sync. Could have been a unique coincidence, but it just never felt right to me.
2
GOP are known to support traitors because they don't like our American government or way of life, and these virulent losers want to destroy equality and end democracy. By refusing to fund the government and allying themselves to autocrats and white nationalists worldwide, they are acting in the interests of regressive tyrants who want to promote and preserve an immoral way of life that promotes greed and corruption and destroys the middle class. Those in the thrall of the anti-American GOP are brainwashed or moronic and violent bullies, as we have seen in this unfortunate coup by their Russian traitor leader Trump, an unhealthy specimen of rot at the top of a grotesque base of support.
2
Suppose this was a novel, a mystery/thriller. And the president was the bad guy and the good guys were trying to figure out who was working with the enemy. Wouldn't you toss the book aside as being poorly written since its so obvious who the bad guy is?
Alas, this is reality.
8
Where there's smoke one generally finds fire. So much smoke around Trump and "the Russian thing" its like some of China's cities. Hopefully Mr. Mueller's investigation will soon result in the Trump presidency go up in flames. Not soon enough as his pandering to thug Putin is nauseating and quite suspect.
4
I honestly do not know what sort of "proof" the authorities need to determine that Trump is in cahoots with the Russians. Even if they find definitive proof (what, Putin is going to say "oh yes, Trump is my boy"), they won't indict him because they don't indict a sitting President.
When I saw him with my own eyes fall all over Putin in Helsinki (nauseating actually) then take Putin's word over our own Intelligence people...that was enough for me...Traitor.
Trump is in Putin's pocket, my opinion. I hope there still remains loyal Americans who will expose this. The GOP is complicit. We used to hang Traitors.
4
I get no pleasure in saying I told you so.
4
Trump is looking out for his business interests. He thinks doing good is for suckers. He adores the strong man like Putin who can, at will, fleece his own people. Trump doesn’t want military might or fight drug dealers like some tin pot dictator. No, he’s following the Putin playbook with a nice round number as a goal: $100 billion.
3
When I heard President Trump angrily declare that he never worked for Russia, and that such an accusation was a big fat hoax, I felt myself transported to the year 1973. That's when I heard President Nixon angrily declare, "I am not a crook!"
5
Interesting and noteworthy that Jonathan Pollard was issued a prolonged sentence for disclosing classified information to the Israelis. If the President divulged classified Israeli information to the Russians, were those disclosures any less treasonous?
5
FDR collaborated with Stalin. Research VSMPO forge group and Boeing's reliance on them. Really look into Hillary's foundation, her uranium deal, the G20 and more. What was Obama whispering to Putin? Why didn't Obama do something about Crimea, was there a back-door deal?
Get used to Trump, at least two more years. MAGA!
1
Fun! Thanks for sharing the latest conspiracy theories!
1
@Brad Byron--That you still think there is anything to that "uranium deal" shows that you are not dealing with reality.
And yet. One has to wonder: Is McConnell a traitor too? Clearly, he is not fulfilling the oath of office.
3
Imagine if President Obama had conducted himself one scintilla
as Trump has the last 2 years?
Oh my, the GOP would be foaming at the mouth for his head.
Their hypocrisy is astounding.
Hannity and Limbaugh would burst blood vessels on their head and probably have strokes.
4
Haiku
Interpreter's notes---
Were confiscated by trump...
"Vlad and me are buds."
3
The real story here, which the NYT and it's like are desperately trying to cover up, is abuse of power by the FBI and likely the previous administration. The idea that Trump was some secret agent for the Russians is ludicrous on it's face.
2
@jaco--Maybe ludicrous on your face, but in this country, it is a serious problem.
2
GOP cowardice in the face of outrageous, illegal behavior by their leader is likely due to the Russians having “kompromat” on Republican leadership: McConnell, Sessions, Ryan, Graham et al.
4
How many Republican members of congress have been blackmailed or bribed by Russia, Saudi Arabia, Israel?? I have a feeling that when Mueller pulls the lid off this festering can of worms, it’s goingvto make every American sick to their stomach. And every republican voter will have a little lifetime of crow to eat.
4
I am not sure which is worse: The presidents in-your-face man-love for Putin, or the republicans sheer idiocy and politicization of the presidents man-love for Putin. In nautical terms the ship is sinking and the crew doesn't want to acknowledge it.
2
Witting or unwitting doesn't matter. Whether Trump knowingly advocated Putin's desire to destroy NATO or was simply his "useful idiot," his contempt for the western alliance and our European allies is proof enough that he is a Russian asset and a threat to our national security.
3
Only one person (Putin) does the talking, the puppet (Trump) only appears lifelike due to ventriloquism.
1
"Your president is not a crook."
Does any one remember that memorable sentence from one Richard M Nixon who was the president then? What is more important, does any one remember what happened? Turned out he was a crook after all.
Now comes another so-called president, one Donald J Trump who finally, after refusing to answer the question several times, said that he never did "work for Russia" and that is a big fat hoax. The same way climate change is a hoax from China? The same way the Mueller investigation that was triggered by his own action of firing the then FBI director is a "hoax" and a "witch hunt"?
For the sake of our country let's hope that this time his answer will turn out that it is not a lie. Otherwise perhaps we can change his rallying cry from "Lock her up" to "lock him up". Or will it be "Lock them up": Trump, Manafort, Gates, Flynn, etc.
3
Many of us in this country believe that we do not have a president at all. If Trump will not act in the interests of the population, the Republican cowards in the Senate better darn well do so.
2
"...not to mention one as adversarial as Vladimir Putin."
Hearing the story of how Putin managed to get out of Berlin's KGB HQ is enough to make it very clear who the "killer" is in his relationship with Donald Trump.
We've been kompromat.
1
Allowing trump to finish his term as our president is like playing Russian Roulette first with a fully loaded revolver. So much for America First to go in Putin's plans to conquer the world. No Donald, it's not a good thing for the frog to be friends with the scorpion, and no I do not believe that your snake poison is snake oil.
One can ask if the Republicans are working for Russia too. Look how they obstruct justice and investigations to defend Russia's attack on America on their behalf and leader. Indeed, Republicans will fully back their Russian agent leader's demand to redact and hide all criminal exposure in Mueller's report under the guise of executive privilege.
Equally direct evidence that the trump campaign and company tried to coordinate with Russia include the trump tower meeting, Jared and Flynn's efforts to establish a direct, secure and hidden communications channel with Russia and the statement of relief in the people's Oval Office when trump and Russians LAUGHED OUT LOUD celebrating the greatest con in the history of the Universe on the most powerful country on Earth installing one of their own as POTUS and getting rid of that pesky and troublesome Comey - oh, and the casual forwarding of top secret intelligence from Israel and who knows what else.
Trump has incessantly disparaged and abused most Americans, especially heroes, patriots, intellectuals, former allies and entire rainbow of races not white. Yet Russian kleptocrats he aspires to are all immune.
4
We need to know what Putin has on Trump.
THERE IS SOMETHING. It's beyond obvious, now.
3
I have been amiss in saying Trump is a traitor. The Supreme Court gave a very limited definition of treason and it was, effectively, a solider, or citizen, of the U.S. giving aide and comfort to the enemy.
That said, there is no question that President Trump was, and is, an unregistered agent of a foreign power: Russia. The change of the Republican platform on the Ukrainian plank demonstrated Trump, perhaps through members of his campaign, serving the interests of Russia/Putin.
When Flynn asked Kislyak ( caught on tapes being made of Kislyak's calls) to have Russia/Putin not react to the Obama sanctions of Dec 2016, and then Russia/Putin did not react, it is obvious that Russia/Putin did not react because Flynn had asked them not to react, but because Trump had asked them not to react, through Flynn, and perhaps others before Flynn got the last assignment. Putin would not take a message from Flynn, let alone act on it, unless he knew the President Elect, Donald Trump, was the person sending the message.
The appointment of Tillerson, as Secretary of State, and who is a hero of Russia, who had the medal pinned on by Putin, also raised my antennae. And when the State Department pushed out it's best people, all around the world I saw Trump was a Russian agent.
Trump's writing the lies about the Tower meeting that Donald Jr. called, was the action of an agent.
Firing Comey; putting Russia/Putin above and ahead of America at Helsinki. acting in Russia/Putin's favor.
Etc.
4
Did you ever hear of the word, "detente?" It means that there is a relaxing of tensions between nations. What is wrong with that? Do you realize the damage you are causing by making fun of this? Basically, you are making something out of nothing. Politics is not a game. The government is responsible for the safety and welfare of an entire nation. Donald Trump is doing the right thing.
2
Russia meddled in our elections. They have not relaxed their tensions with us. According to Alexei Venediktov, the editor-in-chief of the independent radio station Echo of Moscow, “Trump was attractive to people in Russia’s political establishment as a disturber of the peace for their counterparts in the American political establishment.” Venediktov spoke of Trump as a source of “turbulence,” which is useful because a “country that is beset by turbulence closes up on itself—and Russia’s hands are freed.
1
This editorial and those like it are why I subscribe to the NYT. It is a model of fairness, clarity, and common sense.
2
F.B.I. and the Justice Department have sworn to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Most of them are good actors, but it appears that NY Times' is not capable of accepting that there were some bad actors because their bad acts were directed against Trump. These bad actors in the FBI and DOJ were acting as domestic enemies. If these people started an investigation against Trump alleging he is a Russian spy because he fired James Comey, it is really an enemy act by Deep State. It is dangerous and there actions must be investigated by a special counsel.
2
Um. Trump said he partly fired Comey over “this Russia thing”. On national TV. We don’t have to guess why he did it. And that, is a good case for obstruction. And then, you have to wonder why.
1
Trump "..calling (FBI) 'known scoundrels'” is ANOTHER proverbial last straw of abuse from The Executive.
Actually, it's just one more link in an astounding Disinformation Campaign directed at the Republican base who bite down hard on every shiny, jiggling lure.
Ending our government - over Wall legislation that didn't pass Republican House and Republican Senate FOR TWO YEARS - is patently absurd.
McConnell shirks his Constitutional duty, again, in Day 25. This only adds to the unanswered questions about HIS INACTION AND SILENCE:
- going back to Trump's candidacy and
- back to Trump's earliest attacks upon Mueller.
"What we still do not know is how detailed and convincing a briefing McConnell and other officials received on what was happening. We should revisit (McConnell's refusal of a united front against Russian interference)."
"This raises new questions about another McConnell action: The refusal to hold votes on legislation protecting the special counsel."
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/opinions/2019/01/14/trump-is-doing-immense-damage-he-has-hidden-helper/
It's taking two to end our government: Trump and McConnell.
4
Trump stands in plain site as a dupe of Putin. His Republican apparatchiks are all complicit. Eisenhower, Nixon and Reagan must be rolling in their graves.
While the reporting about the FBI opening an investigation is interesting, the breathless reporting about it belies the apparent fact that they reached no conclusion.
Mueller will. Attempts to stop that should be considered nothing less than treason.
1
There is little question everything Trump has done and said fits into Putin's grand plan for Russia. An intense investigation into Trump and Russia is justified by all the evidence. Even Trump's latest revelations regarding our withdrawal from NATO smells of Putin's wishes. We should not have a president that is obviously anti American and pro Russia.
@Karn Griffen
It is better to get along and keep the peace. Negotiation and detente are extremely important.
1
It's hard to believe anything Trump claims that serves his interests. But, I suppose he hasn't technically drawn a paycheck from Putin. However, if we count Trump's dealings with Putin's crooked bankers in Russia and Ukraine, I think we can say he has worked for Russia.
1
@Don Blume
Did you ever hear of detente?
1
Looking at the list of actions Trump has taken since becoming President, it certainly looks like Trump could be accused of colluding with Russia even more during his Presidency than during the campaign. It is understandable that the FBI would raise questions about Trump's loyalties. It is not understandable or acceptable that the Congress under the leadership of the Republicans would not have grave doubts about Trump's foreign policy.
5
Well, at least the security apparatus and State departments need to know. The public needs to get some data to explain why Trump is apparently very closely coordinating with Putin on what to tweet.
1
He is so limited (stupid) that he can't even give a plausible false response to the question only blustery defensiveness "How can you possibly ask that? You should be ashamed!". My deeper concern is that there may be a significant number of senators and members of congress who are also in thrall to Putin.
4
Some Republicans were hacked too. But the Russians didn’t release any of their emails... Maybe their’s some blackmail going on?
1
Over the past few days Donald Trump has denied that he does, or ever has, worked for Russia. He has called the suggestion insulting. In his own way and in his own mind he may be telling the truth, his version of it. The very notion that he, Donald Trump, might be working for or have worked for someone else must be an anathema to him. He just doesn’t do that, and such an idea that would so violate his own sense of self as a born leader, controller and of such evident charismatic power, that it simply never could have been true. He can see Putin as an equal, someone to work with possibly, but never work for. Donal Trump could never allow that anyone else might have the chops to play him, even if that other person was an experienced and dedicated ex-KGB man with the full weight of Russian intelligence psychologists to help him.
Donald Trump’s denials in this matter mean nothing.
7
15 years in Moscow have taught me that the Kremlin operates its politics domestically and internationally through a combination of bribery and blackmail. That trump was caught in that net is no surprise at all... You certainly can't appeal to his character or history for any sense that he wouldn't be more than willing to sell out anyone and anything for personal gain. The only possible exculpatory point would be to wonder what the Kremlin would see in such a huckster in the first place (the answer most likely being the money laundering came before the political opportunity).
In the end though, the Kremlin has nothing positive to offer to motivate others to their side. No ideology, no soft power... only state money and kompromat. This strategy only works in so far as our own institutions and people in power are corrupted. A government that actually had strict enforcement around emoluments, that defended transparency and demanded accountability would be inoculated from the Kremlin's poison.
Then again, a government that did that would never have trump at its head in the first place...
1016
@Jeff Chalmers
America's government is Of, For and By the people. We have met the enemy and it is us.
35
@Jeff Chalmers
Yours is a great comment. The reasoning set forth makes perfect sense. Thank you for that.
56
Is @Jeff Chalmers another Russian agent telling us what we want to hear? What are his motives?
I hate it that I've come to think like that, that I have to think like that.
What happens if Trump's lifestyle leads to a fatal coronary or stroke, before he is arrested? Where's the closure?
[sigh!]
13
I wish Mitch McConnell would tell us if Vladimir Putin is now a member in good standing of the Republican Party.
4
A tepid call.
My hair is on fire. Yours?
3
A president who thinks that the FBI is a bunch of "dirty cops" should be removed from office.
177
@Clark Landrum. He's trying out for a part in "The Godfather." Agreed, he is inept, incompetent, and bigly ignorant.
9
Agreed... I mean; I hate to say it but, I Must, after two years : Our President is Not Trustworthy. :(
4
The problem is also, what does Republican leadership know, and what are they going to do about it. When Mitch McConnell said he'd regard any action on Russia before the election as a partisan move, he signaled party over country in no uncertain terms - and Trump is the party these days.
If anything, McConnell has dug the hole even deeper by enabling Trump to keep the government shut down. He could end it simply by allowing the Senate to vote on the budget bills they'd already passed before. It would then be up to Trump and Trump alone to veto them - and risk being overridden. Again, party over country.
It has been remarked that if Trump is not thoroughly compromised by Russia, what else could explain his actions? (The FBI was forced to ask that question, and investigate.) The continuing unquestioning support by McConnell, the rest of the GOP, and FOX for Trump and their refusal to even acknowledge the Russian fingerprints all over the administration means that Putin has effectively compromised all of them.
They have betrayed the trust of the American people. They all must go.
7
With the help of an inactive Republican party, Trump is in the process of seizing power. Can the American people believe that he will relinquish the presidency in 4 years? Like all authoritarian regimes, their leaders continue to survive.
4
I am still skeptical that there was or is actual direct "collusion" between the Trump crime family and the Russians, in spite of Donny, Jr's attempt to engage in it at the infamous Trump Tower meeting.
It's all about money and dirty business deals. Putin owns Trump. What keeps Trump awake at night is not Mueller finding collusion, but discovering that Trump has had illegal business dealings for decades in Russia, that he's not half as successful as he pretends to be, and that he is deeply, seriously compromised by the Russians.
(That said, yes, let's get out of Syria yesterday. It's in the US interest to do so, even if Putin thinks it helps him.)
3
I am leaning toward this conclusion also. when Trump says, no collusion! what does he mean? that he did not personally arrange a tit for tat with Vlad or his henchmen? that he did not actively conspire in particular arrangements for his own benefit, like the apartment house maintenance scam his family cooked up? and, what's the difference now, when it is pretty clear that whether Trump colluded intentionally or got caught by his own neediness and hubris in a web set by Putin, he is still a Russin asset.
Trump will release the contents of his discussions with Putin just after he releases his tax returns. That is, when our Congress requires disclosure---highly unlikely, because of the cynical and deceitful behavior of McConnell. When the history of this era is written, McConnell will be described as the man who removed all remaining civility, honor, and integrity from our government.
7
The Steele dossier was never proved to be incorrect.
4
I'm betting that when asked if he "worked" for Russia, DT thought in very specific terms. Did he get a wage, punch a clock, receive a W-2. . . . But, if he had been asked if he had ever been "influenced" by Russia or "blackmailed" (for money laundering, the golden shower, etc., etc,) by Russia, he might have answered differently, if he were being truthful. It all depends on what "worked" means.
2
Is nothing more important to Republicans in Congress than winning a Primary election? Will it eventually become clear to at least a number of them that this is all likely to end badly for them? The power of Trump’s base within the Republican portion of the electorate is clear. However, it is also clear that this segment grows smaller all the time and is likely to continue to shrink as more and more evidence of the Trump corruption and incompetence mounts.
3
So Trump was insulted by reporters asking if he was working for the Russians? Good. Let him feel insulted ... over and over again until he is out of the White House. I couldn't think of a more deserving individual if I tried.
3
Helsinki will go down as one of the lowest points in the history of our country.
7
There were a number of coincidences that were dismissed in the assassination of JFK so that the Warren Commission conclusion could be accepted.
The number of "coincidences" of Trump and his campaign's interaction with the Russians cannot be dismissed. At what point do "coincidences" become highly reliable circumstantial evidence? There are no "coincidences" when it's Russia and Trump. It's all planning. Whether due to kompromat or willingly, the incompetent, corrupt, and treasonous miscreant must be removed. ASAP!
4
What about this angle? The current administration has eased restrictions on domestic oil exploration at a time when the US is already the top producer of oil in the world ( https://investingnews.com/daily/resource-investing/energy-investing/oil-and-gas-investing/top-oil-producing-countries/ ). The US backs Saudi Arabia (#2) militarily and Russia (#3) backs Iran (#6) militarily. What if the US and Russia egg on their "allies" into a military conflict between #2 Saudis and #6 Iranians (keeping our respective distances) where their oil fields likely will be each others primary initial military targets? Such a conflict could embroil Iraq (#7), UAE (#8) and Kuwait (#10) if ethnic/religious overtones creep in. Taking out the competition leaves the US and Russia as the dominant oil producers in the world, by far. While it would be a far-fetched made for TV movie, or a typical Robert Ludlum scenario, is anything off the table these days??? Certainly makes the oligarchs richer, and how does Trump benefit in this equation??? Another question about those quiet conversations with Putin with no advisors present... or the more quiet conversations at Mar-A-Lago with the money power brokers.....
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
- Martin Luther King Jr.
2
Let's recall more of the details of that meeting in the Oval Office with Lavrov and Kislyak. It was the day after Comey had been fired, hence the topic of conversation. It was also held in the Oval Office at the specific request of Vladimir Putin. Probably listening devices and other monitoring equipment accompanied the two Russian diplomats.
Of course, and not for the only time, we only learned of the meeting at all because of Russian press releases with photographs documenting the occasion--no American photographers were permitted. You also see the only genuine smile we've seen from our "dear leader".
I believe that everything we've puzzled over during the past two years finally makes complete sense with the Times and WaPo articles over the weekend. Trump always acted like a compromised and cowed asset; now we understand that it was all true. And in foreign policy, this is a screaming disaster, from the Ukraine platform change during the GOP convention in summer of 2016 to the withdraw from Syria and the murmured withdraw from NATO.
Someone get him out of there!
6
@mother of two
Not so. This all was revealed in a NYT story, one of the early breaches of national security that caused Trump to distrust the career national security staff and the media covering them.
Let's be blunt: Someone anonymously committed a felony by leaking this highly classified information to The Times, with the intent to damage Trump and feed the Russia collusion narrative.
And we do not “know” exactly what Trump said to Lavrov, other than warning Russia to beware a new type of terrorist bomb threat (laptops) to airlines. (I hope the Russians would warn us of any similar new threat against our airplanes.)
And let’s be clear as to the efficient cause of any harm resulting from the discussion.
It was the publication of this “highly classified” information in The Times – not the secret discussion itself – that put sources and methods at risk. And it was The Times that disclosed the information came from Israel, which would allow the terrorists to pin down the source.
1
After massive and rigorous investigation,what PROOF do we have of any criminal act between President Trump and Russia?
The resources of the FBI have seen directed at Trump. Covert surveillance resources of our government have been used. We know that because the unmasked conversation between Flynn and The Russian ambassador. His peoples homes and offices have been raided. Process crimes have been uncovered for some, and actual crimes unrelated to any interactions between Trump and Russian have been recovered.
The investigation however seems to have issue. What specific crime was identified to appoint Mueller. I understand Rosenstein, who recommended firing Comey after the IG report coming him appointed. There are serious questions about the Fisa warrant like apparently not being crystal clear that the dossier was funded by HRC campaign and Steele was fired for leaking to the media. We have seen Mccabbe fired after issues uncovered by the AG. Rosenstein apparently trying to go down the separate route of the 25th through wearing a wire. Text by Strozk showing bias against Trump.
So I ask again what PROOF of illegal election conspiracy between Trump and Russia exists?
1
@John...."After massive and rigorous investigation,what PROOF do we have of any criminal act between President Trump and Russia?"....During the election, his campaign manager gave closely guarded Republican polling and strategy data to a Russian operative. His National Security Adviser was found guilty of lying to the FBI about a phone conversation with the Russian Ambassador about easing sanctions. Russian money laundered through the NRA helped fund the Trump campaign. It would seem that no matter what evidenced is presented some people are in massive and rigorous denial. And of course we have yet to see the Muller report.
6
@W.A. Spitzer
"His National Security Adviser was found guilty of lying to the FBI about a phone conversation with the Russian Ambassador about easing sanctions."
Yes, a process crime as I brought up. I understand the conversation was likely legal but the unmasking of covert surveillance about Flynn was very likely a crime.
"His National Security Adviser was found guilty of lying to the FBI about a phone conversation with the Russian Ambassador about easing sanctions."
If Manafort had been registered as a foreign agent I expect that would be legal. So again, where is a Trump crime.
"Russian money laundered through the NRA helped fund the Trump campaign." . Has anyone at all been charged, indicted, or convicted?
"some people are in massive and rigorous denial."
Are you in denial of potential problems with the investigators consider Strzok, Yates. Rosenstein recommending firing Comey and then appointed Mueller in part because he fire Comey did. Mcabbee fired as a result of IG report, Covert apparently legal conversions with Flynn (who Trump fired) and the Russian ambassador being leaked to the media including unmasking Flynn. Trump, like Andrew Cuomo has surrounded himself with some corrupt people but that does not prove either is a criminal.
John, Rosenstein told the senate that he knew that Trump was going to fire Comey before he wrote his “letter”. Let that sink in for a minute. And to your point about Manafort, had he registered as a foreign agent, he would not have been allowed to run the Trump campaign. Come on, man. And what about Flynn? He also failed to register as a foreign agent.
The fact that Trump thinks it's okay to talk privately with an adversary and conceal conversations is just wrong. He needs to start being transparent like he says he is.
4
There is an entire book "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump," authored by 30 reputable psychologists, psychiatrists, and philosophers, on the lack of fitness of Mr. Trump for the office he now occupies. An even more dangerous case is that, we, the people, are helpless in democratically ousting him except by voting him out in the next election.
Impeachment has never worked in the past, nor will it work this time, because we will not have 67 senator to vote against him.
In the days of the divine right of kings, if the king was cruel and unethical, his subjects had little choice but to quietly suffer and hope for a more benevolent next king.
Viewing our own situation, we are currently being ruled by an unethical President, whom we elected. He is not bothered by the rule of law or by the existence of a written Constitution which he is expected to uphold. We are condemned to endure his rule for four, or, maybe, eight years.
2
Maybe Manafort was Trump's campaign chairman precisely because he was the one best connected to coordinate with Russia.
4
@Joe, Definitely, and then to be blamed for everything, pretending that Trump was unaware
1
Wonder what the basis was for McCarthy's "quip"?
One doesn't just slur a fellow Republican that way.
Rorhabacher worked for Dutch Reagan, as fierce an anti-communist as Nixon. To see him become a Putin asset is pretty shocking. To learn that Republicans new, but ignored it reveals their treasonous lack of concern for integrity, ethics, and loyalty to the US Constitution
5
'Mr. Trump subsequently said the Soviet Union was right to invade Afghanistan in 1979, parroting Russian revisionist history by claiming it was seeking to quell terrorism.'
The Russians, liars, of course, all of them. The world knows it. They are not like us - we like to call a spade a spade. And the world knows it.
I recently read this report in the NYT paper of February 20, 2069. It said that America built a concrete wall along its southern border with Mexico in 2019 because too many middle-eastern terrorists and central American rapists were getting through the unprotected border and were causing havoc in the US and frightening all the good-looking American women.
That must be true - Americans do not lie; never have, never will.
(Also reminded me of the time this exam hall monitor in India caught one of the girl students cheating again and confronted her. She, naturally, denied doing anything wrong and he exploded: you lied with me yesterday, you lie with me today and you will lie with me tomorrow.)
2
I think we can rightfully assume that a majority of Republicans have, through various sources, i.e. the NRA, RNC, received some cash from our friends in Moscow, otherwise they would say something or be even a little curious to such abnormal behavior from someone in the Oval Office. Being in the “Cult of Trump” leaves them little wiggle room.
5
The only leaders who talk privately with opposing leaders without ever divulging what was said are dictators. But even dictators prep long and hard for such meetings with advisors and intelligence briefs. Trump doesn't. Hence, being so out of his depth, he opens himself, and the whole country, to being played for a fool -- which they've all known for a very long time; an easily manipulated fool: Toss a couple of compliments his way and he'll tell you where the subs are.
2
The graphic at the top of this article is a cute idea, but not accurate -- the GOP, though it is refusing to see or hear evil, is certainly active in speaking it.
1
Since every president has private conversations with world leaders, it's hard to justify this attack on Putin OR 'Americans' right to know. Editorial Board?
Kevin McCarthy to the rescue?
Just last month he was doing a convincing audition for Speaker (whenever a quorum of Rs resign from the Trump cult) with a convincing imitation of Paul Ryan's ventriloquist dummy. Kevin better be careful because facts, rational thinking, and coherent reasoning have become controlled substances in Trumpdom, I mean Trumpdumb.
We should not be acting as if this is suddenly a revelation. It has been painfully obvious that Trump has an unhealthy relationship with Putin’s Russia since early 2016. With each obsequious and solicitous action toward Putin,Trump made this clear. Every opportunity he had to choose either Russia’s or America’s interests, Trump chose Russia. Democrats and the mainstream press have been so obsessed with being perceived as ‘fair,’ they have timidly given every benefit of the doubt. Republicans and conservative media have been so anxious to get what they want, they have knowingly and actively chosen to look the other way.
Meanwhile, Putin found a useful idiot who is easily manipulated because 1) Trump owes Putin’s mafia money, and 2) Trump’s debilitating narcissism makes his responses to stimuli predictable. Trump may hesitantly take a full day to say he “doesn’t work for Russia,” but he knows he cannot openly defy them. He may fear being humiliated by Putin, or he may even fear for his life.
Now, we are at Trump’s end game. Mueller’s investigation hangs over him. The new Democratic House’s impending public investigations hang over him. Putin knows Trump’s time is running out, so the Russian mafia’s threats are hanging over him, and they are calling in their notes. Hence the inexplicable announcements since the elections to withdraw from Syria and to ease sanctions on Deripaska. We must stop pretending the obvious isn’t true. This has to end now.
7
I assume at some point that the Democratic House will subpoena his tax returns. The money will tell the story.
4
What's weird is how quickly the symbolism turns around. Soft on Russia was the shibboleth that fractured Republicans among themselves, and led them to heap obloquy upon the democrats who actually were quite happy to wage cold war hot wars (Korea and Vietnam). HRC supposedly had criminal ties to Russia. But she was the one Russia did not want to be prez, and now that Trump is in Russia is wonderful. This is all about race and religion. Nothing else matters in the U.S. We are that insular.
3
Putin clearly runs Trump. Whether it is blackmail, financial interest manipulation or something else, Trump has been doing Putin's bidding since he moved into the White House. The Republican party, however, has been complicit in this abhorrent behavior. I understand they fear the popular with the base President, but are there no patriotic Republicans?
6
Is Trump playing a semantics game here? As Clinton did with the words "is" and "sex," is Trump toying with the questions asked about him "working" for Russia. Trump may be conveniently viewing "work" as an action involving a direct, monetary payment. Although he would probably lie regardless, it would be interesting if reporters were instead to ask him if he ever took any actions at the request of Putin or anyone else associated with the Russian government.
2
All leaders who represent the American People need to know what takes place behind closed doors that involves the government and its people.
2
Most of the examples of questionable Trump actions vs Russia occurred after the FBI investigation was begun. Many other actions by Trump have a negative impact on Russia and the article makes no mention of these. When has any other administration provided interpreters minutes of high level Presidential conversations to the press or anyone else? Why would any foreign head of state or minister agree to a conversation with the President that would be published in the NY Times? Just absurd.
@t hutch
Nobody is talking about publishing in the NY Times, but the Secretary of State must be informed, don't you think?
The translator should be subpoenaed and testify in public before the House.
172
@KittyC
Surprise ! Why hasn't the translator already been subpoenaed and required to testify in public before the house ?
The entire episode is disgraceful. Prior to digesting reader's comments about this article, I spent time reading about the real life hardships of those folks (and their families) who have been working without pay, even to the point where their children are now searching for any type of work to support their families. And guess what ? Mr. Trump could care less.
Along the same line, why hasn't the Senators been more active in opposing Trump by voicing concerns the way things are NOT going ? They need to wake up and realize that they represent not only the people in their state, but all Americans.
Maybe we need another Brexit to show how
ineffective a government can be.
4
@KittyC Bring his or her notes and transcripts. Assume the are stamped with a date and time.
5
When this admin falls, it won’t be due to the many and undeniably curious connections to Putin’s government.
It will be a) money laundering; b) tax fraud; c) obstruction of justice.
Take your pick. Any or all.
5
To take this point a bit further, some of his other actions can also be viewed as indirectly benefiting Russia in addition to other, more obvious players. We should remember that a major goal of Putin is to punish, as well as weaken, the USA. A way to punish is to make life harder for US citizens. By opening an attack on multiple fronts, chaos ensues and the stress level for all US citizens rises. These other actions include:
1. Start trade wars, especially with China. Prices in USA rise, economy weakened. Perhaps shifts Chinese business elsewhere, including to Russia.
2. Keep the US government shut down and promote discord among US citizens over a non-issue.
3. Weaken environmental protections, promoting turning the US natural environment into more of a toxic dump
4. Treat immigrants as criminals, separating them from their children.
5. Promote divisive and manipulative social media content to create anger and division.
Altogether, it seems like another goal is to generate maximal stress for US citizens on the greatest number of fronts and to encourage our fighting each other. I look at all of his actions in that light.
7
I do not know or even have a view as to whether Trump has been or is actively working on behalf of Russian interests as a result of any particular influence that Putin, Russia, or any other Russian interests have over him or whether he does so out of naiveté or mere stupidity. However, it is quite clear that he has been and continues to be a Russian/Putin "asset" wittingly or unwittingly in their pursuit of goals and policies in Russia's interests at the expense of those of the US and our traditional global alliances. Of that fact there can be no doubt.
It should upset us all that we now have leadership in both the White House and their enablers in the Republican party who are acting directly in contradiction to the interests and benefits of the US. I cannot believe that there are many Republicans in Congress who do not understand the jeopardy of such actions. Now is the time for them to stand up and object to this behavior and the terrible consequences of it to our international relationships and the respect of our traditional alliance partners.
It is urgently important that each branch of government executive, legislative, and judiciary exercise fully and responsibly its role as defined within our Constitution and achieve the envisioned balances within that founding document.
6
Trump has no problem saying he has never worked for Russia because, in his world, Russia works for him.
4
Unfortunately, Trump is only a symptom. The disease is what's happened to roughly 40% of our fellow citizens, who accept corruption as an acceptable way to "do business". Who embrace this charlatan not in spite of who he is and what he represents, but because of it. And yes, the GOP had a big hand in shaping, nurturing, nourishing the monster that this segment of our fellow citizens has become, but in the end, in this case, it does come down to personal choices. And personal responsibility for the choices one makes. As David Foster Wallace once said, it's up to each and every one of us to choose how we think. Whether we demonize the poor, those less fortunate, those from other places, of other religions, those who love differently than we might and, conversely, whether we worship and deify those born on third base who've convinced themselves they hit a triple, are choices we make. Whether we choose to think the best of people or the worst, whether we choose to fear or embrace, whether we choose to share or hoard. Those are choices people make. Sure, maybe aided and abetted by the hate fomented by Faux Infotainment and all of those who profit from the circus they've created, but in the end, people choose whether to inform themselves or to believe the voices in their heads -- including those that are blasted through the airwaves. There's a rot in our hulls. We might be able to get rid of the ship's commander, but repairing that rot? Where -- how -- do we even begin?
5
He obviously thanked him for helping him get elected!
1
It's a funny way of making 'America great' - cozying up to a long-time, dangerous, and avowed adversary. While alarming and troubling, the base seems completely unbothered. And these are the same folks who raged against Obama, and still do, for his 'un-Americaness' . . .
4
That’s because most Russians are white.
2
Anyone else feel like our American neighbours are setting up for the most epic movie plot ever? Based on real-life events!
Why do I picture this ending with beyond-the-pale lurid details exposed, Trump arrested, multiple U.S Senators being arrested, the GOP imploding, just everything imploding?
Line up the directors, but seriously... because it just feels beyond reality at this point, reading the news.
4
The Republicans tried to crucify Hillary for a possible misuse of her Email server. Yet, they are perfectly willing to overlook Trump's treasonous collusion with the Russians because, in reality, the GOP reaped the rewards of the Russian intervention in the 2016 election. The hypocritical Republican Party leadership of today would be incarcerated according to the standards of their one-time hero, Joe McCarthy.
9
The Republican Party has been saying for decades that "the government is the enemy."' "The government" IS our Republic, as defined by the Constitution of the United States of America.
When someone says that are the enemy of our Republic, and keeps attacking the plain meaning of the Constitution and the institutions created under it, shouldn't we believe them?
Republicans constantly accuse Democrats of being traitors, but it is they that call our government the enemy.
Article I of the Constitution says Congress should tax trade. Republicans say "taxation is theft," and keeps undermining the ability of the government to finance its operations, consistently cutting taxes on the rich, while raising spending, even though they say debt will destroy the country. Doesn't this combination of actions mean they are trying to destroy the nation by borrowing and spending?
The base of the Republican Party worships the Confederacy. When the Southern States realized that democracy was not going to let them expand slavery into the New Territories, they raised an army and attacked our union. They were traitors and the base of the Republican Party thinks their "heritage" is those traitors.
Compromise with the Party of Traitors is not wide, reasonable, or pragmatic. Compromise with traitors is tantamount to treason.
The Democratic Party has to stop treating treason as something to compromise with.
Every American has to pick a side. Those that support the Constitution need to say so loudly!
3
I felt at the time that something was askew. When you have a much publicized world meeting with another world leader the people should and have a right to know. With all the underhanded dealings of this secretive president and his minions we need to know.
2
I am in complete agreement with this Opinion. Not mentioned in this piece, however, are the numerous attempts to establish back-channel communications between the Kremlin and this White House by Jared Kushner and Tom Prince .
The saying goes, "Where there is smoke, there is fire." I'm looking forward to seeing the Mueller investigation completed and the Democratic Congress investigate the many tentacles that are Chump/Putin. Before this is all over, the American people will learn that this Chump/Russia conflagration is burning hotter, longer, and larger than the Camp Fire that destroyed Paradise, CA. We will also understand how this horror show was aided and abetted by Republican lawmakers' complicity, lack of morals and complete lack of oversight.
2
Pootie owns him and the so-called president, railing against NATO, racially dividing 'Merica as much as he can, weakening civil rights and voting safeguards, continues to do what he can to please his master.
Democracy is truly in danger.
2
Follow the Russian money connection of the entire GOP. As Socrates says in the comments, they are the Russian-Republicans. Something has got to be highly suspect when the Russians go from being enemies of America to being buddies with the Kremlin. We know the Russians gave money to the NRA which gave money to the GOP, but further investigations are needed to drive home the point to Trump's base that the GOP are traitors to this country. We already know Trump is. Investigate how the Russians infiltrated and came to own the GOP.
2
The United States has a Russian Asset as President. It's the intelligence coup of the century. The question is What are You Going to do About It?
2
It is indeed a disgrace that the president was asked whether he was a Russian agent/asset, but the disgrace is Trump's own for behaving like one. Right now, we know Trump has been behaving very peculiarly, flattering Putin to an embarrassing degree and putting Russian interests (and his company's) ahead of American ones again and again, in public statements siding with Putin over our own intelligence community, and in secret meetings he still hasn't accounted for. Of course he wants to undermine the Justice Department and the FBI and the special counsel -- he's known they were onto him for years. All he can do is whip up conspiracy theories and play the martyr. Everything is someone else's fault. But the evidence speaks for itself.
3
It would be naïve at this point not to think the worse of Trump because, aside from a life long career as a fraud who has been in and out of court for decades, he has done everything wrong for the last two years in a position he never had the right to hold except for illegal and suspicious "help" from all types of Russians, including the army of Trolls -- and "loop holes" in an outdated Electoral College.
We, The People, --discounting the so-called Trump Base, are beyond sick and tired of being held captive on the media air ways. The GOP appears to be "infiltrated" by Russia, too, at this point, and by creeps ("Little Nothing Nunes" and "Too Old To Be Brave McConnell" and "Just Plain Creepy Kushnar" and the list is long...)we've learned to despise for good reasons.
We, The People, spoke in 2016. We just spoke again in 2018, and we will speak in a deafening roar in 2020. Donald Trump and his base of creepy good for nothing but chaos and greed should be in prison for devaluing everything hat was already good and great about "We, The People."
3
“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump.”
I listened to that recording of Mr. McCarthy. It was not a quip. And Mr. Ryan was not joking when he agreed and instructed everybody there to never say another word about it. Too many lies, fellas. How many Republicans have been paid by Russia? The Dallas Morning News reported that they have received millions. The American people need to know what the heck is going on, including what was on the piece of paper that Mr. Trump confiscated from the interpreter after the secret meeting with Putin. My goodness! Trump refused to tell his own staff what they discussed or what they agreed to.
5
Our definition of treason is too specific, and too related to conditions in the 18th century when it took over a month to sail between the New World and the Old World.
Treason as defined in our constitution can only occur during war time, when an American citizen works with a foreign, active adversary to overthrow the government of the United States.
Trump obviously works all the time with oligarchs around the world, including Vladimir Putin, the richest and most powerful man in Russia, who is President with no rivals for life whatever his title is - Tzar? He commands Russian Intelligence, from whence he came, and there are no checks and balances on his power. He eliminates any really likely opponents or rivals by murder - on foreign or demestic soil.
Trump loves Putin and is subservient to him. Trump supports Putin even against American interests. This seems treasonous to ordinary Americans but it does not meet the definition of treason in the Constitution.
Washington made short shrift of any soldier cooperating with the enemy during the Revolutionary War: he had the soldier who cooperated with the enemy hung on the nearest tree within 24 hours.
We have had so little treasonous behavior since that our legal codes have no definition of what treason is during peacetime. Mueller is trying to prove conspiracy which most Americans don't understand. The real problem is that most Trump voters would rather be Russian than Democratic.
5
Thanks for pointing out and summarizing the surrealism of the last 2 years of Trump in the White House.
I think the sentence
"Despite Mr. Trump’s insistence that he has been “much tougher on Russia” than previous presidents, he sure has a strange way of showing it."
should be
"Despite Mr. Trump’s insistence that he has been “much tougher on Russia” than previous presidents, he routinely has a direct way of demonstrating the opposite."
4
I can only hope for this: the GOP is simply being cautious and awaiting the Mueller report. That is going to be their true test. If it is revealed that Trump is either a witting or unwitting agent of Russia—and the GOP does nothing and outlets such as Fox News do not stand and turn against him...it means the US has just surrendered to Russia and authoritarianism.
I am giving the benefit of the doubt that the majority of politicians on both sides of the aisle are patriots and will do what is right and protect our national security and our constitution.
However, when guys like Paul Ryan leave and still refuse to speak it out against Trump—it does make me very worried.
6
Trump, having autocratic inclinations/aspirations and thinking himself smarter than all others, does not see himself as an employee of the American people. He sees himself as operating for himself only (I see him that way too). He sees himself as the only one who knows the best course of action on any matter.
Therefore, he thinks he has no obligation to keep a record if he doesn't wish to. No one should be able to do this in our country.
5
I think that you missed a one important one. By pulling out of the intermediate range ballistic weapons treaty, Trump made it so that Russia could escape the requirements of the treaty without suffering the condemnation of the world.
8
There some words in article about sanctions that were put in place against Deripaska's company. But nobody says about terrible conditions of pushing them to end.
That's why I can't find any link between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin particularly in this deal.
What has me scratching my head is why people are not willing to see that working with Russia on matters of mutual interest may well be in the best interest of the United States.
Put another way, why do we always have to treat Russia as an enemy.
The best policy is to be cooperative where cooperation can be beneficial and be willing to take actions appropriate when they are not.
As far as I can tell, Trump has been following that sort of policy, talking softly and using the stick.
He's certainly been more effective at countering Russian transgressions than the previous administration. He hasn't been afraid to take on the military clients of the Russians when they step over the "red line".
He's decided, and rightly so, that the United States doesn't have that great an interest in an overt military presence in Syria...Is that a bad thing? Like Afghanistan, it was a war that we couldn't win. He's doing nothing less than keeping faith with the Powell Doctrine, the primary, and probably only lesson that we learned from our involvment in Viet Nam.
The knee jerk reactions that we see from the folks like the Times' Editorial Board and the pundit left show either the shallowness of their thinking or another race to military action similar to the race that the Times led to get us into Iraq a decade or so ago.
2
Putin's Russia is about gaining personal power through personal wealth. Leaders like that are not good partners. We do business with almost all countries but with those such as Putin's Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, etc, past administrations have tried to draw a fine line between business and politics.
No one who has a rational approach to foreign relations says not to interact with Putin (Russia was once a member of G8 and part of the Iran nuclear deal and disarmament treaties for example) but when doing so, know that his interests don't align with US interests.
5
@The Owl Maybe people feel so strongly about Russia because it is fact that they interfered with our elections, the most sacred practice of democracy.
5
@The Owl: In reality, Trump's policy towards Russia hasn't been all that different from previous administrations. His rhetorical attacks on NATO and our other traditional allies certainly seem to favor Russia, but on the other hand, beyond rhetoric, his foreign policy has been pretty conventional. Don't fall for his fantasy that he has been tougher than previous administrations, but on the other hand, he hasn't caved in either. It's been pretty much business as usual.
His impulsive gesture towards a sudden withdrawal from Syria, since modified, wasn't that significant: we never had a regime-changing, nation-building mission there. In fact, he was almost accurate: ISIS isn't totally defeated, but almost gone as a territorial state. Of course, it will live on as a stateless organization, like Al Qaeda, but that is another problem.
1
Donald Trump’s one and only alliegence is to Donald Trump, so there is one sense in which his denial of “being a Russian agent” is plausible: he is simply a “free agent” seeking personal ego gratification without regard for the consequences.
The case for labeling him a “Russian asset”, on the other hand, seems compelling. Trump’s conduct on many fronts furthers Vladimir Putin’s interests. To cite just one example—Trump’s announcement of intent to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord. While some U.S. fossil fuel interests benefit temporarily from the interruption in the essential transition to a low carbon future which Trump’s announcement (and other policies) created, the vast majority of Americans will suffer, both from accelerating damages caused by climate change but also as a result of lost opportunity costs to create jobs and build industries in renewable energy that U.S. advantages in technology and innovation offer in the necessary transition (and which China can and will exploit). By contrast, Russia’s economy (and Vladimir Putin’s personal fortune) are heavily dependent upon fossil fuel exports. Even if Trump’s intention was “merely” to reward fossil fuel interests in the U.S. for aiding his election, his actions had the foreseeable and unambiguous benefit of furthering Putin’s interests without Russia itself having to withdraw from the Accord. Hard to imagine a more valuable “Russian asset” from Putin’s perspective.
5
Well, if we deserve know everything that Trump is talking about with Putin or anyone else for that matter then Americans also deserve to know what our democrat/republican political class and business 'leaders' and Wall Street gangsters have been "talking about" with China's one party police state's leaders for decades as our US elites have allowed the outsourcing of 8 million manufacturing jobs to China (still our self declared enemy), the theft of trillions in intellectual property, tons of fentanyl that's killed thousands into the US without protest, and a plague of invasive species and pandemic disease in their exported junk into North America. Then we also want to know what our leaders have been talking about to the corrupt oligarchs of Latin America as these organized criminals and murderers have shoved their diseased, criminal, no skills,no education, no English people across our borders by the millions for decades.
So far we have been looking at the Helsinki meeting between Trump and Putin from the wrong perspective.
The media characterized it as between a shrewd, ex-KGB strongman and a politically naive real-estate mogul who was out of his league while representing the Nato Alliance.
While their are elements of accuracy to this portrayal, it's a woefully incomplete picture.
What you really had was a meeting between two oligarchs, both of whom happened to be serving their rotation in government at this moment, but who are essentially anchored in their own respective corrupt but powerful economic spheres.
Putin's KGB resume is paltry. His real rise to power came through the corrupt Yeltsin regime, not as an outsider opposing it. Putin has used government for self enrichment his whole career and it is likely his private meeting with Trump did raise issue of "mutual concern."
Some legitimately pertained to government, but other business has been conducted with a wink and a nod by both Trump and Putin for years.
Somewhere in the transcript I imagine one or the other saying that "there are ways our countries can work together and their are ways you and I can work together," followed by a raised eyebrow and meaningful stare.
And make no mistake, both of these oligarchs represent class interests in their respective countries that go far beyond these two individuals. There are deals, and then there are deals.
If you really want to understand Helsinki go back and watch the Godfather.
4
@drspock..
Ah...the old "secret club" handshake again...
Of course it is possible...
But more likely its just another part of the vast right-wing conspiracy the Hillary so often mentioned.
If anyone is having difficulty assessing the outrageously low level to which our governing morals or ethics have fallen, here is a simple solution. Consider any scandal or event in the last two years performed by President Trump and ask yourself what the Republicans or the public would say if you replaced the name Trump with Obama or Clinton. I rest my case.
10
@Lisa Ann Carrillo
This indeed is the heart of the matter.
3
@Lisa Ann Carrillo I would simply amend your sentence to read "... the outrageously low levels to which "Republican" morals or ethics have fallen ....."
2
@Lisa Ann Carrillo...
Glad you are resting your case because you have no case to begin with.
Diane Feinstein set the tone of the Democrats response to Republican control...
Don't cry when some of it comes back to bite
True, but the American people also deserved to know of the secret deals President Obama made with Iran (on inspection and other issues), not disclosed to Congress and the people. A journalist (for the Washington Post) called them a "bottomless pit of deception." Didn't seem to have bothered most good liberals or progressives. You can deceive if the cause is good?
I think not.
3
@escobar....Since you seem to know about those "secret deals", why don't you tell us what they were?
7
Always the false equivalency.
@W.A. Spitzer
You know how to Google and how to read, so start with "Why Those Secret Iran Deals Matter," Belfer Center for Science, Harvard Kennedy School for Government, Aug. 24, 2015 and "Secret Obama era permit let Iran convert funds to dollars…" PBS, June 6, 2018...and there is much more, not from right-wing or racist sources. Enjoy.
When read, this summary of the substantial evidence concerning our president's treachery should leave no doubt once again, that he is unfit for the office. Unfortunately, too many members of his "base", like the president himself, do not like to read.
6
@peter bailey
Most Trump supporters know the difference between substantial evidence, unproven accusations, and unknown sources. Unfortunately, too many of Trump’s supporters are forced to read and watch hearsay and opinions that have taken the place of news.
3
Without a doubt, someone in the US government has recordings of all of Trump's conversations with Putin. Without a doubt the Russians do.
5
@Chuck
Then without a doubt all of Trump’s communications have been recorded, and any involvement in the Russian investigation should already be known.
3
@Chuck: Without a doubt? Historically, it has been presidents who arranged for recordings of their conversations. I guess you are assuming some sort of "deep state conspiracy", but I don't think there have been examples of agencies carrying out surveillance of presidents contrary to their wishes. Certainly not to the extent that we can say it happens "without a doubt."
Quite possibly Putin and his staff do thorough debriefings, and have pretty complete records of what was said between him and foreign officials. That would be normal. But with him in particular, maybe not 100% complete -- with his KGB background, he may like to keep some personal secrets.
1
The facts are obvious, and have been obvious for a long time. The Trump Kushner families could no longer get billions in financing for their crooked schemes in New York, or anywhere in the US, because folks were up to their schemes. So, where to get the money? Russian Oligarchs, of course, and then, maybe even, some other dictator who can steal from his people--Saudia Arabia, eh? It's all about the money and, to get it, will require working with dictators and crooks. I just wonder how many Republican's are also in on the deal--Sessions?, McConnell? etc.
5
Remember the movie, "Manchurian Candidate?" This character was the "Moscow Candidate." Unfortunately, no one saw the plot and stopped it. Therefore, I believe there were others involved, and PutinTrump and the entire conspiracy needs to be thoroughly investigated!!!!
3
As Individual 1 feels the noose tighten he will become more unhinged and erratic. He will not give an inch on any of his irrational demands as this would signal weakness. Like a cornered animal he senses his demise, Unfortunately for thee country the GOP have more fealty to him than the oaths theyt took to uphold the Constitution
6
What appears to be Donald's love for Vladimir Putin is really complete servitude.
The Russians bailed Trump out when US banks would not lend him another nickel. For years Trump has been receiving hundreds and hundreds of millions in laundered Russian money from investor friends of Putin via the Bank of Cyprus (where Wilbur Ross is a major shareholder) and Deutsche Bank. The Russians own and control Trump.
It is no coincidence that Putin ordered his digital agents to hack the DNC to get “dirt” on Hillary. It is no coincidence that the Russians spent tens of millions to post fake news on Facebook and other social media targeting Democratic voters in order to help elect Trump. It is no coincidence that Manafort shared Republican polling data to help Putin in this intense effort. It is no coincidence that there are such strong links between Russia and Trump's current and former cabinet members and associates including George Papadopoulos, Wilbur Ross, Felix Sater, Roy Tillerson, Jeff Sessions, Mike Flynn, Carter Page, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone etc., etc.
Let the Democrats crank up those House investigative hearings. There is a smoking gun, ten smoking guns.... Putin owns Trump!!
5
We can only conclude that Trump was receiving instructions from Putin on how to proceed.
4
Our president is a gangster, a mobster and only thinks of himself and making more and more money for himself. He's doing an excellent of tearing down this country. Trump listens to no one except Putin. Long ago i have stated it is Putin sitting in the Oval Office.
The question remains why is he Putin's puppet. For that i sit, patiently?, actually now more impatient, for Mr. Mueller to release all of his investigation not only to Congress, but more importantly to the public.
Oh God, be with Mr. Mueller.
1
Why doesn't somebody ask Putin what was said at those meetings. I'm sure he took notes.
3
What really falls flat is Kevin McCarthy's sheepish denial of seriousness in referring to his previous taped discussion with other House GOP members that Rorhbacher and Trump were both being paid by Putin.
6
The only way I would believe Trump is if he is testifying under oath while hooked up to a lie detector.
1
Too easy to beat. If his lips are moving...
1
Is it normal for a U.S. president to confiscate the interpreter's notes after a private discussion with a foreign power? And this is a power which has taken major hostile actions against America, interfering massively in its elections ...If he moves like a Russian agent, if he acts like a Russian agent, if he talks like a Russian agent ...then, he must be a Russian agent. And surely, Donald Trump's well-known financial difficulties and eagerness for laundering money from Russian oligarchs, along with his inability to control his sexual impulses made him prime material to be co-opted by Russian handlers ...We all know that Trump will let no loyalty and no principle stand between him and money. Most likely, as always, Trump projects his definitions of himself on to others. In this case "known scoundrel" would fit a man well-known for cheating creditors and scamming innocent victims in the investing public, while stiffing employees and groping women he had barely met. This virtual presidency is perhaps the final and most scandalous scam of this con man and intimate of mafiosi who poses as a restorer of American greatness.
3
@Hari Prasad...
Is it normal?
Yes. And given the highly classified nature of those notes, it is quite appropriate.
To not include your staff in any of it is in no way “normal”. To initiate a discussion at dinner with only trump, vlad and vlad’s interpreter is in no way normal. When I smell smoke, I go looking for its source, don’t you?
We have a special counsel investigating exactly this question for a year and a half now. The FBI was investigating it for a year before that. And not a shred of evidence has been found to link Donald Trump to Russia. Not a shred.
So without evidence you turn to innuendo. It reminds me of Colin Powell's performance at the United Nations in 2003 where he argued that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. He had no evidence that they existed because they did not. That didn't stop us from invading and occupying Iraq anyway.
What would explain Donald Trump's actions if he wasn't a Russian agent? Simple. He's trying to establish a good working relationship with Vladimir Putin. Russia is not an enemy like the Soviet Union was. Nor is it a superpower. But Russia is an important player in Syria, Iran, Ukraine, and North Korea.
We can work with them. We should work with them. If you want peace, you don't talk with your allies. You talk with those on the other side.
Why would Donald Trump keep his conversations secret? Remember what happened to Barack Obama when his talk with Dmitry Medvedev was caught by an open mike? Totally innocuous, and he was roasted for it.
And Michael Flynn when his talk with Sergey Kislyak was picked up. Totally innocuous, but he faces charges for it.
Stop making things into what they are not. Remember when Donald Trump supposedly asked Russia to hack Hillary Clinton's emails? It was a joke. And so is this article.
4
@John Smithson
You know, John, Trump could put a lot of this to rest by releasing his tax returns, but he hasn't and he won't. If that's a joke, I ain't laughing.
3
You have absolutely, positively no way of saying that “not a shred of evidence” has turned up until after the Special Council issues his report. None.
3
@John Smithson
“not a shred of evidence has been found to link Donald Trump to Russia”
If you don’t believe what’s already come out via Mueller indictments, for example....
And you know what hasn’t yet come out, because Mueller has not revealed all those he intends to indict...
Or you are certain Donald Trump is not yet an unindicted conspirator...
It’s hard to believe your assertion above.
2
Just imagine:
You are a watchful autocrat in a country of oligarchs, where hiding ill-gotten gains through real-estate investment abroad - especially in showy speculative properties - is practiced by all. In fact, such investment is sanctioned by the state.
You are informed that one of the foreign real-estate developers enabling these practices, a vocal figure in a rival country, has come to depend almost exclusively on injections of capital from oligarchs under your control.
You direct these oligarchs to ensnare the developer and bend him unknowingly to your will, as you would do in any similar case.
The floundering developer gradually recovers and gains more prominence in his home country through something called the "birther controversy" - exactly the kind of politically and socially corrosive disinformation that has become one of the key strategic tools at your disposal.
Now you invest more efforts to take control of this emerging asset, notably by organizing a deal for him to build a tower in your capital city, where he also organizes a high-level international girlie show.
The asset then declares his candidacy for president.
You craft a vast undercover influence campaign that aims simultaneously to support his candidacy and to undermine the political institutions of the rival country.
Now you have succeeded beyond your wildest dreams: your asset is president of the United States.
How much more damage can you do to the rival society before this show is over?
10
It has been clear from the start of this administration that the “New Republican party” believes in a one party system. They are tearing down the old American government and replacing with dictator trump, dictator Putin and the Saudi Prince among other lesser valued dictators sharing knowledge of America’s long kept secrets. Allies are ridiculed and abandoned. The cue is happening as the GOP celebrates the finish of human rights. No right for fresh air, water, open spaces. All will continue to be destroyed by the toxic waste of big business without safety regulations. Big oil and gas, mining, pharmaceuticals and other industries are allowed to use our roads and our crumbling infrastructure for free. Ninety seven percent of us will struggle with survival in a crumbling world being used up by greedy dictators and power brokers.
10
After elevating Ronald Reagan to sainthood, they now have caused him to turn in his grave. The Republican Party has become a Mafia-like organization in search of raw power and money, as reflected in their Godfather, Donald Trump. And just as the original Mafia has been linked to criminal organizations from other countries, e.g. the Russian "Mafia", Republicans and Trump seem okay with doing the same.
8
“As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air – however slight – lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.”
― William O. Douglas (ed.), The Douglas Letters: Selections from the Private Papers of Justice William O. Douglas
Considering the behavior of the Republican Party toward their White House madman and the suffering of our citizens, reasonable people should be on high alert these days. The cruelty we are witnessing is terrifying. As far as Trump is concerned, is his treachery really in question at this point?
13
@Marjorie Reading the comments posted here by trump fans, I finally understand how our public education system has utterly failed to teach sound reasoning.
@Joy Abbott wholeheartedly agree. Not only sound reasoning, but civics classes would go a long way as well. As a professional librarian, authenticating a source of information is the first stop before assimilating facts. What passes as knowledge these days makes my head explode.
1
I admired former President Ronald Reagan for his assertion of U.S. values in resolutely standing up to Russia (then USSR). It's remarkable to see the Party of Reagan so meekly acquiescing to a weak and passive yet bombastic "leader" like Trump who is the ultimate anti-Reagan. I'm ashamed of the Party's self-inflicted demise and its utter and unabashed Trumpian weakness in standing up to tyrants. I would have loved to hear a strong leader like Reagan's take on the weak, self-serving, impostor in the White House today.
6
I don't understand why our news media isn't headlining that Trump received millions of dollars from various Russian oligarchs. Prof. Ruth May,a professor at the University of Dallas and an expert on the Russian economy, has written several articles for the Dallas Express detailing how much money many Republican politicians have received from Russian oligarchs.
The NRA spent $30 million dollars on Trump’s campaign in 2016 and another $40 million in various efforts to lobby and help elect Republicans. Much of this spending was "dark" money (money from Russia), making it difficult to trace the source and how it was spent.
Of course lying Trump denies receiving donations from Russia, but there's no doubt that he is seriously influenced by his donors and supporters in our primary adversary, Russia.
9
It's a great relief to finally see some real analysis and investigation into what has seemed to me (and obviously many others) a dangerous situation between our president and Russia. There have been so many Trumpian offenses over the past two years that it's impossible to name them all, but the major one that stands out for me has been his willingness to disparage our national intelligence services while having private meetings with Putin like the one in Helsinki. Well, that, and kidnapping refugees' children at the border and then losing track of them, of course. And the current shutdown doesn't help (how does that improve national security, exactly?). But it's always been clear that he favors the Russians.
6
Trump's candidacy and presidency have been filled with "never thought I'd see the day" moments, but this one tops them all. Here we have a pattern of behavior, circumstantial evidence, and attempts to conceal evidence, all of it supporting the idea that the president of the United States is a Russian asset. If all of this turns out to be true--and there is good reason to suppose that it will--Trump will go from being merely the worst president in American history to being the despised equivalent of Judas Iscariot.
7
Nice illustration.
Trump is a fool, and many of us have viewed him as treasonous since his first meeting with Putin when he disclosed info about Israeli spying.
I think Presidents do have a right to meet in private with other heads of state, but repeated meetings, and a complete failure to record anything, bespeaks treachery ( unless it's stupidity).
3
Its isn't a question, surely, of what the American public deserves to know, it is a question of what the U.S. government needs to know when the head of state has discussions and makes agreements with another head of state. Especially a state that is hostile to this country's interests.
6
I think I read it here in the Times: When Trump met with Putin one-on-one last year, it was Trump who demanded the privacy, no witnesses other than the interpreter, and wouldn’t you know, a recorder is only required by law when there is a minimum of three people. An interpreter plus Trump is only two, what are the odds?
Trump knew what he was doing when he demanded privacy. I don’t really understand why the interpreter has not been called testify before Congress, but I assume when he/she is called that he/she will be involved in a terrible car-crash/slip-and-fall/somehow-just-suddenly-stopped-breathing on route to testifying.
We are in serious, serious trouble here in America.
17
If it wasn't for the open microphone catching President Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev discussing Obama's"flexibility" nobody would have known the contents of their conversation. Many president's have very private conversations with their world leader counterparts.
24
@james
How many presidents have had private conversations with adversarial world leaders who hacked our presidential election, followed by a public press conference where our president took the word of this adversarial world leader over that of our own intelligence services.
190
@james Not a single one of those " private communications" were with a President who took Vladimir Putin's word over US intelligence agencies and the FBI. Not a single one of those prior President's be it Republican or Democrat refused to view Russia and Putin as preeminent dangers to the USA and our way of life and put Putin first instead of America.
100
@james
Former President Obama was not compromised by Putin, nor did he have a hotel deal, nor did Putin's agents meet at former President Obama's residence with any children or in-laws or campaign managers when it comes to former President Obama, so I'm not sure what relevance your bringing that up has.
James, I wonder if Michael Cohen's testimony in February will even give you pause when it comes to the way you lash out at the former President who not only won the electoral college but the popular vote.
Twice.
83
Trump works for the Russians, and the Russians got him into office. He has wanted to build a Trump Tower in Moscow for years and has been adamant in getting backing from Russian oligarchs for this. Now, we have to find out if he knew that the Russians had tampered with the election before he was elected. If so, definite collusion there. But, his other actions, backing out of Syria, supporting Russia's view of Afghanistan and trying to lessen sanctions against Russian companies just further supports that he is a tool for the Russians, and he shouldn't be president. He needs to be impeached. His actions are treasonous.
7
It sure seems that the FBI, NSA, CIA and all the other zillion-dollar national security agencies knew next to nothing about Trump’s decades-long dealings with Russia.
With all their space-age snooping technology and their unapologetic contempt for privacy law, our super-spies didn’t even notice a guy who bragged publicly for years about his mega-million-dollar deals with Putin’s money boys?
Money is power, real and immediate political power. An enormous, above-ground, illuminated power cable ran straight from Moscow to an American celebrity’s real estate company, and none of our platinum-clad bastions of national security even had a file on it until 2016?
I really don’t get that. At all.
2
@Bill Banks When history is written, either the greatest failure of "intelligence" agencies in the history of our republic, i.e. that they did not drag the clear and present danger off the stage when he publicly committed treason , aided and abetted by the criminal conspiracy that is the republcian party and failures of the fourth estate will receive prominent treatment in the texts.
This assumes that democracy survives and Putin's heirs aren't writing the history books.
6
The first systematic Hollywood blacklist was instituted on November 25, 1947, the day after ten writers and directors were cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. The Blacklist lasted until 1960. Actors, writers, directors of great artistic merit lost their careers due to mere association with communism.
4
If Donald Trump were not an agent of Russia, what would he be doing that he is not already doing? How long will Republican Senators stand by and watch him oversee the ruination of our democracy, our economy, and our status as a leader of the free world. Don't they realize that their leader in the senate, who acts only from raw ambition, is supporting this dangerous president, and that they will go down in history as the most spineless senators in our nation's history?
7
Take at face value the premise of the nonsense being preached from a soapbox at the corner of Hope and Fantasy:
Russia seeks to foment dissent and discord in the American electorate.
The fact is inescapable that the NY Times and its co-conspirators in the media monopoly are assets of far greater value to Russia than Donald Trump.
For years now, the NY Times has been propagating a narrative for which there is absolutely no evidence -- to wit: that the Russians and Donald Trump reached a criminal agreement to deprive Hillary Clinton of her rightful place on the throne of history. These watchdogs of liberty even cheer on the FBI in its use of this claim to abuse the FISA laws, which themselves are a dangerous abuse of Constitutional standards.
(Note: It doesn't help that the judicial branch utterly failed as a check against the executive branch excess, but this is besides the point.)
Recognizing that the carefully tailored narrative is collapsing under its own weight, the NY Times now tries to keep the red scare in high gear, insisting that because Donald Trump seeks to protect the privilege of open communications with foreign leaders, a prerogative of national security, he is hiding proof of his original crimes.
This, my friends, is a shameful moment in American history.
I wish that NY Times were simply motivated by advertising dollars. Preach to the choir, and pass the collection basket.
Sadly, the evidence compels another, far more nefarious inference.
2
@H. Torbet
Hey, where are Trump's tax returns? He'd go a long way to silence a lot of murmuring from the crowd if he'd release his tax returns, don't you think? So, why won't he? They could certainly show he had nothing to do with a foreign power footing the bill for his various schemes, right?
Or, do you fear the evidence will compel another, far more nefarious inference if he releases them? Like, he's a treasonous traitor?
1
Why not just get Putin's recordings of all these meetings?
After all, isn't that what "friends" are for?
We all know that that's the way Putin works. Record everything, and then use it as "leverage" to essentially blackmail people... Golden Shower and all that...
3
Don't forget that it was Justice Anthony Kennedy's son, working for Deutschebank who helped approve the massive loan to Individual 1 when no US bank would get near him.
And then there's the coincidental timing of Kennedy's retirement that allowed the partisan buffoons such as Graham and Grassley to place the unqualified Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court bench.
If it weren't so tragic, it would be funny.
11
The prospect of obtaining “notes or testimony from the interpreter present at the meetings between Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump” is dim. By now they have been deep-sixed. Testimony by the interpreter(s) is in the “he said —she said” category, although believing anything Trump has to say is credulity.
1
This will all be made clear when we hear his (Soviet) State of the Union address.
2
This is about power nothing else.
The GOP Senate has it the Dems don't.
1
I can only hope that Mr. Mueller has uncovered the "smoking gun" that proves Trump is a Russian puppet, a "Manchurian President", and is waiting until he has absolutely irrefutable evidence that even the most blind follower of Trump will see how he has betrayed us. But whether this level of acceptance happens or not, Mueller must soon deliver the proof that we have been invaded and occupied without a shot being fired,
Impeach the traitor.
3
He may not know that he is working for Russia (because of his fundamental ignorance of the geopolitical issues), but Trump is certainly doing the bidding of Putin and Russia. The evidence:
1. Threatening to withdraw from NATO;
2. Criticizing and encouraging the disintegration of the EU; and
3. Pulling out of Syria (and handing it, essentially, to Russian and Iranian control).
Hiding details of private conversations only adds to the intrigue of whether he is doing this intentionally or not.
Anyone still think he is Making America Great Again?
6
Americans need to know more than what Trump and Putin talked about, they need to know why Trump, time after time after time, does exactly what is in Russia's best interest.
332
@David I agree.
11
@David Like levying sanctions on influential Russians? Like ramping up manufacture of nuclear weapons?
2
@David
I strongly disagree. It wasn't in "Russia's interest" when Trump supplied the Ukraine with lethal weapons. Something they had asked Obama for over 5 years.
It's also "not in their interest" when we become energy independent and a net exporter of energy. Nor when he recommended to both the EU and NATO "not" to support the Russian gas pipeline across Europe.
1
There is every reason to oppose President Trump's policies, which worry me terribly, but there is no reason to oppose Trump's policies by pushing for a renewal of the Cold War. Diplomacy requires that leaders of different countries be able to speak in confidence, and President Obama and President George Bush spoke in confidence with foreign leaders including the Russian presidents, Putin and Medvedev.
Recently, Mr. Obama met with President Ji in Beijing as Obama met with Ji as President. I was not and am not concerned.
1
@Nancy You deftly omit the incriminating facts regarding Trump & Putin. Trump destroyed all record of his Putin talks, more than once, and _hid it from his own administration_, to say nothing of the People, which is what King John might have done before he was forced to sign Magna Carta. Not only would Obama not have been guilty of that, if he 'recently' met with Ji, he was a private citizen.
3
@Nancy
"You deftly omit..."
I wrote what I thought was important and "deftly" omitted nothing. Please do not try to intimidate me by pretending to read my mind. I think my comment excellent:
There is every reason to oppose President Trump's policies, which worry me terribly, but there is no reason to oppose Trump's policies by pushing for a renewal of the Cold War. Diplomacy requires that leaders of different countries be able to speak in confidence, and President Obama and President George Bush spoke in confidence with foreign leaders including the Russian presidents, Putin and Medvedev.
Recently, Mr. Obama met with President Ji in Beijing as Obama met with Ji as President. I was not and am not concerned.
One might hope that this lengthy recitation of suspicious Russian ties was comprehensive, but no, there's much more to add:
- Jared Kushner's attempts to create a "back channel to Russia
- the Steele dossier
- the Trump Tower meeting between DT Jr., Manafort and a Russian spy
- the unexplained revision of the Republican platform to soften the stance re Crimea
- the mysterious 4th of July Russia trip by a group of Repub Senators
-the purchase of the house in FL by a Russian oligarch for twice its apparent value
- Trump's own statement during the campaign urging Russia to hack the Dems, at a time they were actually doing so
- the astonishing number of key staffers who turned out to have some link to Russia
I'm sure others could add to this. How can there be this much smoke with no fire?
18
The majority of Republican leadership loathed Trump at the beginning of his campaign. The coalition that now supports him values the appointments to the courts (long term win for the evangelicals), the tax reform (short term gain for wealthy, and long term starving the government to set up the dismantlement of social services), and additional abandonment of regulation (environmental, educational, financial). This coalition sees nothing wrong with Trump enriching himself in the process and in any other indulgences. What they missed and don't seem to care about is how Trump was bankrolled into position by Russian money, and how current sanctions inhibit the money laundering operation that converts ill-gotten gains into stable, long term value.
For the Russian oligarchs, our chaos is a win-win, and a certain preference to Obama and Clinton. Trump's candidacy, even if failed, sowed discontent and mistrust in our system of government, a long term win towards a world system more friendly to their money-laundering and other power ambitions. Trump's ascendency was icing on the cake.
Our Republican colleagues need to reconsider their allegiance to their special interests, and the rest of us need to reaffirm our commitment to our Constitutional governance that endorses freedom of choice and collective action to benefit all of its citizens. The Faustian bargain with Trump and the Russians is not worth the cost.
6
Ronald Reagan met privately with Gorbachev for an hour when he was president and they decided to put an end to the "Soviet Union". Gorbachev was over a barrel because "weapons war" destroyed their budget. The people-owned State agencies and resources were privatized and shares "given" to the people. Of course, they had no idea what to do with the "shares" and sold them to Robber Barons who now own Russia for pennies on the dollar.
Putin and The Con Don probably discussed doing the same thing to OUR United States of America. They have their operatives planted in all segments of OUR governments, financial and judicial systems.
They think they will "win".
Boy, do WE THE PEOPLE have news for them. WE will not allow them to destroy OUR United States of America.
Not now. Not ever. That's a promise.
6
I so hope you are right! It seems to me they have put their Russian mob friends into government positions, replaced judges and torn apart all peace and trade agreements with the rest if the world. All the while taking orders from Russia. There tactics are brutal, separating children from parents, abusing them and housing them in horrible conditions, making vulgar and untrue comments about anyone who disagrees. Will Americans wake up before it’s too late?
1
You would think that a president who is being looked at as a possible agent of another country, would quickly turn over all and any documents to prove otherwise. But no. It is way beyond time to get these non-Americans out of the White House. They have managed to shut down our government (something we should already have a law in place to make illegal via budget balancing). That leaves all of us very, very vulnerable with a possible agent and following running things. Looks like an authoritarian regime.
10
@RCJCHC
You would think that a president who is being looked at as a possible agent of another country...
[ These are distressing words. ]
@Nancy You're telling me...!
Remember when, just a couple of years ago it was considered a insult to be called a Russkie by the right? Amazing how that Putin is considered a alright guy by the republicans.
Now we have the over blown threat of a Russian hypersonic missile that they claim to have. Really what kind of threat is that, that they may get the first strike in? The result will still be the same, a first strike will still be followed by a barrage of our "slow" missiles that will make life on earth a thing of the past.
Considering the quality of life for the average Russian the might not consider it such a bad thing.
Ever see a brochure for American women that are willing to marry for a Russian passport?
3
@Paulie
I get that nearly everyone now thinks of Russia as the worst country on Earth, but still I think it's quite offensive of you to state that Russians have such a bad quality of life that they would like to be hit by nuclear missiles! Have you ever been to Russia? I have, and even though the people there are generally poorer than we are in the US, things are NOT that bad there. Russia is full of people just like you and me going to work, loving their families and trying to live their lives. They do not need or want to be hit by nuclear weapons!
1
Trump is seeking only...power. There is no need to sugar coat his aims.
The leadership of the Republican Party is seeking...power. Not "only power," perhaps, but power above all else. Again, there is no reason to candify the facts.
One obvious aspiration of the latter is to turn the United States into a single party regime, which is crucial to the obtainment of such power and control. This is perfectly aligned with the goal of Donald Trump, which is to hold the reins in his hands. It is easier to steer one horse than it is two.
It is becoming more obvious with each new day that passes that authoritarianism is the Republican path, and it will keep Trump where he is for as long as possible, under any circumstances and regardless of any proofs that become known.
I'm not sure how the phrase, "God bless President Trump," will be shoehorned into the anthem "God Bless America." It won't be pretty, but rest assured, it will be there.
5
The influx of posts in here that say "I'm a Democrat but you should leave Trump alone, fake news, nothing to see here.".. . all these posts, I say, show that the Muscovite Deviancy is in big trouble and sweating its final months. Keep up the loyal work, NYT.
9
Trump met 5 times with Putin in the last 2 years. I ask the Times to find and publish how that number compares with other presidents.
While we know little to nothing of what was said, I am sure other presidents didn't discuss how to advance Russian interests while filling their own pockets, but Trump is only about filling his pockets!
4
The stakes have now climbed astronomically for Trump. We are now not talking about just impeachment. If these allegations are proven, we are talking about Trump's life. Treason is a capital crime.
14
I hope that they sell tickets or show on pay per view! Could help to balance the budget.
2
@Bruce1253
The Russians will kill him before any US court does.
Abuses pertaining to the Trump Foundation and Trump's involvement with Russian oligarchs and Vladimir Putin. Mueller will reveal there has been collusion and the same kind of unethical behavior which dissolved the Trump Foundation will end Donald Trump's presidency.
7
Is it possible that Vladimir Putin long ago saw the original " "Manchurian Candidate" on Russian TCM and thought, "da, we give this try"? The plot line is eerily similar, right down to the dim steak-and-ketchup-eating second banana. All he needed was a boorish, facile liar with unlimited ambition and no principles whatsoever to fill slot and, lo and behold, Trump rides down the escalator. Granted, meek Melania is no Angela Lansbury and the simple, decidedly un-classy Trump boys are no substitute for Laurence Harvey, but I see a definite resemblance between Robert Mueller and Frank Sinatra. Let's hope we get the same ending as the movie but with no bloodshed.
12
My question to any Trump suppporter is simply this: After all that has come to light about Trump, what possibly makes you think that he wouldn't collude?
14
I can't remember when an American President was asked to reveal private conversations with a foreign leader. A large faction in our society seeks to destroy Trump daily. Will there be remorse in the ruins?
1
I think many people view Trump as a person who will lie, cheat, bully and other derogatory terms improve his finances or power.
But what is McConnell's excuse? He could be working to get the government working again. It's almost as if Trump and perhaps Putin have something so terrible on McConnell that he'll let the country go down the tubes before doing his job.
I think it's a given that John McCain would be all over Lindsey Graham for his atrocious behavior. If he could do it retroactively he would disinvite Lindsey Graham about his support of Trump.
10
Perhaps McConnell and other Republicans have benefitted from Russian $$ either directly or via the NRA. It would explain a lot.
1
An important reason that Republicans continue to support this president is Fox News. Maybe the FBI should investigate the patriotism of Rupert Murdock.
11
They talked about Putin’s agenda - dissolving NATO, lifting sanctions, withdrawing from Syria, giving Russia a free hand in the Middle East.
Putin set the agenda, not Trump.
Trump is keeping what was said secret because it is against American policy and against the national interest.
Trump is simple-minded. He thinks he can change world history himself.
He is too ignorant to recognize his own treason.
Putin recorded the meeting. Trump is too dumb to keep records.
9
Is Mike Pence a Russian whisperer alongside Trump? I hope Mueller is looking at the entire Republican party since they remain complicit in their support of Trump and took millions from Russian Oligarchs. Mr. Schiff is right, we do need to find out if Trump and the Republicans are really working for the America people or Russia.
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/08/03/tangled-web-connects-russian-oligarch-money-gop-campaigns
13
@Jacquie
The link you provide is priceless --more, it is stunning-- and should be required reading for anyone and everyone who votes Republican. It is a perfect accompaniment to the illustration atop this article.
Thank you.
4
Why did Trump confiscate the interpreter notes?
7
And the “Manchurian Candidate” was a work of fiction. Maybe not.
3
two words:
Money Laundering.
8
HRC was correct. A Russian Puppet. With the intellect to match.
SAD.
19
"the president of the United States was asked by reporters if he was working for Russia"
This illustrates the idiocy of the "progressive" media more than it reflects on president Trump.
3
@jaco"the president of the United States was asked by reporters if he was working for Russia"
Funny thing...The FBI also wants to know if he's working for Russia. The FBI does not open investigations on a whim.
"This illustrates the idiocy of the "progressive" media more than it reflects on president Trump"
...reflects more on your own sources of information or lack thereof than your perceptions about real news organizations.
1
@gary
More accurately disgraced former employees of the FBI for partisan political purposes pretended to be concerned that Trump was working for the Russians. That Trump is a secret agent for the Russians is ludicrous on it's face.
@jaco They are only disgraced on Fox news and hatriot radio. It's a fact that Trump and co. is beholden to Russian banks for millions of dollars and has been laundering money for the various oligarchs, all connected to Putin who buy his condos and homes at far above market value and never move in. Eric Trump has stated that the bulk of Trump borrowed money comes from Russia. Trump, who never pays his creditors back (great businessman) cannot get loans from American banks. So it's not ludicrous to posit that the Russians have leverage on him. He may not be running around in a trench coat and hollow healed shoes but he sure quacks like a man who owes the Russians his soul. What's ludicrous is believing the lies that Trump vomits up on an hourly basis as if he's a 10 year old child.
The NYTimes didn't have this same concern when Pres Obama, over a hot mike, leaned over and told outgoing Russian Pres Medvedev he will have "more flexibility" after the coming US presidential election, (since this will be his last election) to deal with contentious issues. Pres Medvedev responded he will tell Putin what he said.
Why didn't the times cover this? Because the NYTimes backed Obama and hated Trump? Telling.
2
@John S
Next time before you post the results of your apparently selective memory, type "Obama Medvedev hot mic nytimes" into Google and you won't spread misinformation. I would say lie but that suggests intent rather than mere partisan laziness.
BTW, here's what you get:
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/us/politics/obama-caught-on-microphone-telling-medvedev-of-flexibility.html
Trump is a national security crisis. He is a Russian stooge and needs to be removed from office and locked up. Every day he is in office is another good day for Putin.
5
If this was a TV show we would all be hating the President due to his obvious alliances and commitment for treason. Why is reality different?
3
U.S. President: "On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it's important for him to give me space."
Russian President: "Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you …"
U.S. President: "This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility."
Russian President: "I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir."
Caught red-handed. Proof of collusion.
The U.S. President was Barack Obama.
Did the Democrats or the media ever call for an investigation into Obama’s meetings with Putin and Medvedev? Of course not.
3
I am not familiar with this conversation, but if that is the only evidence you have compared to a mountain of evidence in regard to Trump and things he has said as well as policies he has put in place, I am not impressed.
3
@John Was Obama laundering truckloads of money for Russian oligarchs? Of course not.
Maybe its time someone thought outside the box. Something like a 'Russian Reset'. Maybe we could even bring a novelty button over there to demonstrate our intent? A nice big plastic button that says 'Overcharge' in English but, in Russian, says 'Reset'. Kind of get things back on track. If only some visionary had the will to do something like that? Peace with Russia, wow, what a dream huh?
1
Hiliary Clinton said it best: Trump is a puppet of Russia. Compromised, witting and unwitting.
8
Reuters - December 2016
"As he was leaning toward Medvedev in Seoul, Obama was overheard asking for time — “particularly with missile defense” — until he is in a better position politically to resolve such issues.
“I understand your message about space,” replied Medvedev, who will hand over the presidency to Putin in May.
“This is my last election … After my election I have more flexibility,” Obama said, expressing confidence that he would win a second term.
“I will transmit this information to Vladimir,” said Medvedev, Putin’s protégé and long considered number two in Moscow’s power structure.
Interesting - this occurred 2 years after Russia's invasion of the Crimea.
Cozying up to Russia is something that Obama did - Trump may have - Mueller's been investigating for almost 2 years now.....we're still waiting......and waiting.....and waiting...
2
@JMS----------------------------Is it possible that you can't tell the difference between Trump and Obama? (Except for the color of their skins, of course.)
Early in his Presidency, transcripts of two meetings with foreign leaders were leaked to news organizations. We still don't know who did it. It has been surmised that Trump took the interpreter's notes in his subsequent meetings with foreign leaders as precaution to prevent such leaks again. If so, then Trump was actually working to IMPROVE U.S. security by maintaining tight control of the transcripts.
The NYTimes is now trying to make the case that the President of the United States is a Russian agent. You are glossing over the FBI actions under Comey to implement a coup d'etat to overthrow the duly elected President as some sort of proper behavior. You lie as much as the man you proclaim to be exposing. The real question is what foreign cabal is the Times representing?
2
Our system relies too much on the good faith of its participants and, therefore, there is ultimately no meaningful accountability. By the time all the crimes have been uncovered and true "known scoundrels" convicted, they will have long enjoyed the fruits of their criminal efforts, while we are left to clean up and pay for the mess.
Trump understands all of this very very well, which is how he has stayed out of jail or not been whacked by now. Sure, he never "worked" for Putin. Ask instead if they were partners. Hang on, the ride gets a lot bumpier from here.
249
@Bassman
It was not always so.
Look back to the pre de-regulation days, there was a social contract that we all lived up to which mainly involved the correct use of grammar by which honesty and deception are always outed.
There was a conscious change in how the press operated post 1-20-80 which facilitated the change for the worse in our society.
8
@magicisnotreal When the system is working properly there is "check and balance" but the GOP screw the citizens and does not check Trump and his administration...then the crisis!
8
@Bassman Well said and spot on.
2
Did we "know" what say Obama was talking to Putin about? We only knew by accident that he promised more "flexibility" after his re-election. What exactly did Obama do about Russian interference (or attempts) in our election? Answer honestly, we don't need to know what they talked about, we do need to know and understand what the president is doing. That would be working for the citizens as he promised.
1
So you’re saying Obama helped the Russians elect Trump?
Not very believable.
1
@vulcanalex
HA! That's a good one.
Trump works for no one other than himself. He's made that crystal clear more times than anyone cares to remember.
@vulcanalex
Oh my, whataboutism is epidemic today. Deflect all you want, the fact is that Obama, unlike his successor, was never under investigation into Russian meddling with his elections by a Special Counsel.
1
When will the focus be placed on Mitch McConnell? He has impeded the right of the Senate to consider bills passed by the House. Isn't this interference with the constitutional functioning of the the legislative branch of the our government?
8
How times have change, with Richard Nixon it was the people had to know their President is not a crook; with Donald Trump, people need to know if their President is a Russian asset and Putin Stooge.
The Trump Whitehouse is in turmoil, and is starting to remind me a lot of the Nixon Whitehouse hunkering down during Watergate.
It's not much different when Nixon said during Watergate, "People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I've got." and now, it seems history is repeating itself.
In Trump's case, not only do the people need to know whether this President is a crook or not, but they also need to know if he's been compromised by the Russians and their Useful Idiot.
3
There is another reason why this situation is intolerable. In the 20th century alone, three presidents became president because of the death of their predecessor. It is only a matter of time that this happens in this century. Imagine if JFK's negotiations with Kruschev had been kept secret from everyone, including the Cuban missile crisis and nuclear arms treaty negotiations with the USSR. Well, then LBJ and the US would just have been out of luck. This behavior of Trump's alone should be an impeachable offense. The US has been here for 240 years. Trump will be lucky if he is here for another 20. The institution which must be preserved is the United States, not any particular president.
4
"If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck." President Trump is a major threat to our democracy.
5
". . . it’s unnerving that more people — particularly in the leadership of the Republican Party — aren’t alarmed by Mr. Trump’s secretive communications with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and reliance on his word over the conclusions of American intelligence agencies."
Like we've been sayin' for 2 years: useful idiot.
2
What’s astonishing is how the trump base, long aligned with flag-waving ‘patriotism’ and lock-step Cold War antagonism for every Russian regime, and also eager to send sons into foreign combat on the thinnest of lies; that these millions of Americans can now tolerate almost certain treasonous collusion from trump, and still somehow wave the flag.
So, when is the civics lesson going to take? This, here, is called loyalty to the country. This other thing, next to it is called loyalty to something we call the enemy. See the difference?
Are we entering a new enlightenment where nationalism defined by a couple of politicians, where concepts like allies and enemies are as inconsistent as the winds, where good and evil are just commodities in a rigged market?
Looks like it from here.
3
The Editorial states, "On Sunday, the new Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, urged his Republican colleagues to back his effort to obtain notes or testimony from the interpreter present at the meetings between Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump."
Oversight of the President, certainly. But do not, I repeat, do not subpoena an interpreter's notes from any conversation. The interpreter does the heavy lifting of simultaneously listening critically, converting one person's speech to the other person's language and conveying that person's thought. The interpreter is likely simultaneously making notes to herself that entails shorthand. She is not trying to document the gist of the conversation, or even to understand the complete conversation. She may lack context that the two speakers share. She is restricted to simultaneously converting one's speech to another's, and rapidly. Moreover, her recall could well be faulty. Such testimony is prone to error.
2
@Victor Mark You've presented a lot of maybes. Maybe we should see the notes and judge for ourselves whether they accurately convey all or part of the conversations.
4
@Victor Mark
Maybe, there is meat in this burger. Maybe it is a nothing burger. Who cares.
The issue is that the many moves Trump has made that are clearly pro-Putin demand the answer to the question, what did the two discuss.
For those that point to the Obama-Mederov comments, the big difference here is that Trump is doing or wants to do everything Putin might want a pocketed President to do. Obama did none of these things.
The reason that one might analyze Trump's relationship with Moscow is because Trump IS doing Moscow's bidding. As always, actions speak louder than words.
1
Here's a question: Is Pres. Trump's continued refusal to seriously negotiate an end to the current government shutdown, which not only has further divided the country but demonstrably weakens our economy and capacity to function, also the product of his compromised relationship with Vladimir Putin? Here's another question: Who among is enablers in the Senate and House also is compromised and acting in the interests of the Russians?
6
A fictional judge addressing a fictional guilty defendant:
"I have agonized and worried about the intent behind your doing these things. It consumed me for a bit as I tried to temper justice with mercy and compassion in my mind.
Then it came to me, it does not matter what you intended, as the result of your actions is the same whatever you intended to happen."
1
Claiming that the FBI is the political enemy of Donald Trump instead of accepting the plain truth that they were doing their job to protect the nation from foreign meddling in our election system and possible treason by an obviously unstable liar, is a ludicrous attempt by Trump and the GOP to obfuscate the facts related to Trump’s conduct and the Mueller investigation .
The question of what it is that Putin has over Donald Trump continues to be asked, and speculation returns again and again to the salacious p tape, while the real answer is and has as ever been, money. Russia is a classic kleptocracy, and as such needs money launderers to shift rubles to dollars. Thus Trump's “miraculous” recovery from six bankruptcies.
And as Eric Trump told us, Russian money was the only money the Trump's used after their credit turned toxic to every regular bank.
Putin owns the record of every ruble laundered by Trump and obviously owns Trump.
8
I really can't believe that the Editorial Board is still pursuing your
debunked story that our President was acting as an agent for Russia. It has since been disclosed that Andy McCabe approved the counter intelligence investigation (CII). This occurred two days after POTUS fired Comey and after a meeting between McCabe, Baker, Strozk, Paige and two others. McCabe and Struck were fired; Baker and Paige resigned. It has been disclosed that the CII
was just a paper transaction according to Andrew McCarthy; he also said it was just a continuation of a years probe on Trump. The CII was opened WITHOUT any evidence. The FBI people who were mentioned were angry at POTUS for firing Jim Comey. It has also been reported that Mueller never continued the CII. So how can you perpetuate such a falsehood? Because...
It seems to me that the MSM has orchestrated an effort to drive Trump from office through charges of nefarious Russian activities.
First, it was your agent story, a day later WAPO 's missing Putin transcripts piece and on day 3 the Sunday TV news programs. Then today your withdrawal from NATO article. So in the course of four days four damming Trump Russian stories?
Consider the following public Strozk to Paige text: "We must get the Insurance while Andy (McCabe) is still Acting "
Was this the CII?
Finally, Trump supplying lethal arms to the Ukraine and the U.S. becoming energy independent and a net energy exporter (Keystone & ANWAR). Both are DETRIMENTAL to Russia.
Trump is our employee, a public servant. He fancies himself a king, which explains him destroying the notes.
5
Just think, for the price of having the Trump Tower name over Moscow, we will get Putin's name over our Nation.
Trump sure knows "The Art of the Steal".
3
Parrots and monkeys repeat after me: hear and say that Putin and Trump are in cahoots. Repeat that. Listen as the sound moves from tree to tree. The noise is so loud that the fish hear it in their schools. The jungle is alive with hearsay but the lion sleeps tonight.
3
Listen to what Russian Agent 45 says - it is the opposite
Look at what he does, and know that those were his orders from Putin
4
If, as Trump now says, the FBI former officials were “dirty” and “scoundrels” and the CIA unbelievable and, if as Trump has also said, Putin is believable and a “friend,” then the moon is a balloon and Trump and his flea infested other dogs are traitors.
3
If nothing else, Trump has exposed all the grave weaknesses in our system of government, and our politicians are demonstrating their inability to grapple with it.
You know what I fear most? It isn't the stupidity of Trump. It's the vulnerabilities he's exposing, and the possibility of a catastrophic event that throws the world into a war that none of us will escape.
Maybe that is extreme. But would you trust someone like Trump to lead us through it?
He keeps me up at night.
6
When this national nightmare is finally over Americans will be able to take solace in knowing that Trump will end up dying in prison.
5
Cool it NYT. Cool it Media. There are only so many ways to rehash the past two years Trump/Russia matter. As important as this is, there is really nothing new, and there won’t be until we see the Mueller report.
2
If Trump IS in the pocket of Putin, the question is 'why?' Has he been laundering money for oligarchs, is he angling for a pay-off when he is out of office (e.g. a Trump Tower in Moscow), or does Putin have compromising video of him consorting with prostitutes? Sadly, any of these scenarios seem entirely possible.
2
Why not tell the truth: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is no longer the president’s address. It’s the Kremlin West. Or, more to the point, Russia House.
2
"Mr. McCarthy said later that his line about Mr. Trump being paid by Moscow was a quip that landed flat."
I'd say it was more a gaffe. You know - where you accidentally tell the truth.
3
"Americans deserve to know what the president and Vladimir Putin are talking about."
That's a matter of opinion, not a legal requirement.
The Times Editorial Board has gone to great lengths to portray a false narrative that there has been illegal activity between Trump and Russian state actors, but when asked for facts to substantiate this assertion, the Times has produced nothing but innuendo and rumor.
Claiming that we all "deserve" to know about these conversations again suggests that something untoward occured when in fact, again, the Board has no evidence to support their position.
In fact the Executive Branch, via court-supported decisions on executive privelege, has no obligation to disclose information regarding confidential discussions with foreign parties.
The paper had no problem with Obama having confidential discussions, the nature of which were disclosed long afterward at the president's discretion.
So stop whining and start investigating how it is that the FBI began in investigation into a sitting presidet without the authorization of the Attorney General.
Presidents, legislators, and ethical editorial boards, from both parties, should be extremely concerned about this.
2
@Objectivist
How many other Presidents have had any ties to Russia? Before and after the election? Who maintains he has no ties to Russia?
I'm 65, and after all that people my age have seen and experienced, I can't believe anyone my age would believe there is no connection to Russia and Putin.
Obama is part of history now. No need to keep riding that horse.
Isn't it nice to know there are people in the FBI who put patriotism above self? Is
the FBI is better at spotting a crook than most people are?
Mueller's report will have more to say than all of us combined.
2
@Mike Westfall
How about that famous right wing conservative Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his - very close - friendship with Joseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili, who old guys will remember as, Stalin ?
Obama ? Not off the table yet. Still needs to have a special counsel investigate his participation in the promulgation of unverified information into a FISA warrant application.
And proof of hypocrisy requires a comparator.
FBI ? Maybe so, lots of good people there.
FBI leadership under Obama ? Partisan ideologues who believe themselves above the law, who should be prosecuted.
@Objectivist
When I was a trial attorney it was always evident when one side felt the facts were not on their side. The tactic used was to take the discussion to "right field". Talk about something, anything, but the facts.
Am I wrong that Obama hasn't been in office for two years? FDR? Stalin?
Looks to me that you are way out in right field.
2
In concert with the evangelicals and the 'freedom caucus', stumpy is working on a realignment of the 'western alliance'.
The new alliance will consist of the US, Putin, Netanyahu, and the Saudis.... the big losers will be Iran and Europe/NATO.
Of course he couldn't run on this agenda, as it's decidedly anti-democratic and anti-muslim. Instead he rails about 'the wall' and China, but make no mistake. These are distractions.
His GOP support is based on the evangelical core of an extremist, right wing party that is in full violation of traditional American values...
If they succeed, America fails. If they fail, we can go back to trying to remain the world's moral, tactical, and humane leader... in concert with allies we can trust.
stumpy is, without doubt, an extremist and a con artist.
5
@EEE
I wish I could give your comment 100 recommendations!!
A Putin-linked billionaire put $800,000 into Lindsay Graham's superpac. He gave McConnell $2.5 million, Rubio $1.5 million, and Scott Walker $1.1 million. Meanwhile Russian money was laundered through the NRA to give Trump millions for his campaign as well as other Republicans. https://www.thedailybeast.com/kremlin-blessed-russias-nra-operation-us-intel-report-saysThe Republican party is also in the bag for Russia. They are all traitors.
6
Trump started out as a Democrat, but over the years has swerved to the right, while, at the same time, he has conducted more business with Russian individuals and businesses. And now he wholeheartedly advocates for Russian foreign policy aims, as pointed out in the editorial.
How much more evidence do we need that this administration is knee-deep (if not higher) in dirty business with Russia. Trump and others have been colluding with the Russians since before the election. One only can hope that the Mueller report comes soon, so we can end this charade of an administration. Something tells me that the report will be damning, perhaps forcing the President and even others within the administration to resign. We could even end up with President Pelosi ... wouldn't conservatives just love that.
5
Enough already about Trump and NATO. He finally plainly and fully expressed what several previous US President had so very tentatively suggested to our European allies: we’ve borne too much burden for too long. Time for you guys to help pay more for your own defense...as the various agreements provide but which the Europeans conveniently ignore. And what kind of promises re no growth of NATO among former Soviet states did James A Baker and others make to the Russians...commitments which we’ve ignored? Lot of stones and glass houses in these developments. Russia is no more my enemy than the Viet Cong were Mohammed Ali’s—you surely remember his line.
1
Since the Repubs are collaborating with Trump, the answer is very simple if we still will have a 2020 election. Vote "R" for treason and vote "D" to clean it up.
3
Trumps submission to Putin is obvious to me yet nobody ever discusses it because it seems to be "far fetched." Trump is being blackmailed by Putin with a sex tape. That is what the highly respected British Spy Christopher Steele claims so why is this never discussed? Think about it. How terrified would Trump be if Putin threatened to release a kinky Trump sex tape to a worldwide audience? It would be absolutely humiliating to Trump and humiliation is a narcissists biggest fear. Putin blackmailing Trump with a sex tape is the ONLY thing that explains absolutely every single one of Trumps moves. So I ask again, why is this never even discussed even though a world renowned British spy claims it is highly likely?
2
@Richard R. Conrad
Trump would just say it's fake. A body double. He wasn't there. It was rigged. Photoshopped. They are out to get him, It's a hoax. His supporters will shrug.
Still, I do think if it does exist it's haunting him and Putin has him by...
1
@Anne With todays high def videography I am not sure the idea of claiming “fake” lessens Trumps abject terror of a porn video hitting the web with excerpts on the evening news for years to come. In all his miniscule glory!
History will note how Putin toyed with America while we are totally engaged with mediaeval Middle eastern warfare.
Putin see great weakness after 9/11 America's full engagement with Middle eastern terrorists. He hit very hard and very sophisticated top notch cold war style, Which America almost forget how to play that game. Russian's never forget what happen in 1989-91. Putin has a very personal experience ( CNN documentary).
USSR 1- USA 1
Unfortunately Regan couldn't even imagine his party will one day become a tool of Russian plot.
3
Can you imagine the response from Republicans if Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton were suspected of being Russian agents?
Al Franken was forced to resign the Senate by Democrats for pretending to touch someone's breasts during his days as a comedian.
What would it take for Republicans to impeach Trump if not putting Russia first above our country?
6
John 8:32 "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." Lying matters.
1
Right. And we needed to know what was on his tax returns, but we seemed to let that one slide.
9
Once upon a time it was only crazy right wingers who were accused of being crazy conspiracy theorists. People like Alex Jones creating outlandish conspiracies about things.
Today we know it’s not exclusive to the right. For two years the left completely believes that Trump and Putin are secretly working together. This week the conspiracy theorists reached their crescendo by claiming, and believing, that Trump is a Russian agent, theorizing that the meeting that occurred between them in private was where they exchanged their secret notes and hand shake and strategized their master plan.
All good conspiracy theories actually have a rational cause which many times are things the creators cannot overcome or face the facts themselves. In this case, the left still can’t accept that they lost an election to Trump. As bad as they make him look everyday, the irony is that this man beat the Dems best candidate. Just accept it - Hilary was a bad candidate and America doesn’t like her. You need to move on . Acceptance is step 1 is moving past significant trauma.
1
@Kev
Oh, you still milking the trite "this is because you lost the election and you're angry" angle?
The election was won, by over three million votes.
When I was trained to be a National Security Information Declassification Specialist by the Department of Energy in the late 1990s, we were taught that information provided to a foreign government and information received from a foreign government is classified in accordance with the Executive Order on Classification. Now that information (FGI) is considered “unclassified controlled information,” dissemination of which is controlled because it was exchanged between governments in confidence, with the expectation that it will not be exposed to unauthorized individuals. The conversations between Presidents Donald J. Trump and Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin meet the definition of FGI and therefore must not be disseminated to the American public, most of whom are not authorized to receive the information. Not all Americans have been investigated to determine their level of trustworthiness, to determine if their character and personal behavior is acceptable to receive that information. Furthermore, there is no law requiring President Trump to create records of his conversations with President Putin or any other leader, there are only laws that require the retention of records once they are created. If it's not recorded, then it never happened; its not part of the historical record. That's why USG officials use email systems that are not owned by the USG and, therefore, are not subject to Federal records retention policy, nor the Freedom of Information Act. Thank you.
3
18 U.S. Code Section 2381 - Treason
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
7
Indeed, this is quite dire - and no laughing matter. I am having a hard time getting my head around the depths that the GOP has plumbed. I knew there was no bottom, yet perhaps I thought there was.
An adversarial and dangerous dictator calling the shots for the President of the United States is fine with Mitch McConnell and was fine for Paul Ryan. As a fast aging professional historian, once this all shakes out, I wish I could be around in a century to see how McConnell and Ryan are treated in the history books - I certainly know how Trump, and at this late date, the anti-Constitutional, white supremacist - and yes, treasonous -hate group, that is the modern GOP will be handled.
Historians will make Tacitus' animus towards Rome's first emperors appear benign.
7
When a troubled individual pays women of the night to remain silent, weeks prior to an American election, depriving American voters of troubling character flaws and insights-that is not a full disclosure.
When the same individual is married to three women who speak Russian, breaks traditional norms of previous presidents by not having advisors present at 5 meetings with an Olympic gold medalist in Russian KGB spy craft, and this same individual conceals what was said from the American Intelligence officials, during a meeting with America's worse enemy, that is treason.
7
Kevin McCarthy’s glib tongue conjures up Goethe line , ”I am part of the power which forever wills evil and forever works good. In addition to discerning Putin’s payroll for us as the Times here points out, he just contradicted Trump’s denial of a relationship with Putin: “I know what the president likes to do. He likes to create a personal relationship, build that relationship, even rebuild that relationship like he does with other world leaders.”
Of course, statistically, McCarthy’s assertion is weak. If you polled world leaders about whether or not they had a personal relationship with Trump, almost none would say yes. Exceptions being Erdogan, MbS, Putin, and Duterte. Looking at those cases, McCarthy may be correct. It IS possible to have relationship with a pet reptile, but we need to ponder whether that is the same as with a human person?
4
@Paul Dobbs
We need to ponder which country and team Kevin McCarthy works for.
3
Trump is insulted to hear that people suspect he is working FOR Russia. If we take his gargantuan ego and history into account, we'd realize we've used the wrong preposition. He's working WITH Russia. He sees himself, not as an employee, but as a partner.
We now know that Trump has long pursued investment in Russia, specifically a Trump Tower in Moscow. We know that despite his denials, his organization continued to negotiate a contract for this project into 2016 as he campaigned for the presidency. Part of his offer is a penthouse for Putin. Through his campaign staff, he is connected six ways to Sunday to the Russian oligarchy and international criminal mob. Trump's understanding of his relationship with Russia is a real estate contract writ large, in which various partners agree to work together to erect a highly profitable property-- profitable primarily for Trump, of course.
Unfortunately, such projects often require demolition of existing structures to clear the ground for the new property. In this case, Trump sees long standing international alliances like NATO and U.S. strategic security interests in the Middle East as impediments to his personal business interests. He wants high priced real estate in Moscow-- and undoubtedly later in other Russian cities. He'll trade Syria and Afghanistan, which are slum properties infested with gangs, for his project(s) there.
Our president is nothing but an ambitious, rapacious, prospective Moscow landlord.
385
@L. L. Nelson - He's also perfectly fine with selling out America if it gets him that hotel in Moscow.
16
@L. L. Nelson
I really can't believe that the Editorial Board is still pursuing your debunked story that our President was acting as an agent for Russia. It has since been disclosed that Andy McCabe approved the counter intelligence investigation (CII). This occurred two days after POTUS fired Comey and after a meeting between McCabe, Baker, Strozk, Paige and two others. McCabe and Struck were fired; Baker and Paige resigned. It has been disclosed that the CII was just a paper transaction according to Andrew McCarthy; he also said it was just a continuation of a years probe on Trump. The CII was opened WITHOUT any evidence. The FBI people who were mentioned were angry at POTUS for firing Jim Comey. It has also been reported that Mueller never continued the CII. So how can you perpetuate such a falsehood? Because...
It seems to me that the MSM has orchestrated an effort to drive Trump from office through charges of nefarious Russian activities. First, it was your agent story, a day later WAPO 's missing Putin transcripts piece and on day 3 the Sunday TV news programs. Then today your withdrawal from NATO article. So in the course of four days four damming Trump Russian stories?
Consider the following public Strozk to Paige text: "We must get the Insurance while Andy (McCabe) is still Acting "
Was this the CII?
Finally, Trump supplying lethal arms to the Ukraine and the U.S. becoming energy independent and a net energy exporter are both DETRIMENTAL to Russia.
1
@Frank Leibold
Trump keeps committing and confessing to crimes on TV and Twitter. Mueller is just collecting corroborating evidence.
Trump stood on stage in a foreign land, and publicly took the side of a hostile intelligence agency over ALL of our intelligence agencies, who have said that Russia hacked into state Attorney General's offices, electoral hardware and software vendors, and state voter rolls to manipulate our election. If the President has a Constitutional reason to take the side of a hostile intelligence agency, he should explain it in detail and last it real evidence. He has not. He merely said that he believes Putin. Without a Conditional reason, Trump's repeated refusal to do his job as commander in chief of U.S. intelligence is a high crime.
Trump said in TV that he fired Comey because of the Russia Investigation. Firing the FBI Director to shut down an investigation is obstruction of justice. Injured matters. Killing someone by accident is a lesser crime than planning it out.
The op-ed contains many more crimes and confessions. That Trump made in public.
It is one thing to doubt corporate media, or the FBI. It is another to pretend that Trump's public actions aren't evidence that he is guilty of crimes.
22
"It's a whole big fat hoax,” with a TON of evidence suggesting that Delusional Donnie is in Putin's pocket, such as:
- Numerous examples of Trump campaign associates having multiple communications with Russians, denying or hiding such communications, and being found out to have lied.
- Numerous examples of Delusional Donnie stating in public that he supports positions that align with and are advantageous to Putin and Russia, even when all of our diplomats, military, and intelligence agencies take the opposite position.
- Numerous examples of Delusional Donnie trying (and failing) to set up business arrangements in Russia that would put money in his pocket.
- Numerous instances of selling real estate to Russians (and others) that have all the earmarks of money laundering, for the benefit of Putin's hangers-on.
It is unreasonable to overlook a long history of many events and statements that always redound to the benefit of Putin and Russia rather than the US, and to consider them to be "coincidences."
When one can predict the positions that Delusional Donnie will take that benefit Putin, those are not coincidences but rather a preordained, and quite deliberate, pattern.
But as Delusional Donnie says "it's a whole big fat hoax." Yeah, right.
5
So, we have a president with a well documented, extended history of questionable behavior - both personal and financial.
We have a president who is a constant and frequent liar, who especially lies to avoid accountability for his behavior.
We have a president who we know made huge payments to cover past sexual improprieties, in order to improve his public image and win the election, and who has hidden his financial records for the same purpose.
In short, we have a president with a very sordid past who has, without question, been willing to go to great lengths to cover up his own improprieties, both sexual and financial. This is not left wing slander - these are truths that have been in the public eye for a long time now.
Is it really that big a stretch to conclude that Russia's president holds some sort of lever over Trump, and that Trump's behavior while in office is a clear indication of that?
We're long past putting "Americans’ minds at ease about their president." We need to do everything in our power to give Mueller a chance to complete his investigation ASAP, and move the levers of government to rid this nation of this malignant tumor.
6
It's very simple: Numerous sitting Congressmen and Senators took Russian money funneled not only through the NRA, but other dark sources, as well. That's why they're sitting on their hands and allowing this travesty to go unexamined and unpunished.
After all: Why would Eight (8) republicans, including Sens. Richard C. Shelby (Ala.), Steve Daines (Mont.), John Hoeven (N.D.), John Neely Kennedy (La.), Jerry Moran (Kan.), John Thune (S.D.), Ron Johnson (Wi.), and Rep. Kay Granger (Tex.), visit Moscow for the 4th of July?
What business did Senator Rand Paul, Texas State Senator Don Huffines and Cato Institute president Peter Goettler have delivering "a letter" from Trump to Putin during their trip to Moscow only a month later? Isn't it suspect that a *senator* would be delivering messages and conducting what should be State Department business?
The bald truth is that Russia continues to subsidize these people (I think the word "traitors" is more appropriate) right out in the open. They are taking and have taken Russian money to fund their war chests.
It's as plain as day. That's why the GOP continues to look the other way. Mark my words, they are all complicit.
8
The Editorial Board's conclusions are too tepid given the scope and severity of Trump's and his associates' conduct. I do like your graphic artist's drawing (the elephants).
3
I noticed that republicans were suspiciously similar in how they spoke about and treated anyone who disagreed with them in the reagan administration. I now think that reagan and all of his supporters were, consciously or not, actively communist in how they did business with the world. It was and still is all black and white, with me or agin me, ever since with republicans. And the Press assisted it by maintaining to this day in how they report a fiction that there is equity between what republicans say and do and what democrats say and do and failing to question anything that is said to them especially when what is said is so obviously deception lie or dead wrong.
El Trumpo has been groomed using his desire to build in Russia because he thinks he can get into and take advantage of the corrupt system there. He has no idea, which is an indication of just how stupid El Trumpo is, that they exclude outsiders in Russia like he does those people who are not like him.
So yes he is very much a Russian agent, he just is not aware of it as he thinks these things he is saying and doing are his own ideas.
He is a Manchurian Candidate of sorts.
2
Fair is Fair
Judge Napolitano recently insinuated that
James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, and others were "rogue agents within the FBI, bent on avenging Comey's firing.
Gregg Jarrett cites 18 U.S. Code § 242 -
Deprivation of rights under color of law, a federal criminal offense, as their crimes.
I think they have a case for a special counsel if "articulable suspicion" is now all that is required.
In Trump's mind he probably thinks he is manipulating Putin.
6
By now it's obvious Trump is all about MARA - Make Russia Great Again. The only thing left to determine is why. Most likely they have the power to ruin him financially. But then again, he's exhibited 70 years of narcissistic and anti-social behavior, so the explanation could simply be his DNA. Desperate for his Moscow Tower Building and desperate to make others' lives miserable. He simply likes beating people up.
2
More than “un-nerved,” I am alarmed at Republican leadership’s continued blind eye towards the unfit narcissist in the White House. I saw McConnel say to Trump last week on TV, “Thank you, Mr. President for you leadership on this,” this being the shutdown. Leadership? Outrageous and hollow. Makes me think that they’re hiding something as well as Trump. Money from Russia? From Russia through the NRA? Their silence is deafening.
7
Is Trump working for Russia? Trump wants to pull us out of NATO—which serves to keep us safe by keeping Russia in check—cede the Middle East to Russian influence, and seeks to ease sanctions on Russian oligarchs. Trump believes Putin over American intelligence agencies and defends Russia, protesting that Russian interference in our elections is a "hoax." Trump has fired and routinely slanders patriotic Americans for questioning and investigating his family's, associates' and campaign's multitudinous links to Russia. All over the world, Trump shrinks American strategic and economic presence and influence, to the benefit of Russia (and China). Is Trump working for Russia? Well he sure as heck isn't working for America!
3
No you don’t. The President decides that.
Follow the money, the women and the videotapes.
Putin wasn't the head of the KGB for nothing.
Have we ever had as President a person who appears to be so beholden to a foreign government?
3
We know what he is talking about ... withdrawing from Nato. It really is treason. It would be really great if McConnell stopped worrying about a few judgeships and losing his majority in the Senate and instead worried how much of an existential threat to democracy Trump is.
The manufactured fear and paranoia of McCarthyism is alive and well on the left. From the comments here, it feels like we're back in the Fifties.
Yes, we Americans deserve to know about President Trump's relationship with President Putin. The president's response to reporters asking him about the relationship interested me because his denial about working for Russia included the phrase "a whole big fat hoax." Does he understand that millions of Americans, including myself, think he's also a whole big fat hoax?
1
He does what he does on our dime and our time. He should have no choice in this matter. We are entitled to know what he's doing and saying in our name.
2
The cartoon of the 3 elephants nails the GOP of today. Time for a reckoning of the so-called GOP leaders.
When Trump cries “it’s a disgrace” you’re asking him something - that usually signals you are on the right track. Keep asking!
2
I am no fan of Trump : Trump is a shameless bigot, a shameless misogynist, a snake-oil salesman with a cruel streak whose main skills are self promotion, lying and bullying. He admires right wing demagogues and autocratic rulers. He is incapable of conceiving well thought-out policies that could benefit the US economy. He can't govern to save his life.
But I don't agree that the public should examine the transcript of a private discussion between the President and a foreign leader. What if a future President or foreign leader confides some private matter, a joke or reviews policy options that could be misconstrued and could compromise long term strategy?
Furthermore, I find this Times editorial and more broadly the Times political reporting to be far too obsessed with accusations against Trump that lead nowhere. Better to stay focused on the more pervasive damage hat this administration is wreaking to our environment, an impartial judiciary, our civil rights, the economic plight of the middle class.
I don't believe that Trump ever colluded with the Russians to win the election. As far as we know, the FBI's counter intelligence investigation did not find anything solid to pursue.
Paul Manafort may have deviously and desperately sought foreign assistance to obtain information that could help candidate Trump but that doesn't implicate Trump in some treacherous scheme in which he is a Manchurian candidate acting on Russia's orders or in Russia's behalf.
2
What has happened to the Republican Party?! They used to tout themselves as the patriotic party, the party of family values, of law and order and fiscal responsibility. Today they are none of these things. Republicans have swallowed Trump’s cool aid and are about to go over the cliff with him and drag the rest of us with him. If Republicans want a totalitarian government go live in Russia. The United States of America is the land of the free and the home of the brave. Wake up America and throw these Republican Russia lovers out of office before it’s too late.
1
This Russia File on Donald Trump is so long and so incriminating that it gives one pause about how our democracy could have let such a person slip through the cracks and ascend to the highest office in the land. We can blame social media and its abuse by Russia for the 2016 election, but who do we blame for all the subsequent pro-Russian and Putin-friendly actions, overt and covert, taken by President Trump? Why is the Republican leadership complicit, especially by it silence, as Trump yields American leadership – in Europe (with his anti-NATO stance) and in the Middle East (by pulling out of Syria and Afghanistan) – to Russian interests.
Republicans went ballistic in 2012 when President Obama simply suggested to Russian President Medvedev that he would have “more flexibility” to negotiate after the presidential election. By contrast, Trump’s Russia File is so egregious and damning, it makes all foreign policy mistakes made by all past U.S. presidents look like rookie “JV” (to use another Obama term that made Republican heads explode) stuff. Patriotism has clearly gone out the window for these Republicans, who seem to have forgotten it was their 2012 presidential nominee that had called Russia “without question our number one geopolitical foe.”
What changed in four years? Is power so corrupting that Republicans are willing to sell their soul for it. Trump often says, “without borders we don’t have a country.” Actually, without a conscience our Constitution is meaningless.
4
An op-Ed in the Israeli daily Haaretz yesterday, penned by Bradley Burston, had a pertinent question as its headline:
"Was the Longest Shut Down in U.S. history Putin's idea?"
Followed by the sub-line:
"Without Trump's help, Putin could not do to the United States what the United States is now doing to itself".
3
Let's not also forget that Kushner wanter to set up a secret (i.e. hiding communications from our own intelligence agencies) back channel to Russia(https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/26/us/politics/kushner-talked-to-russian-envoy-about-creating-secret-channel-with-kremlin.html).
What we really need to know is what hold does Putin have on Trump. Is it merely election meddling? Or is it those secret tapes that will prove embarrassing? Or, most likely, is the Trump empire broke and Putin holds the financing to keep it above water?
All of this secretiveness (including hiding over 100 contacts with Russia) must be for a reason. If it all is innocent, why go to a huge amount to hide it? he probably is not an "agent" in the traditional sense, but he sure seems to be doing Putin's bidding.
2
Yes, sadly the Republican Party is just a tool of plutocrats, Putin, and oligarchs. It’s policy on global warming us evil. It’s authorization of toxins in the air and in food and other substances is evil. Strong word but unfortunately that’s what it is
3
Two years ago I began writing to this forum because I was appalled at Trump as a Manchurian president. Since then I have been horrified at the GOP for aiding and abetting him for which they will forevermore have the scarlet letter of “A” around their necks for adulterers of the Constitution.
With Adam Schiff leading the Intelligence Committee, we will have public hearings into the malfeasance of Trump and his cohorts. In a February, two years after Trump’s Valentine meeting with Comey to make a deal about Flynn, Mueller’s report will be complete.
With the time that has elapsed, Americans have become inured to the traitorous actions of this treasonous president, so the real difficulty will be to awaken them to the atrocities committed by Trump to weaken our country and embolden autocrats throughout the world, according to Putin’s plan.
All of the hearings need to be publicly heard, and Mueller’s report must see the light of day.
Only then can Americans fully understand the upheaval of democratic norms that Trump and the GOP have deliberately caused to keep this traitor entrenched. It is time to take back our country, and Trump and the GOP to go down in infamy.
3
As bizarre as it sounds, if you assume that Trump is a Russian agent, everything makes sense.
5
@John Doe
I try to not jump to conclusions, but you're right. What else answers for almost all of his behavior and decisions?
What if he totally embarrassed himself in front of Putin and doesn't want anyone to know? I think that's as likely as any other scenario.
1
Once again, an excellent analysis of one of the more recent scandals of the current administration. But let me digress to focus on one of the passages within the article:
“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” Kevin McCarthy, who was then House majority leader, told his fellow Republicans at a closed-door meeting.....Mr. McCarthy said later that his line about Mr. Trump being paid by Moscow was a quip that landed flat."
Huh? Just to make sure, I looked up the definition of quip and got this: "a witty remark". Again, Huh?
Since Mr. McCarthy did not deny the initial remark while making the second remark, this is the kind of thing that is most irritating to me about the state of politics in the USA today. These guys get away with nonsense remarks like this all the time.
The next question, shouted at the top of their lungs by everyone who heard the second remark live, should have been: "Mr. McCarthy, as a person in a leadership position in the American government, are you that stupid to make a remark like that as a quip?".
And then this exchange, including all that occurred immediately after the shouted question, should be the subject of a article reported separately by all responsible news outlets.
Or, better yet, maybe even an analysis of this event and others like it (I'm sure there would be many in a short period of time.) could be performed to establish a pattern of how ridiculous our political leaders have become.
2
Ronald Reagan is probably spinning in his grave to see Donald, the supine sycophant, trailing Putin like a besotted fool. And I am sure he would wonder aloud, were he alive, how and why the GOP suddenly embraced Russia.
Maybe it’s the NRA money that Russia has been pumping into the country for years. Who knows? But it would be great to see the lid blown off of the whole shebang because it seems to me that the Russian government has made significant inroads into the GOP.
2
I don't think there is "collusion" or payments or bribes. Rather, Trump is beholden to Putin, just as a minor gangster is to the ultimate mob boss. Putin has told Trump, in no uncertain terms, that "we got you elected and we hold the financial strings to your financial empire. Unless you do what we say, we will expose you as an illegitimate president by telling the world how we put you there and what we know about your corruption. We will call your loans and dump all Russian-owned Trump assets, causing your house of cards to crash in a heap."
The two things Trump cares most about are his ego and his wealth. Russia holds sway over both. This doesn't require collusion, payment or compromat. Putin has the power to turn Trump into a loser. That's what DJT fears most.
Oh, and then there is that poison your family thing.
4
David Van Wie, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head!
1
If we judge Trump by his words and deeds, he's clearly working for Russia. The real question is if he's being paid (e.g. via money laundering--show us his taxes) or being blackmailed.
Also of note: while he is completely ignorant of American history, he seems to know all of Russia's talking points about their revisions to our history.
1
You are wrong on this one. Presidents have and must continue to hold confidential discussions with foreign leaders. They need to be uninhibited in what they are willing to discuss. This is how trust and mutual respect are built.
There is a lot of stink around Trump and Russia. If Mueller presents evidene, then let the legal system work as designed. Interceding now because one does not like Trump sets dangerous presidents for all future presidents.
Yes it is a disgrace. Our president finally had a moment of deep truthfulness.
American voters should not tolerate the endless chaos that trumpism and its DC enablers are inflicting on our beloved country.
We can have lower taxes and conservative judges and less regulation without the meanness and lying and rot that trumpism presents to us.
The truth is hidden in plain sight. Enough with trying to be 'politically correct' and call it what it is: the guy colluded, colludes and will continue to collude with Russia until Congress -and unfortunately, the GOP-dominated Senate- have the guts to do the right thing and put an end to this. Russia and Russian banks ‘own’ this dude. It’s been known in banking circles for quite some time. Yet we’re so unbelievable soft with this little man. I blame the ever-so-soft Media as well. They have allowed the dude to dictate the American political discourse and placed him front and center, allowed him to get away with actions that no other president would be able to get away with. Call it what it is. Why is everyone (Congress, Senate, Media, etc.) so afraid of this dude? Because he has a foul mouth and tweets? Really? Democrats are way too scared; Republicans are way too brainwashed; and the Media way too interested in eyeballs for their content. Have we become so soft? This guy is ruining our country. I used to vote Republican. Not anymore… AMERICA FIRST, for real.
399
@Au Gold
We need some reporting on your statement:
"It’s been known in banking circles for quite some time."
14
@Au Gold Yes the truth is in plain sight. We killed hundreds of Russians in Syria, we support lower oil prices that Russia hates, we support opponents of Russia in various ways, we expelled Russians. Plenty of evidence that this president is not doing what Putin desires.
2
@vulcanalex
No - only proof that the Trump Administration has taken action against the Russian Federation. Trump has never wavered in his support and love for all things Putin - including disregarding the conclusion of his own intelligence agencies assessments that Russia was behind the 2016 election hacks in favor of Putin's denials.
Conveniently missing from your defense of Trump is the latest maneuver led by Mnuchin to lift sanctions on close Putin associate and Oleg Deripaska, he of Paul Manafort fame. This action comes while there is a partial shutdown of our government, 800,000 federal employees including air traffic controllers, TSA agents, Coast Guard, and other DHS employees are not being paid. But the important thing to Trump is lifting sanctions on a Russian oligarch.
51
No matter what happens to Trump, let us all remember that it is the Republican party and its spineless, soulless leaders that are really destroying our institutions.
Trump could be controlled. The shut down could have been averted. Their refusal to act as a third branch of government and check any impulses of this erratic and ignorant president is shameful at best and treasonous at worst.
We have but one resource left: vote them out. And hope it is not too late.
517
@myasara Absolutely. They are all complicit.
15
@EllenMitch McConnell needs to have consequences more substantial than merely being voted out. He inserted his wife into Trump’s cabinet, refused to give his consent or cooperation to out Trump and Putin before the election and is keeping the government shut down to do as much damage to Dems as possible and to propitiate Trump’s base.
13
@Ellen The Repubs are complicit because they as well as Agent Orange in the oval office have been compromised. If not compromised, they are being paid by the Kremlin in some manner. Eight Repubs visited Moscow on July 4th last year to take instructions from their superiors. Just look at the tape played on the news recently and see how acquiescent the betrayers were. They deserve Eddie Slovik justice. Not sure what that is: look it up.
6
Russia is a third world country, and definitely not our "chief rival", nor our biggest problem. Whatever influence they have tried to wield in our politics, so have other nations - and to greater effect (think Israel and Saudi Arabia with money, and China with cyber-interventions). And we have done the same to Russians (think collapse of USSR, coup in Ukraine, NATO expansion, and NGOs as cover for CIA operations).
Now, whereas I believe that Trump is a narcissistic buffoon and disagree with most (even all) of his domestic policies, I also happen to think that the current geo-political order is rotten, and needs to be redefined. Why not"befriend" Russia? Might this not lower the threat of nuclear war, and also keep it from turning East and into China's arms, they being the up and coming superpower. Why not get out of NATO and let Europe take care of its own security? And why not get out of the Middle East, other than guaranteeing Israel's security? I mean, enough already of endless wars and destabilizing the world - American hegemony clearly is NOT in our national interest, and is just bleeding this country dry.
What would be in our national interest is to focus on solving real problems, like our bloated military budget, failing schools, student debt, climate change, immigration, to name just a few. This is where Trump is truly failing us, much like his predecessors.
33
@TD So a third world country has a massive military, nuclear weapons etc.? Our military budges is not bloated, but needs better focus and effectiveness. Schools are a state responsibility, and student debt is a personal one, how about stop the government from lending for college? Climate change needs to be adapted to. Yes immigration and infrastructure needs attention, the president made a proposal on immigration that congress did nothing about.
2
@TD
"enough already of endless wars and destabilizing the world."
I think that's a sentiment we all could agree on, but it's not going to happen, and the reason why is in your next paragraph: "our bloated military budget."
There's just too much money invested in manufacturing war machines and armaments. What would happen to the US's economy if industry stopped building tanks, warships, jets, bombs and bombers, aircraft carriers and launchers, and millions of small arms? Would the plan be to just keep selling them to the rest of the world while staying out of wars?
Yes, most of us would like to see an end to wars everywhere, but it's hard to see it becoming a reality.
2
@TD
The USSR collapsed by itself. They couldn't make a toaster.
Ukrainians tossed out a Pro-Moscow, non-Ukranian ethnic Russian kleptocrat.
NATO is not a threat to Russia, and Russia knows this, but they play it as a threat because they can, because it's a consistent option.
Russia insists on having one foot in Western civilization while at the same time insisting on perfecting their own variety of Eastern despotism. If the US / Nato / ______ vacates _______ there will be many, not just the Russians, more than willing to fill that void.
6
I'm surprised you didn't use the Montenegro example. The famously non-studious Trump said this about Montenegro. “Montenegro is a tiny country with very strong people. They have very aggressive people. They may get aggressive and congratulations, you’re in World War III, now I understand that. But that’s the way it was set up.”
Montenegro is a new member of NATO, admitted specifically to be a geographic check against Russia. Montenegro, population 630,000, accused Russia of attempting a coup against it months earlier. Not only was it odd that Trump would know Montenegro existed but his stating that he wouldn't defend a member nation of NATO was another gift to Russia. Speaking for Putin could not have been more obvious.
6
I want to thank the Editorial Board for this great Opinion piece!
The only comment I have is that the NYT reported this morning that Trump wants to pull the US out of NATO. This will be a win for Putin and I would not be surprised that this is what Trump promised Putin. Clearly Trump could not take this action right after he met with Putin that would have been too obvious.
What I do NOT understand is that the Congressional Republicans and especially McConnell, and for that matter, most Republicans in the US, swallow all of Trump's action and rethoric line, hook and sinker.
I fear the US is indeed going down hill faster than anticipated.
4
Claiming that the FBI is the political enemy of Donald Trump instead of accepting the plain truth that they were doing their job to protect the nation from foreign meddling in our election system and possible treason by an obviously unstable liar, is a ludicrous attempt by Trump and the GOP to obfuscate the facts related to Trump’s conduct and the Mueller investigation .
The question of what it is that Putin has over Donald Trump continues to be asked, and speculation returns again and again to a salacious tape, while the real answer is and has as ever been, money. Russia is a classic kleptocracy, and as such needs money launderers to shift rubles to dollars. Thus Trump's “miraculous” recovery from six bankruptcies.
And as Eric Trump told us, Russian money was the only money the Trump's used after their credit turned toxic to every regular bank.
Putin owns the record of every ruble laundered by Trump and obviously owns Trump.
217
@rich Ha Ha, they were not doing their job, but rather doing politics which they never should have been allowed to do.
2
@vulcanalex
What the FBI was investigating was exactly what they are required to investigate; Foreign meddling in a US election. And what has been proven already, is that the Russians worked to elect Trump and sought to influence 150 million voters, and that they had help in the targeting of specific voters in specific swing states, right down to the district. That was an Act of War and an possibly an act of treason by a complicit Trump campaign. That Trump refused to act against that attack on the nation, nor protect us against the one yet to come, is a fact, and is all an intelligent person would need to know.
17
Note to all: Cut the partisan political pronouncements, denouncements, posturing, name calling, immaturity and use of "alternative facts." Do what Americans elected or appointed you to do and act like adults, rather than kids in a sandbox. Far more is at stake than who is king or queen of the sandbox at the end of the day. We are all in this together, for the long haul, whether you like it or not.
Effective leaders value and preserve their credibility. Without credibility, you are not and can not be a leader.
Effective leaders look over the horizon, beyond today, to evaluate future needs and alternatives as to how to achieve them.
Effective leaders prioritize in order to do important things well, rather than all things badly.
Effective leaders are respectful of others and hear them out, even if they believe going in that they disagree.
Effective leaders are thoughtful, not impulsive.
Effective leaders do no threaten and vilify those with whom they disagree.
Effective leaders compromise when in the best interests of all.
Effective leadership is transparent.
Effective leaders communicate well.
Effective leaders tell the truth.
Effective leaders fully evaluate issues before taking action.
Effective leaders do the right thing when necessary rather than bury their head in the sand and hope something will just go away.
Effective leaders do not take action based solely upon self-interest, whether it be one's own self worth or political self- interest.
2
Thanks New York Times for whipping the public hysteria to a fever pitch.
Trump is many things, but I doubt seriously he is a secret Russian agent. I’m a Democrat and witnessing these stories built on innuendo and no circumstantial or physical proof seems like irresponsible journalism.
This type of accusatory innuendo got Sen. Al Franken removed for a silly, boyish photograph taken years before he ran for political office.
Like it or not, Pres. Trump was elected. A good portion of the country voted for him. There has to be a point where this is accepted. The Trump hunt probably sells papers, which is good for the bottom line, but it also feeds the divisions in our society, which is not healthy.
These kinds of innuendos are bad for America. Overall, the president also needs some privacy. Demading to know would set a bad precedent. Think if the press was demanding to know what Kennedy was saying to Kruschev?
I would like to see this journalistic energy re-directed towards electoral reform. The electoral college got us this into this mess where a president doesn’t represent the majority of the popular vote. That’s what we need to fix.
6
@J.D.
We all just need to believe what we see and hear from Mr Trump, right?
1
The NYT should print the full transcripts of President Obama's meetings with Putin and the placeholder guy they had in there for one term. This will allow for some context to its demand Trump's meeting transcripts be published.
4
Roy Cohn, the late, disgraced, disbarred attorney, was mentor to the young 'Don the Con'. Cohn made a life-long career on slamming anyone who dared question anything about the many illegal dealings in which he was involved.
This is important to remember when trying to figure out what the current occupant of the Oval Office is up to. He will attack, attack, attack anyone or any institution, to distract from the issue at hand, just like Roy Cohn.
So as Don the Con learned his disreputable business practices from 'Daddy Fred' so he was schooled by Cohn in how to react to any challenge.
Sadly this is no way to lead a free society.
12
@JTG
daddy Fred was corrupt but he was also a good businessman, he actually built things. Other than Trump Tower El Trumpo has done little but live off daddy's money or the money he borrowed on daddy's good name. Which is what got him mixed up with Russians to begin with. US banks stopped taking his calls.
1
Trump is an American Traitor, pure and simple. Prison or suicide are his only way ahead options.
4
I wish I knew the Russian words for quack and duck. They would surely be applicable here.
3
This is pure politics. No one cared what Pres Obama meant when he told Pres Medved that he could work better with him after his (Obama's) reelection.
3
@John S - False equivalence. There is no meaningful comparison between the two.
5
Trumpians for Putin
The Rushkies are a hootin'
It's much more fun than dropping bombs
or shootin'
They running to their Vladdy
Who says he's still their Daddy
as long as they remember who's the Caddy
3
President Trump repeatedly states he did not work for Russia and the Witch Hunt goes on.
Indeed he is a shrewd business man, who operates much like the Mafia bosses of the 50-60's. However, he fails to see the truth, complains about the Obstructionist Democrats trying to ruin him, and lies about his reasons for firing Comey. News at 8:00 AM MST, James Comey, the absolute best Director the FBI ever had, an icon and the finest law enforcement practitioner in the USA, is a registered REPUBLICAN. Impeach this fraudulent President now!!
3
Trump's actions speak volumes. More than his words. He is a habitual liar. Watch what he does, not what he says. Watch him with the greatest diligence, like a cat outside a mouse hole.
4
Donald Trump is known for the “Deal”. Something for something.
What increasingly appears obvious is that Trump implicitly or explicitly made a “deal” to lift Russian sanctions in exchange for Russian’s help in winning the election. Viewed from that perspective, all that seems odd acts by him fit neatly into place.
The Mueller investigation, House Congressional hearings and superb investigative reporting by the media will fill in the blanks, and hopefully soon. Our System of Government is working as it should.
4
Mr. Trump acts like Putin's agent, talks like his agent, defends his actions, fires those that pose a threat to Putin, belittles our military, weakens our law enforcement agencies , creates discord among our allies united against Putin, gets secret back- channel communication with Putin, destroys translator notes, yet you want to give him the benefit of the doubt?
The appearances make the reality.
4
Four years ago, Republicans were aghast about the sale of Uranium One, declaring that this horrific blow against the US aided Vladimir Putin and Russia. They lambasted President Obama and Hillary Clinton regularly.
Now, Republicans are aghast at the mere suggestion that Trump being nice to Vladimir Putin and Russia is such a bad thing--but they still feel that Uranium One was a horrific mistake.
It's almost as if GOP opposition to Russia is more a matter of how they can oppose Democrats than how they can oppose Russia.
4
The relationship between Trump and Putin is one of two dictators knowing they can help each other whatever the consequences for the people they rule.
2
Mr. Trump serves at the pleasure of his party. If he's working for Russia, the Republicans are working for Russia.
And Mitch McConnell, whether by political strategy or stunning weakness, is aiding and abetting this dangerous president. He should be made to account for his party's mystifying apathy. Publicly.
6
The party of Trump has become the party of Putin. How could the rank-and-file of the party accept this? Turns out the America of my parents is not the America of my children. Very sad.
3
In fact, no...they dont. It is acceptable that Presidents have private conversations with world leaders. This is nothing new. The thought that every conversation should be made public is absurd and threatens our national defense as well.
Except Trump act like he has something nefarious to hide. He cannot be trusted.
1
A conversation between two world leaders should not be made public in normal circumstances.
These are not normal times. Normally, our president would not meet the Russian President without briefings regarding subject matter to be discussed/not discussed as well as a clear strategy for what the goals of the conversation would be. In addition, all of our policies would need to be consistent with what state department policy that is being put forward to protect the interests of our country as well as those we are aligned with, like NATO.
Given the fact that we know Trump lies, cozies up to dictators, and makes everything up as he goes, this is an instance in which we should make these talks available to the public to reassure that our interests as citizens of the United States are prioritized over his personal business interests.
1
I wonder if it would have generated a more interesting response if Trump had been asked if he had ever worked “with” rather than “for” the Russian government. Sure, it’s just semantics, but it’s more in keeping with his self concept as the boss. Working “for” suggests that he’s been a lackey.
1
Interesting point!
1
Trump asked the KGB officer, for whom he'd laundered so much money, if he interfered in the election. The KGB officer said he hadn't, so Trump, with his superior intellect, asked the KBG officer in a DIFFERENT way, which would have forced anyone who had been lying to tell the truth, but the KGB officer said he hadn't interfered, thus he was telling the truth.
2
The reporter's asking the question is no disgrace. The manifest need to have asked it - and to keep asking until there is a full and complete response - is what's disgraceful, on the assumption that PT's use of the word hasn't hollowed out any of its meaning.
1
At this point, not to impeach Trump makes a mockery of the Constitution.
4
@LO
There’s a Mandate for Removal from Office in Section 4 of Article 2 (in the Constitution).
“The president .... SHALL be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery and other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
The SHALL is a mandate! And what the FBI seems to be focused on is the degree of quid pro quo being extracted from Trump: the offering of pardons being Bribery. That is a crime for sure! (It’s no longer in the realm of politics, but of criminality. Giving due credit to Marcy Wheeler for that insight.)
1
We should never forget that 63 million Americans preferred this type of President to Hillary who would have been more status quo. He was too crazy for me to vote for him.
The United States turns out to be a fragile country. Maybe it always has been.
1
"Indeed, it’s unnerving that more people — particularly in the leadership of the Republican Party — aren’t alarmed by Mr. Trump’s secretive communications with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and reliance on his word over the conclusions of American intelligence agencies."
It seems fairly evident that the republicans, as cynical as ever they were, are protecting either their financial interests or their existence. Not just their political existence, but their freedom to move about in society within our country. I believe that they are behaving like unindicted co-conspirators in, what may be, the widest scandal this country has ever seen.
Why else would they be so intent on protecting Trump? Repeating his lies?
We may be surprised to find that our country has been for sale by republican operatives not just since 2016, but for decades.
We may find that we have not voted in an election that wasn't highly engineered for generations.
Conspiracy?
Look around, our country is armed to the teeth. Our citizens are being destroyed by an opioid crisis of our own making.
Our Supreme Court, our court of last resort, is being viewed as highly partisan and highly influenced by a god who, some may be surprised to hear, does not represent a significant portion of the population.
A god, by the way, who is referenced far too often to justify aberrant behavior and fringe ideology.
Donald Trump a Russian spy?
Why not?
2
The Republicans have been doing everything in their power to cover up and lie about Trump and Putin. Controlling both houses they killed any and all investigations that might have shown the American people what really happened in 2016 and beyond.
No investigation should be hidden from the American people. Why have the Republicans continuously covered up for Trump unless they are all part of the conspiracy.
4
Remember that the GOP is the people and voters that put Trump ( and McConnell) in power.
It is time to ask the 40-50 million US citizens that voted for Trump and still support his insanity and criminal behavior "what will it take?".
These people, marginalized or under-educated or just silly, must become responsible or else we continue to come apart.
We need to support and educate these people in understanding the depths of the criminal empire and the dire nature of the GOP-lead government.
2
For the well-being of the world (not just the U.S.A) Trump should be removed from office asap, let his Vice, Pence to be in charge for the time being,--OK Pence with his wife since he never ever sees a woman unless his wife is present. This should sound as a bad joke if it were not real. The shutdown of the Federal government is another tragic piece that we are in the hands of a family of scoundrel with the support of a party that is not a party but another lobby representing whatever it takes to keep going in our filthy deeds. Yes, I am making a connection between the Federal government shutdown and the meddling of Russia at the heart of our democratic system.
2
You are too kind when you soften your reference to McCarthy's recorded statement that Putin pays Trump to saying McCarthy later said it was "a quip that landed flat." You should have mentioned, as reported by the Washington Post in the original article, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) immediately interjected, stopping the conversation from further exploring McCarthy’s assertion, and swore the Republicans present to secrecy.
3
The relationship of Trump and the GOP makes me think of an abusive husband and battered wife. The wife may defend the abuser against the police and stay with him for continued abuse because she believes she has no place else to go. I think that explains many GOP voters, who have convinced themselves it is Trump or they are politically homeless.
2
We have at a minimum a Russian sympathizer and at worst a foreign agent as our president. For those who cannot come to grips with the overwhelming and rapidly growing support for this contention, look more closely . Trump and Putin have some sort of relationship that prevents Trump from treating Russia as the snake that it is. Trump is bound to get bitten sooner or later because Putin is smarter and more careful than Trump. Putin does not shoot his mouth off or send out random tweets that make no sense. But Putin is counting on Trump to keep that kind of behavior going. It causes division and a basic destruction of our American way. Russia is rooting for the dissolution of of the USA and Europe. Every action Trump has taken so far is designed to destroy the basic fabric of our government from placing incompetent and uninformed individuals into heads of agencies to stacking the courts. We are much weaker now than we were when any other president was at the helm. This has got to stop and soon.
2
The United States was one of only two NATO countries that met their NATO funding obligations. President Trump threatened to pull the United States out of NATO unless the other member nations started paying their fair share. As a result, the deadbeat nations pledge to meet their treaty obligations. The result, thanks to Trump, will be a stronger, not weaker NATO. Listing this accomplishment as evidence that Trump is a Russian agent demonstrate the absurdity of the accusation.
1
@William Case
Devoting two percent of GDP to military spending is a recommendation by NATO and not an obligation. The U.S., Poland, Greece, the U.K., and Estonia spent 2% or more of GDP on their military. This isn’t money sent to NATO. Here is an explanation which notes the difference between what the President is referring to and the NATO budget. https://www.factcheck.org/2018/07/trump-still-distorting-nato-spending/
1
@Iglehart
The article you links to states: In 2006, NATO members agreed to try to spend at least 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense spending. In 2014, they agreed again to aim to meet that standard by 2024.
But in March, NATO said that only four nations met that guideline in 2017: the U.S. (3.57 percent), Greece (2.36 percent), Britain (2.12 percent) and Estonia (2.08 percent). Poland, at an estimated 1.99 percent of GDP, was just shy of the goal."
Every American President since Franklin Roosevelt has met with the leaders of Russia. All these meetings were praised for their intentions whether or not the President was Republican or Democrat. Suddenly for a US leader to even talk with our adversaries is considered suspect and sinister. . . . The level of guilt by association and insinuation and proof free accusations of disloyalty in Cold War Two is beginning to exceed the paranoia of CW1 and will have even worse consequences . . . . The gravest environmental threat to life on our planet is the US nuclear arsenal and the drive by the US elite for a suicidal nuclear confrontation with its targeted "enemies." This editorial is part of that effort.
From an outsider point of view the only rational explanation for Trump's behaviour towards Russia during the campaign and since he has taken office is that it is either a Russian lucrative agreement (tower in Moscow) or compromat.
1
I see mention in the comments that are positive toward Mitt Romney. Is that what Americans are now choosing between? A sitting president who is a criminal and a Russian mark and an entitled man who destroyed many peoples' lives raiding companies? The GOP is not a party. It is a group of criminals. I have had enough. Remove trump and family from office, seize their assets, pay the shutdown victims and put an end to this nightmare.
2
None of President Trump’s or his family’s published remarks of their conversations with Russians so far rise to the level of illegal actions, criminal intent, or conspiracies with Russia to advance their personal or Russia’s interests over the interests of the United States. Critics have insufficient evidence to conclude otherwise simply because of another rogue politically motivated FBI counterintelligence investigation of a public figure. FBI Dir. Hoover had used the same “counterintelligence” cover of his political opposition and his racism to launch rogue operations against Rev. Martin Luther King,Jr.
The President has denounced the FBI for investigating him, based on FBI director Comey’s Chief of Counterintelligence Peter Paul Strzok II and his mistress/colleague, Lisa Page, as politically motivated, based on conspiratorial texts between the two, prior to any conviction of Trump’s aides and campaign associates. The Strzok mash notes to Page include Strzok’s promise to “stop” Trump’s policies, not about “counterintelligence” charges of his Russian collusion.So far, Trump is right.
45th need release his tax returns for last 10 years. What is he trying to hide? What for?
1
Putin should be outright praised; for being honest; balancing budgets; publicly defending Christianity -- in an increasingly hostile secular world; being loved by people. The secret to those successes is what Americans deserve to know.
They’re about to hear a whole lot of nothing, because there was no collusion with Russia that lost democrats and election to Donald Trump. It was their own incompetence that lost the election.
The sooner they take ownership and start to show they can oppose the republicans on substance and policy instead of attempts to take down the president at any cost, then they maybe they’ll prosper in 2020. Until then they’re not fit to govern any more Than Trump is.
It’s sometimes hard to believe what you read in a once noble newspaper that’s lost it’s mind in the last two years.
"Mr. McCarthy said later that his line about Mr. Trump being paid by Moscow was a quip that landed flat."
this is the modern thinking of the repulican party. "what can i get away with for my overlords?" and then pretend like you're acting at of some strange form of benevolence towards anti-government pro-american nonsense. why do we have to live through the thought experiment of the far right wing that's financially backed by the ultra rich?
1
Looking at Trump’s taxes will reveal nothing. He has had more than enough time to launder his own money and hide it in multiple false corporations, and islands in the Caribbean no one has heard of. It’s exactly what his father did for fifty years or so, and it works. There’s not going to be a file on, “Bribe money from Vlad.” The system is based on being voluntary and truthful, which for Trump, is a joke.
This is another case of russia having info via trump that the USA does not have. Like 2016 efforts at trump tower moscow. Vlad knew trump was still trying for development while trump told the USA he was not. This kompromat and opacity regarding his own government with info that Putin already has seems treasonous, not just incompetent.
2
In the 2016 Presidential campaign and election Donald Trump did not run a covert stealth subtle campaign. Everyone knew exactly who he was and was not and voted accordingly.
Trump's appeal to the worst demons of our nature trumped economics, politics, national defense and foreign affairs put him the Oval Office of the White House. A majority of the Republican Party majority in the Senate is focused on tax cuts for the rich and putting more conservative evangelical federal judges and justices on the bench.
Donald Trump along with Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin are part of an international axis of white supremacist nationalist right-wing evil.
Scoundrel, know thyself.
This president has forfeited any goodwill, trust and support of all Americans during his reign of dysfunction and abuse of democratic institutions. His contempt for the rule of law and his worship of everything that is evil and wrong in world leaders is contrary to traditional American values.
Mitch McConnell and Republicans in both chambers are loyal, not to the Constitution, but to this president, which is what he demands. He threatens punishment for those politicians who question him or break party ranks. He relies on his base of vengeful voters to carry out his political death sentence to any GOP officeholder not in lockstep with him.
This president is a king without a crown or scepter or velvet robe but he intends to rule America with an iron hand, with the encouragement of the Republican Party.
1
The Rot runs so deep. The evidence for which direction it runs is so clear. Toward Russia. Despite all protestations to the contrary, Donald Trump has embraced Putin, his policies and his person.
Our nation is in peril. Not from refugees seeking sanctuary across our southern border. But directly via the Donald Trump in the White House. Horrifying. But true.
There can be no debate about this. It’s just a matter of when and how we bring an end to this most sordid, sorry chapter our nation has endured. And is now suffering.
Impeach. Indict. Incarcerate.
2
There is nothing sinister about Trumps association with the Russians. It’s just one crook working with another crook to swing a Realestate deal.Trump would work with the devil to get a Billion Dollar deal, look at the Saudi’s as an example.He’s not a Traitor, he’s just a Capitalist, in a Capitalist Party.Oh,you mean he shouldn’t be doing private business with foreign interests while in office, especially those that are potential enemies. As George Constanza said in Seinfeld, “Is that wrong”?
2
Given the way the media twists just about everything, it doesn't surprise me at all that Trump would say, "Hey, this was a private meeting between two heads of state. I don't want it leaked. Period."
I'd rather see the transcript of the FBI/Hillary Clinton interview while she was being investigated by the FBI. Oh, .... that's right, the FBI chose not to record the interview with its chief witness.
In light of the nearly 7,000 lies Individual-1 has told in almost two years in office, I have developed a simple theory: whatever Trump says, the opposite is actually the case, so that, when he says that he has never worked for Russia, he is, more or less, saying that he has always worked for Russia. As a result, it might be just as useful to calculate the number of times—certainly in the thousands—he has done or said things favorable to the Kremlin, and against the interests of, ostensibly, his very own country.
This would explain why, going back years before he ran for president, he so vigorously championed the discredited “birther conspiracy,” erroneously claiming that our first African-American President wasn’t born in the United States, which contained the seeds of everything from racism and institutional doubt to nationwide division and incivility. Thereafter, it was no small leap for Trump to share polling data and classified material with Russian officials, as he withheld information from his “own” aides, not to mention withdrawing from Syria, praising Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan, pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord, criticizing his own intelligence and law enforcement officials, removing sanctions on Oleg Derepaska, making the Republican Party platform regarding Ukraine Russia-friendly, kowtowing to Putin, and otherwise doing his bidding ad infinitum. Trump has said no president has been tougher on Russia when, once again, the inverse is true. QED
1
Nothing will "put me at ease" about this president except the knowledge, one day, that he is out of power and is no longer able to inflict further damage on our country.
2
I once had a patient who, learning that she had a dissociative disorder, asked if it was safe for children to be around her.
Yes, it was. She cared about others. And had no history of doing any harm to anyone. But herself.
DJT is the opposite. He would never ask the question: Is the nation in danger if I am elected?
He, it is! DJT is our greatest danger. Followed by his enablers. But none of them has the good sense to ask: Am I endangering the nation? Due to my sociopathic behavior? Or cowardice? Vengefulness? Or greed?
We are in danger as a society. And those sworn to “serve” and “protect” are instead subverting and pillaging our ideals, our people and our Constitution.
2
Trump: "I never worked for Russia."
Well, I guess that settles this little issue. He said it strongly and he said it firmly. And we know he would never lie to the American people. So let's move on.
1
And the silence from the GOP is disgraceful. This news story, which would be shocking in normal times, is in these times just another 'brick in the wall' or, if you prefer - a bullet point on an ever expanding list of Presidential transgressions. We've been numbed by Trump's prodigious output of miscalculations, missteps, mendacity, malfeasance and insult. Somehow it doesn't seem to matter when Senate Leader Mitch McConnell stands back and through his silence fails to acknowledge the enormity of the charge and it's consequences for the nation if proven. The Washington Post's banner slogan 'Democracy Dies in Darkness' could well be changed to 'Democracy Dies in Silence'
1
If 2 leaders from the 2 major world nuclear powers have a decent working relation and open lines of communication that is just a start for continuing efforts toward world peace and an end to all wars on our planet. This is what was anticipated after world war I but it has not happened in the 100 years since.
My father born in 1919 has followed news of world war II and many other wars through out the 100 years of his life. He was shocked when a nuclear weapons of mass destruction were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing millions of civilians. I have been deeply troubled by the unending religious extremists fueled terrorist onslaught of this century. We should applaud the efforts of Trump and Putin to decimate the middle east terrorists in the past 2 years instead of the age old trivial pursuit of those who want to instigate perpetual animosity between the world powers.
Fine Americans deserve to know what Trump and Putin are talking about but to steal a phrase from sec. Clinton. What difference does it make? The current leaders have reset the relations between Russia and the USA and set the on a path to fight the common enemies of humankind so be it as long as neither are profiting personally from their relation or endangering the national security of their respective countries.
1
What will it take? How self-centered and self-destructive can the GOP be? Isn't the Office of the President worth protecting? Oh wait, it's only about their power at any cost - even democracy.
1
Trump's public statements and behaviors are clear. They're consistently pro-Russia. The following non-exhaustive list indicates in all likelihood what was discussed in private:
1. Hiring Paul Manafort as campaign chair with his shady pro-Russian activities in Ukraine that was followed immediately by a major change in the Republican Party platform from pro-Ukraine to pro-Russia.
2. Hiring Mike Flynn as National Security Adviser with his Russian connections who immediately engaged in secret contacts with Russian operatives to grant sanctions relief and then lied to the F.B.I. about, thenrefusing to fire him for 18 days after learning he was "compromised."
3. Pressuring F.B.I Director James Comey to halt the Flynn investigation and then firing him when he wouldn't. Lying that the reasons were first the Rod Rosenstein memo and then that he lied to Mike Pence when, by his own admission, it was "to relieve the Russia pressure."
4. Writing a "fake" cover story for his son Don Jr. about the real purpose of the Trump Tower meeting in New York with a Russian operative and Kremlin agent to get "dirt on Hillary Clinton.
5. Lying about have any business in Russia when he was actively pursuing building a Trump Tower in Moscow until mid-June, 2016 that gave Russia "kompromat" over him.
6. Denying the unanimous view of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered on his behalf in the 2016 election, and then saying in Helsinki that he believed Putin.
And the Syrian pullout...
1
I suggest a Standing O for cartoonist Giulia Sagramola. She has so beautifully adapted the ancient See/Hear/Speak No Evil meme to the current stance of the GOP.
2
It's not just Trump. Look how comfortable Republican leadership was with Russian interference. McConnell, who, along with other Republicans, had taken millions from dual citizen Russian oligarchs, refused to cooperate with Obama in raising the alarm. Look how easy was it for Butina to infiltrate and co-opt the NRA. Do you remember the visit by top Senate Republicans to Moscow July 4, 2018? They tried to meet with Putin - why? Why did Devin Nunes undermine his own committee's investigation, and why did he and other congressional Republicans obstruct justice by targeting and crippling the leadership of FBI counter intelligence? Read the alarming report in the Dallas News, August 2017, and the July 2018 piece in the Nation. Putin didn't wake up in 2016 and decide to interfere with our politics through a clown like Trump - he's been working politicians in this country ever since he and his former KGB buddies took over the Kremlin. What would have been dismissed previously as pure fantasy, has now become a quite plausible terrifying reality: that the corrupt core leadership of the Republican Party is a Russian asset.
1
I think an innocent man would step aside and stop his hysterical tweeting for a thorough investigation proving his innocence.
2
Frankly speaking, no President should ever be in a meeting with any foreign leader without multiple witnesses and a transcript of the conversation taken.
3
I would think that It’s quite obvious by now that Trump has blossomed into an enemy of the country he purports to lead. That alone should be enough to remove him from office. That Mitch McConnell does nothing that isn’t Trump’s bidding, instead of serving his country, is also highly suspect. I’m willing to bet Putin is paying more than just Rohrabacher and Trump.
2
Imagine if Barack Obama, or any Democratic president, behaved as Trump has. They would have been impeached long ago. That Congress has allowed this president to crush all norms for presidential behavior is an outrage. Trump has not earned our trust; he lies, and lies, and lies. Nothing he says can be believed. It is mind-boggling that it has gotten this far.
2
Trump's increasingly serious public flirtations with Russia, no doubt caused by a trail of dirty money and personal compromat, and today's revelation about demanding America withdraw from NATO, are terrifying for one previously unthinkable reason: any further, and he's going to trigger a military coup, something Putin would love for sure. What does Trump have against American democracy? He wants to be king in a Putin-controlled world.
2
I'm so exhausted trying to keep up with the plot lines I can't wait to read the script for the upcoming blockbuster film version of this catastrophe.
1
It is time to editorially place the argument for Trump's resignation. If the Republicans will not act, the people must be encouraged by sound argument to push them. Newspapers have traditionally done that on the Editorial Page. Act, N.Y. Times.
1
Politics for this compromised president & his GOP enablers has become anything they can get away with and each new wound they inflict on democracy emboldens them to sink even lower. That a sitting American president would need to publicly state: “I am not working for Russia” without apparent embarrassment is a clear indication that this is nothing more than another game to him in a life where corruption is the norm and reality is avoided at all cost. Are Republicans really too cowardly to live up to the slogan and actually put their country first? Sad.
2
I suspect Trump was telling Putin he would have greater flexibility after the election.
Trump works for the American people. He reports to us. He is in our employ at our pleasure ( well, some people's pleasure). Imagine yourself telling your boss that a meeting you had with a rival company is none of his business. You would be fired on the spot.
2
@Barbara
Exactly correct - running the government is not like running your private business. In one, you are the boss; in the other, the American people are the boss. Trump have confused and conflated the two, and the Republicans refuse to reverse this anti-American administration.
3
Pardon my ignorance, but aren't such discussions covered by Executive Privilege and Diplomatic immunity?
However, if you're really serious and not just stirring up more national political unrest; how about the full text of early morning White House meetings that Mr. Obama had concerning The Muslim Majority?
@Samuel Spade
Obama's not president, Trump is. ("Muslim Majority"? Is that more Fox News propaganda? Where do you conservatives come up with these lies?) Whatever you thought of Obama, it is Trump who is sabotaging our country and our democracy now.
All such discussions, whether protected by privilege, security, or immunity, MUST be recorded and preserved. It is not up to the whim of the parties, presidents or no, to decide what will be saved and what will be discarded.
2
Yes, like what did Putin offer in exchange for reduced sanctions. It sure wasn't to stop trying to influence ours or our allies democratic institutions, all you gotta do is go down the comments here and find the army of trolls that becomes active as soon as the topic involves Russia or Putin.
1
A few thousand years ago, Moses came down from the mountains with a list of ten commandments, the very first of which said, 'You shall have no other gods before Me', and we have never wavered from that belief.
What is wrong with us Americans now? Have we become so smart and conceited that the word from the Big One is not enough for us?
He said that he did not ask Cohen to payoff some ladies he might have spent a bit of time with when his wife just has had a baby, and we immediately set up an investigation just to prove that he was not speaking the truth, the whole truth?
He said that he believed Putin when he had told him that Russia did not interfere with our elections and we start questioning his gullibility?
He has publicly and loudly said he 'did not work for Russia' and we don't seem to believe it?
These are self-evident, simple truths. Why can't we believe them? What' wrong with us?
Have we become the 'Argumentative Americans' like the 'The Argumentative Indian' (a book written by Nobel Prize winning Indian economist Amartya Sen, focusing on the traditions of public debate and intellectual pluralism in India).
One can understand Trump being in Russia's pocket just based on his greed and selfishness. But McConnell? Why isn't he speaking out against Trump? Is he also controlled by Putin?
3
"I have never worked for Russia" - the Trump equivalent of Richard Nixon's "I am not a criminal" statement.
1
As a Venezuelan-American, I am beyond frustrated by the complete lack of context that is given to Putin's actions.
Let me back up.
I became alarmed at Russia's interference in Venezuelan affairs around 2003, when I heard that 10,000 Russia Uzis were en route to Venezuela. Around that time, give or take, I also heard that Chavez was rewriting the Constitution to give himself an extra term and in the years that followed, two things happened:
1. Democratic norms were destroyed from the inside out, like a cancer.
2. Russian tactics, rhetoric, training came in to the country via Russian puppet Cuba. It may have been Cubans importing in the sickness, but it has Russian DNA all over it.
The other thing that begin to happen was rhetoric from Chavez about building a military base in Orchilla Island--so that Russia sorties could fly into Miami should such a thing be needed. Since then, that infection has spread to other parts of Latin America.
Why does this matter in the context of this editorial?
Because this "playbook" is standard fare and puts Trump's actions and persona in a different context. Beyond that, it shows Putin has been laying his chess pieces throughout the world and perfecting his playbook since the beginning of his rule.
Please, NYT--will you do what the Washington Post did and cover Russia's influence in the fall of Venezuela? They are now lapping up assets from their win. Americans may better understand what his happening here if they had that context.
1
The evidence is so overwhelming that Trump is beholden to Moscow -- in his statements and in his actions both during his campaign and since his first day in office.
We have a President who abuses our steadfast allies while he praises Putin and shows favor toward our enemy Russia.
We have a President who attacks our rule of law at every turn and holds American government workers hostage over a "crisis" he fabricated.
This is the same man who bankrupted and ruined Atlantic City.
This is the same man who defrauded low-income students and left them ruined financially.
Trump ruins everything.
Trump is a treasonous and treacherous man surrounded by criminals and hacks.
And yet a majority of Americans sit by idly and 40% stand by him, no different than the GOP leaders Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy.
It is sickening.
Trump needs to be impeached, tried, convicted and removed from office.
2
Just wait--it won't be too long before some are praising Trump for "donating" the salary he receives from Putin...
2
The artists and headline writers at the NYT deserve a shout out. The graphic on this piece says most of it. The only improvement would be a representation showing all those who still support Trump despite that he will kill our economy with his immigration policies, is harming thousands if not millions of Americans with the government shutdown and the tariffs, and blinded his base to the FACT that we have been attacked by the Russian machine. Yet almost 40% of Americans still support him, either through ignorance, antipathy toward liberals or because he allows them to slip under the radar with their personal agendas. ALL of them should be wearing hats with this image on them. And respectable Republicans should clean house. Right now it is filthy with the circus tent detritus of elephants.
1
As the simplest explanation for trump's actions toward Russia suggest that he is a witting asset, the simplest explanation for the Republicans' non-responsiveness to this mess suggests that they, as a party are also compromised.
There are no doubt congressional republicans who have benefitted from this assault on our democracy. We have evidence of the NRA funneling foreign monies to the GOP. We have the famous McCarthy "Rorbacher is being paid by the Russians" quote. The rot of the republican party stinks and it goes very very deep.
2
With the continued reluctance by Republicans in congress to look into these allegations, I think perhaps it is time the FBI, or perhaps the Times, open investigations into some of Trump's most ardent supporters, including Mitch McConnell, who continues to put up roadblocks at every turn.
2
Would it help if we all just went back to calling it "Communist Russia" as we used to a couple of generations ago? Nothing has really much changed except dropping the "USS" part of "USSR". But people ( in the United States) seem to have conveniently forgotten that part. Putin hasn't.
2
Donald Trump is no longer in control of a private family-run real estate business. He is the elected executive of the United States of America; a public and still democratic country. There are no secrets that he may keep while working in an official capacity from (at a minimum) his staff or the American people - everything he does in an official capacity IS need to know.
He needs to understand this (as I am sure he does not based on his unwillingness to cooperate with this matter, his taxes, and other dodges) and congress and judiciary should flex their muscle and do their job to ensure we are working as a democracy and not an autocracy.
9
Yes, we deserve to know what they talked about with Putin. We must also understand and accept that with all the Republicans keeping mum despite all his ill behavior, why are we calling him president? Should he not be called a king? This much abdication of responsibility from the Senators, starting with the majority leader make them a part of Trump's actions, a part of the Russian assets.
We are long past the point of "Sir, have you no shame!" We know by now that they don't have any. When will the true Republicans rise and take back their party and start serving their country?
162
@Cemal Ekin
I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you that these are the REAL republicans. This is who they have been all along.
31
@magicisnotreal
Bummer! I was hoping that they were hiding under their desks out of embarrassment! Kidding aside, I agree with you. My comment was half sarcastic, half hopeful.
10
@Cemal Ekin How foolish if he was a "king" the supreme court would only have his appointees and several of his annoying opponents would be in prison or dead. Obama went way beyond his authority in ways that the president has not yet done. Dreamers, and money being moved around are two examples, if he could do that the president could as well.
I've said before that this goes deeper than Trump. With the revelations that the Russians infiltrated the NRA, who then paid out large sums to Republican politicians, it seems possible to assume that said politicians have also been "recruited" into this conspiracy...perhaps not knowingly at first. This could explain their reluctance to place a check on Trump or to call him to account. They are afraid that the Mueller investigation will turn up additional evidence of their complicity.
450
@Etienne-Congratulations! You nailed it, sadly.
44
@Etienne
I believe you are exactly correct. The Republican Party, once ardently opposed to the Soviet Union's belligerent behavior around the globe, has more recently given Trump and his family a free pass in relation to their pro-Russian activities. Why? The answer I believe is the exact same reason that a record number of Republican Congressman suddenly decided they didn't want to run for re-election in the recent mid-term elections....... i.e. the Republican Party has been in receipt of significant amounts of money, channeled through the NRA, from Russia, during the 2016 election campaign......in contravention of US law. I imagine/hope that Mr. Mueller's report will shine a light on all of this, and that the American people will then demand that justice be done for Trump and his family, and those that have been complicit (the Republican Party and the NRA).
69
@Etienne. I would really like to know more about Nunes.
41
Trump's tax returns - they're the starting point for any effective investigation into Trump's dealings with Russia.
Congress has to see them, and Congress has to subpoena Trump's confederates to explain their details.
Let's get on with it!
7
Trump isn't "working for Russia," because that phrase implies he is now receiving a paycheck from the Russians. Instead, he is now PAYING BACK what he owes Russia for being bailed out by the oligarchs.
19
Donald Trump is mentally ill. He is a de facto traitor to this nation. I doubt he is a Marxist or an ideologue of any other form. He does not have the habit of reading and studying which would make him one. He is a supreme egoist - a meglo-maniac. He believes that his intuition TRUMPS any and all other individual human intellect and the accumulated wisdom of the ages. The notion that he could be wrong is not allowed to penetrate his consciousness.
11
If you recognize that trump and his followers in the Republican Party represent what is likely the largest criminal organization operating in the U.S. today and is essentially an extension of the trump family business when it was still in the private sector, then a lot of what we are seeing makes sense. The question is, what are we going to do about it?
12
If we had evidence that anyone might be a Russian asset, or that a public figure might be self-dealing, we'd take immediate action to stanch the bleeding.
But Donald still gets daily briefings. It is to our modest collective benefit that he doesn't understand "intelligence" or credit the IC for information that doesn't support his prefabricated notions.
We can't sit idly by as our national secrets are freely shared with Vladimir Putin, for all we know.
Where is the sense of urgency? Our national security is being compromised and we have only partisan bickering to blame.
The Republicans in the Senate are complicit with Trump. Are they accessories?
15
And as the battle for truth on Trump and Russia rages - one camp supporting the American institutions of law enforcement, intelligence, justice and a free press, and the other supporting one man who claims that all of those institutions are simply out to get him - leaders in Moscow, Beijing, Riyad, Tehran, Damascus, Cairo, Rangoon, Pyongyang, Budapest, Warsaw, Brasilia, Belgrade, Manila, Khartoum, etc smile with delight.
And here at home? How much better off financially are we? Is that carefully crafted and debated tax cut from 2017 putting lots of money into the pay checks of the lower and middle class? Are all of us employed Americans earning so much that we’re saving lots for retirement, avoiding revolving debt and student loans, paying for regular trips to the doctor and dentist - even though that awful Affordable Healthcare ain’t so affordable?
And what about healthcare? The GOP hates Obamacare and is out to destroy it - but what are they creating as an alternative? Well, I suppose we are so well off these days that we needn’t worry.
And infrastructure? Everyone happy with all the upgrades to roads, bridges, electrical wiring (no power outages during storms?) and broadband? Is your internet anywhere near as fast as what they have in France or South Korea?
And we’re all sure the air and water are clean enough, right? No need to worry about the resumes of the last two heads of the EPA, I assume.
Cyber security? Banks and utilities safe?
What else?
14
He runs OUR government like it is HIS business. That’s not OK. The Republicans should never have accepted him as a candidate. He never was a Republican. He just saw this as his opportunity. At our expense.
7
The Presidential Records act ((44 U.S.C. Chapter 22) § 2201. Definitions) excludes "materials relating exclusively to the President’s own election to the office of the Presidency...."
It has become clear that Russia/Putin's disinformation campaign critically influenced -- if not threw -- the 2016 election; therefore, of course, "Putin's puppet," D. Trump, legally has a prerogative to conceal conversations with Putin in which they congratulate one another on his 2016 election and plot his course for re-election. That D. Trump's whims and snits further Putin's goals may simply be sheer coincidence and certainly has no bearing on whether the contents of their discussions regarding Trump's election should be revealed either to members of government or to the public.
(Yes, this is political satire.)
1
@Liz
He doesn’t legally have a “right to conceal” congratulatory conversations with Putin if they subvert national security - from FBI or other oversight bodies.
If Kevin McCarthy stated in 2016 that he thought that Trump was being paid by the Russians then it makes all the sense in the world that the FBI should have started an investigation of Trump, even sooner than they did. I don't understand the defense by Trump followers and Republicans in Congress that there was a "deep state" conspiracy to undermine his presidency. There was obviously ample evidence long before the election to justify an investigation. McCarthy has now shifted his stance and has become one of Trump's most avid enablers, right next to McConnel. And the evidence keeps piling up...
10
Our country is in crisis, people need to wake-up and speak-up to Congress, and Democrats in the House need to start open (public) investigations of Trump now (we can't afford to wait for the Mueller report which may never be made public).
Trump is either a Russian asset or is so personally conflicted that he is putting Russia's and his own interests before those of our nation. It is likely both.
We have a traitor in the White House and impeachment proceedings need to start soon. Call your senators and reps and let them know that you think Trump is a clear and present danger to our national security. PUBLIC PRESSURE NEEDED- do not be complacent or overwhelmed by Trump's constant attention deflecting shenanigans.
24
There is no way Trump could get a security clearance if he had to apply for one like most people have to. He's a national security risk.
40
@JB
Note to selves: We need a law mandating national security clearances at the highest level - for anyone trying to run for highest offices.
Among other requirements. Like many years of taxes, many years of public service, knowledge of the Constitution and how got works, etc.
39
@TheraP
Too easily abused.
Going back to the beginning of tje Trump Putin/Russian connection I could never make sense of Trumps behavior. At first I thought he was played by the Russians and that Trump’s immoral instincts were used to Russian advantage. But then all the private meetings with Putin continued and the oddity of each meeting increased. Finally, the Helsinki meeting happened and I could no longer suppress the feeling that Putin had leverage over Trump. This was the only conclusion that made sense. Not even a megalomaniac,such as Trump, could be so blind to how his Russian action appeared. In summary, Trump is willfully doing Putin’s bidding or does so under duress.
25
Your assertion that "Americans deserve to know what the president and Vladimir Putin are talking about" minimizes the principles of the American republic.
You should declare that Americans have the absolute right to know what Trump and Putin are talking about.
This absolute right of the American People may be met directly with a public statement or indirectly via full briefings to their duly elected representatives, and the answering of questions of these representatives. Anything less is not democratic governance, but autocratic rule.
35
The FBI and other US government's organizations that deal with national security issues are supposed to raise flags when someone with a murky background tries to become a presidential candidate. It is also equally important to ask why did they fail in that responsibility?
Let's say that FBI is not equipped to look into involvement of other countries in presidential elections. But that does not answer why the FBI was comfortable with someone who has been heavily involved in two largely Mafia-controlled businesses (construction and casino) in NY and New Jersey was campaigning to become the US president?
17
@Eddie B., no, they did NOT fail. One of the things trump is most livid about is that the FBI DID investigate his campaign, even before his idiotic speech where he publicly invited Russia to spy on his opponent.
The law enforcement you love to deride did their jobs, but because they aren't standing behind a podium (or frantically tweeting) to scream insults at the object of their investigation, you think YOU know what's going on? Quiet doesn't mean inactive, and trump's lying, sniffing, insulting loudness doesn't equal truth.
You want an answer as to why something happened that didn't happen, and you want that answer to agree with your uninformed position.
1
@deb
We all know that the every candidate is subject to a thorough background check by the FBI. And we all have read about some of the mess that Mr. Mueller's investigation has revealed. So it is reasonable to ask why the FBI did not uncover some of what the stuff that Mueller's commission has uncovered?
If your response implies that the FBI actually did discover some of that dirt but for some reasons they were not made public, then you have a point and I must be uniformed.
I think it's quite possible that president Trump told the reporters on the White House lawn the truth, that he's NOT working for the Russians. Given the sweep of events over the last two years though, the evidence suggests strongly that he is working WITH them.
36
The illustration of the three elephants describing them (i.e. the Republican Party) in a state of see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil is a good way to make a point; however, most knowledgeable people know that partisan Republicans and their supporters use vicious, calumnious statements profligately.
23
Although it seems eons ago, let's not forget one of the initial red flags; The new Trump Administration's attempt to set up back-channel (secret) communications with Moscow. We thought that perhaps that was just a clumsy and green attempt at diplomacy.
Now we know.
78
I would like very much to see Deutsche Bank records of transactions in and around the loans that it, and it alone, was willing to make to Trump and his organization. On the other side, Deutsche Bank has already paid large sums to the US admitting its role in laundering Russian money. So if Russian money came into the bank shortly before its loan to Trump, and it was more or less the same amount, that would tell all of us a lot, wouldn't it? As with Watergate, follow the money.
40
@Ben Myers: I agree Ben, but I find it odd that so many regulators go after Deutche Bank, forcing their CEOs to resign and shareholders to take big hits when not one of the gang that started the financial crisis in America went down. Blankfein, Dimon, Weill continued to thrive, Fuld got $500,000,00.00, for his part in sinking Lehman, Mazzolo disappears from print with his mega millions. Goldman started the mess with the subprime CDO peddling of the tranches of toxic loans to Deutche and others around the world, yet Deutche continues to get flack. Follow the money is right.
12
@Ted, some banks and consulting companies help
the wealthy avoid taxes. They
never get punished. why? the answer is floating in the wind:
they donate to congressmen in
substantial amount. This gives
them immunity. European banks can't donate, they get punished.
4
@Ben Myers-Get real. Russians have been laundering money through cash purchases of trump properties throughout the world for decades. Trump Tower Moscow will never be built because Russian Mafia needs to launder money outside of their own country.
1
I don't think Adam Schiff needs Republican cooperation to obtain notes or testimony from interpreters. Democrats have the House majority. Of course, Trump "lost" the notes he confiscated so those are unavailable. The interpreter involved with that meeting was also ordered not to discuss the meeting with anyone. I imagine executive privilege therefore applies. Hence, the contents of that particular conversation can't be revealed with or without Republican cooperation.
Why Republicans don't care is a mystery. Yes, Democrats are playing for political advantage. However, we don't need to know the exact details of Trump's conversations with Putin to form conclusions that go beyond suspicions. You don't need to see the planet to understand the gravity which proves it's there. The President is quite clearly compromised.
Republicans however are currently working to appoint an AG who openly admits he won't prevent Trump from firing the special counsel investigating Trump's involvement with Russia. There appears to be an unstated strategy that if Republicans simply suppress and destroy enough evidence, they will get away with treason. There's really no other logical explanation.
47
@Andy Pretty sure executive privilege wouldn't apply if Trump was not working in the interests of the U.S. A corollary of the "crime-fraud" exception to attorney-client privilege.
13
@Andy, I have a counter argument. Executive privilege does not apply to communications that are not wholly internal to the government. While Trump might want it, Putin is not part of our government.
2
I can't believe that this is being argued about now. It should have happened BEFORE Trump destroyed the federal government, before he destroyed the state department, before he went further to split our country up... BUT now we are 50 separate countries, Trump rules what exactly? He destroyed what he was supposed to govern. At some point those senators who refused to remove this conman are also out of their jobs. No reason for people or the states to continue to send tax money to the now non-existent federal government. They needs to start thinking about their own money - are they going to go for an EU style currency? etc.
19
@SW. Exactly what did he destroy? You sound irrational and extreme in what you think happens in Washington. Please cite the sources you are using for these ideas.
@Jackson
Do you read the news?
Even Trump says he prefers chaos and he is certainly delivering that in abundance.
Future historians need to have the information to analyze the effects of 45’s presidency on our country.
12
@April Kane
And trace their causes.
1
At any other time in America's history, hearing that the FBI opened an investigation to determine if a sitting president was working -- wittingly or unwittingly -- for a hostile foreign government, America would be shocked. And yet as bizarre and astounding as these revelations are, 30+% of the American voting population are convinced that the "Deep State" has worked with our intelligence community to frame Donald Trump and rob him of his electoral win in 2016.
Until Trump's base and the GOP in Congress face reality and take these allegations seriously, America will continue to limp along with an ineffectual and possibly compromised POTUS.
41
@JoKell If the base disappeared there would still be inertia from the GOP.
3
Another of Trump's "tells." He engages in behavior that is radically out of bounds, not in keeping with past practice of all our presidents, and makes no sense from a policy or management perspective. How can staff align with or execute policy based on his agreements when they have no idea what those agreements contain? When he is asked or pushed on the matter, he hotly denies he is hiding anything, declares he has no secrets, is insulted by the question and (yet) continues in his "concealing" behavior. Deny, deflect, declaim. Even when the behavior in question is so legitimately in question.
47
"I did not have a relationship with those Russians" - Trump's Bill Clinton moment.
Well, he most certainly did, and more an more evidence is accumulating or was already known. We just won't know the extent until Mueller completes his investigation.
Did the Trump campaign initiate contact with Wiki Leaks or vice versa? But of more interest, and hopefully something Mueller is investigating, is the server that was in Trump tower regularly communicating with Alfa-Bank in Russia. Of course these electronic conversations were encrypted, so no one knows what was communicated, but Trump claims he had no dealings with Russia. Then why the need for a server in Trump tower regularly communicating with this bank? The communications are indisputable, and verifiable via DNS tracing.
If Trump was a Democrat, and this much evidence against the Democrat was gathered , Hannity and every single other GOP member would have demanded his impeachment.
Party over country rules.
50
@Martin - I had forgotten all about that. Another thread in the web of intrigue, lies, and deception!
Effective diplomacy is not facilitated by publicity. The only public entitled to know the content of the conversations are public servants, i.e., investigators and members of Congress and only if they have grounds to inquire.
Though what precisely might have been agreed to at the Potsdam conference or in the ex parte conversations there we'll never know, I don't think anyone argued that the American public had a right to know at that time or immediately after.
8
@Moxnix67
There are interpreters notes of the conversations.
The conversations are public property though not usually publicized. It has to be part of the historical record.
9
@magicisnotreal Interpreters are required to sign a confidentiality agreement. It is a legal and binding document. This is no more public property than your medical recirds.
3
@Moxnix67
As you said: "The only public entitled to know the content of the conversations are public servants, i.e., investigators and members of Congress and only if they have grounds to inquire. "
This administration has provided more than enough "grounds to inquire", and the American people deserve to know the truth. Thank God the Democrats won control of the House in November, because it's obvious the Republicans would never ask the question: Who, exactly, is Donald Trump working for? It does NOT appear to be US.
6
If the Russians have undue influence over Trump, it will most likely be because they floated his enterprises long enough for housing inflation to fix his balance of payments.
If so, the answers are in his tax papers.
32
As a Reagan Republican, who still remembers fondly a real American president's statement "Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall!", I am thankful for this editorial. I too share deep concern about Donald Trump's deep and unexplained affinity for Vladimir Putin and his soft approach to our Russian adversary. Alarm bells sounded early when Trump turned the keys of his campaign over to Paul Manafort, a man decidedly on the WRONG (Russian) side of the Ukrainian revolution. (Plus his gathering in of other pro-Russian oddities like Flynn, Page and Stone.) And when Trump's team watered down the GOP Platform on Ukraine, to make it more favorable to Russia the Party should have reacted. It didn't, and now we're faced with a president and Administration that no longer reflects the long-standing principles of the Republican Party. I'm thankful that at least one independent voice has been elected now in Sen. Mitt Romney. He was right on Russia when he ran for president, and I hope he helps call the GOP back to its long-held beliefs and values, rescuing it from the pro-Russia Trump epoch.
32
I "was" a 'Reagan Democrat' ie Independent. Thanks to Trump am only Democrat now. Maybe Romney will bring the GOP back out from the grip of Trumpism ie Facism. He was right about him too ("He's a phoney"). When it came comes to Manafort and his Oligarchy friend, we're going to find out Trump took indirect orders from Putin thru Deripaska to change his Campaign Manager when he did in time for the GOP Convention. I'll lay 4-1 odds!
Nixon and China. Obama and Cuba and Iran.
I am no fan of Trump's.
But the FBI is not in charge of determining what the US's international policy should.
J Edgar Hoover did that. The FBI had a huge file on George McGovern, the Democratic candidate in 1972.
The FBI's job is to investigate when there is evidence of a crime.
Talking to foreign leaders--including leaders of countries hostile to the US--is not a crime. And none of the FBI's business.
12
@Talbot
Rest easy. The FBI isn't investigating Trump for talking to foreign leaders. The FBI hasn't done anything to determine US foreign policy.
Firing James Comey was suspicious, and still is. The stated reason -- how he handled the Clinton investigation -- was a transparent lie and contradicted Trump's own earlier praise. If the stated reason obviously isn't the real reason, what is? The FBI would be remiss not to investigate, given the serious potential implications.
26
@Talbot Talking to leaders certainly is not a crime. There is an expectation that other members of the national security team would know what was being said. When you hide this information it becomes suspicious at which point it does become the FBI’s business.
18
@Talbot
Your cursory explanation is all well and good. Perhaps you will be good enough to wait and see what our democratic institutions bring forward.
Considering the history the GOP has had with Russia when it was officially the Soviet Union and the GOP was fueling the House of Un-American Activities Committee, the support they have thrown behind Donald Trump is surprising, to say the least. Present day Russia is not a democracy and not our ally. In fact, it looks as if Trump and not his presidential opponent, Clinton, is the more dangerous person to have in the White House and the one who will sell out to any strongman regime to look good to them and get their money in HIS pockets.
Trump and the GOP are a disgrace and disgracing our country, what we claim to stand for, and ought to be put on trial for treason. There are numerous examples of Putin's (and Russia's) dangerously long malicious reach when it comes to influencing elections, and trying to interfere with the internal functions of countries. It's a shame that the current president loves flattery more than he does his country.
42
@hen3ry, many of the same type things were said about President Obama and the Democrats regarding Iran, The Muslim Brotherhood, etc. It was partisan nonsense then and it is quite likely that this is partisan nonsense now. When it has been established that there was actual wrongdoing - not just perceptions / interpretations / spin of some of what happened - then we can get to the truth of the matter and deal with it appropriately. Whether that is impeachment / Removal from office (like we started with Nixon before he resigned), Congressional censure (like President Clinton), or the complete clearing of his name - whatever is appropriate. Until that time I am choosing (as I did with other presidents) to avoid making assumptions based on stories in the Press, keep an open mind and see where any actual evidence might lead. Innocent until proven guilty is still the law for every citizen - EVERY ONE, WITHOUT EXCEPTION - even an unpopular President. Because if it is not, then we have already lost what should be held most dear and it doesn't really matter what happens next. The idea that is America will have already died by our own hands.
2
@Darkhawque Have you noticed that there have been multiple convictions/guilty pleas/plea deals by members of Trump's "inner circle"? And that over 100 contacts between the Trump campaign/transition team with the Russians have been documented? Contacts that Trump's people have uniformly lied about? At a certain point, an "open mind" becomes an "empty mind."
8
@Darkhawque, trump has already proven himself untrustworthy through his lies and unAmerican habit of denigrating every citizen who's not in his pocket.
trump's hypocritical base sez: "Innocent until proven guilty is still the law for every citizen - EVERY ONE, WITHOUT EXCEPTION" So patriotic! Oh, wait:
"LOCK HER UP!"
Sigh. And here is Darkhawke to lecture us on American values.
You 'law and order' folk don't think much of law enforcement when it comes to protecting your dearleader.
2
Careful what you wish for. Diplomacy will become all but impossible to conduct for the US if no conversation with its representatives can stay confidential. If Congress feels that the president’s actual foreign policy is in effect unacceptable - not what was discussed but what’s being in fact done, information that should and can be made public - it should move towards impeachment.
5
@Christian Haesemeyer
Hold on. "Confidential" is not secret. Do you really want the president -- this one or any other one -- to have *secret* conversations with anyone? For there to be no record at all?
Trump spoke with Putin alone, and confiscated his translator's notes. What did he say? Why doesn't he want there to be any historical, legal record (not public record) of what was discussed?
The president works for us. He's an elected official on the government's payroll. Everything he does, he does in our name and for us. We deserve to know all those everythings, every last minute and word. Maybe they won't be published on the front page, but there must be a record, and more than one person must know. Anything less isn't a democracy, but a cult.
@Christian Haesemeyer, then why does America have a history of requiring that presidents keep records? No president was confused or contrary to this concept until trump.
Why don't you care that political machinations kept us in Vietnam for years? Why do we have to wait until trump promises Putin that America will deploy troops to 'help' Germany cleanse itself of refugees, or whatever your idea is of 'actual' foreign policy? Seems to me that we have daily newspapers and lots of other daily news sources so we can, you know, keep up on developments.
With whom did John Bolton consult about attacking Iran? Would it make no difference to you if it was Netanyahu or Assad or Putin? So I'm sorry to tell you that America does care what steps our president takes to achieve a goal. If we go to war with Iran, and no one in Congress or the White House will tell you why, your position is that ONLY the declaration of war should be made public?
An informed electorate is a good thing, or it always HAS been an American value.
trump: bolton sez we go to war!
America: why?
trump: none of your business
trump's base: yay!
protesters: no war
trump's base: protesters are traitors
trump: all protesters are Democrats
trump's base: we hate Democrats!
trump: wars are good, and easy to win.
trump's base: Whatever you say Dearleader! We don't care why or how, when or how much. We're proud independent minded patriots! Ugh.
Thank you for this thorough accounting of Trump's odd affinity for Russia and inexplicable disdain for our allies and our own intelligence agencies. Now we find ourselves this very morning with a senate simultaneously considering the appointment of an Attorney General handpicked by Trump to shut down or impede the Mueller investigation, and a vote on Chuck Schumer's bill to halt the Trump-ordered lifting of sanctions on a company associated with one of Putin's closest oligarch buddies. Let's hope reason and justice win out today. Trump's guilt could not be more obvious, and Nixon taught us that as long as our democracy has a vibrant free press, once the public knows the truth, the rest will follow...eventually. Because we, the American public, have access to accurate information about Trump campaign connections with Russia's leader, the shifty Putin, a successful cover-up is impossible. He can try, but at this point every effort Trump makes at concealing or distorting the truth is just more evidence of his obvious guilt.
One of the questions I am looking forward to hearing the answer to is how Trump paid for his campaign. Citizen's United makes it hard for us to find out, but we know that the Republican establishment didn't back Trump and that he had to look elsewhere. We also know that Trump is greatly interested in restoring his family's plundered fortunes, and that he is connected to a bank that launders Russian money. Time will tell.
29
We don't know what Trump and Putin spoke about, but we can. Despite the opinions of many regarding the confidentiality of the translator, we must remember that the translator works for the US Government, not for Trump. Her allegiance is to the nation, not the president. To be sure, anything the translator reports must be considered classified to top secret but our elected officials do have the right and the duty to know what transpired in that meeting.
Dictators can make the case that what they say isn't for anyone else to know about - that doesn't work under our constitution and laws. There needs to be an official record even if it is classified. That record should be accessible to properly cleared officials and if there is evidence of a potential crime... action must be taken because nobody is above the law.
119
@George N. Wells
But trump's allegiance is supposed to be to the nation and it obviously is not. How do we know the translator is any better?
7
Ann, et al.,
I'm getting weary of the "we can't trust anyone" idea that is permeating our nation. I served in the military during Viet Nam, I know a lot of people who are government employees and am married to a retired federal employee. The vast majority of the people who work in our government put nation ahead of politics (something that politicians and Trump simply do not understand).
Yes, they follow the rules and they do their job. However, we all hold that oath of allegiance to the constitution as sacred.
That is the strength of our nation and so many politically motivated people simply do not get it. It is about service not power, position, or gain. Yes, we can, and do, put our personal politics aside to do our jobs despite the way many elected officials disrespect those who serve.
2
I agree with this Editorial: of course the American public deserves to know what Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin discussed in private.
I wish I could fast-forward 10 years, even five years to get a glimpse of how history will judge the Republican Party during this most troubling time in our Democracy.
Donald Trump has provided Republicans (and the nation in general) with much more than a smoking gun. It is more like we are witnessing him actually pulling the trigger after taking aim at our justice system, our courts, our allies, our Constitution.
We are witnessing him aiding and abetting the Russian dictator to help Putin accomplish his long-term goals, like abolishing NATO.
I keep thinking of the outstanding political thriller The Manchurian Candidate, where Laurence Harvey's character was brain-washed into becoming a Russian sleeper agent.
There is a great line of dialogue from that film that could apply here to Donald Trump: "If he were a paid Soviet agent he could not be more of a danger to the country."
Sometimes, life imitates art.
48
@Len
apropos of your ending, with Trump, there wasn't much of a brain to wash anyway. Money for me: good.
I feel like we are in a living version of the fable "The Emperor's New Clothes". The Republican sycophants who surround and protect him are being exposed, as more and more evidence comes out, and more people gain courage to point out what has been obvious to many of us for a long time now. I just hope it is not too late for our democracy.
35
From 2003-2017, people from the former USSR made 86 all-cash purchases, a red flag of potential money laundering, of Trump properties, totaling $109 million. In 2010, Deutsche Bank loaned him hundreds of millions of dollars during the same period it was laundering billions in Russian money.
These are the kind of financial entanglements that the FSB typically use to ensnare foreigners, and has left Trump vulnerable to potential blackmail.
The Russians interfered in the 2016 U.S. election to help elect Trump president.
Trump encouraged the Russians to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails, on the very day that Russian intelligence hackers tried to attack Clinton’s servers.
There were 101 contacts between Trump’s team and Russia linked operatives, and the Trump team tried to cover up every single one of them.
Roger Stone, who was in contact with Russian conduit WikiLeaks, knew in advance that the Russians had hacked Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails.
Trump fired Comey to stop the investigation, then bragged about it to the Russian ambassador and foreign minister while also sharing with them top-secret information.
Trump has been protecting the Russians by trying to impede the investigation, refusing to acknowledge they interfered in the election over the assessment of the U.S. intelligence community.
The president is unquestionably compromised by Russia. His republican enablers will be rightfully judged as traitors along with him in the dust bin of history.
187
@Robert M
Where did those figures -- 86 properties and $109 million -- come from? I haven't seen them before, and the Trump organization is private. If they're legitimate, they need to be more widely publicized.
4
@Robert M Good timeline, but probably should go back to around 1996 and the casino failures, pre-dating Putin, but right in the middle of the crime spree of the oligarchs. The oligarchs knew that keeping cash in Russia was a long term disaster, and Trump was perfect for putting their money elsewhere. Trump wanted to be an oligarch too, and so the money at Deutsch Bank of the oligarchs was used to back the LOC that Trump received.
When Putin took over, he could kill, and confiscate from Russians, as needed, and used the money to then reward his FSB and GRU officers.
Trump was a different matter, and I am hazy on events after 2003, but much of that has been in the news on the Russian side.
10
@Robert M-Tump Tower Moscow will never be built. Russians need to launder their dirty money through purchased of Trump properties outside of their own country.
7
There is, in fact, very little that indicates a tough stance taken by Trump where Russia is concerned. Red flags, pun intended, abound, none of which more alarming than the private two hour meeting between the true autocrat, Putin, and his wannabe, held in Helsinki with no available transcript of the words and possibly promises exchanged. Equally distressing is the lack of collective outrage expressed by the GOP and by Trump's base where a long standing established protocol to protect U.S. security has been so defiantly breached. Paul Manafort, Carter Page and Michael Cohen, to name but three, have all had their tissue of lies exposed, deepening already well-founded suspicion of Trump's dubious links with Putin and Russia and with its oligarchs. Indeed, Trump's cap should read "Make Russia Great Again". First steppes have already been taken...
21
He’s lost the right to any benefit of doubt, and any chance he had to reassure anyone is long gone.
50
Michael Tomasky wants the country to wait until the 2020 Election to let the voters deal with Trump I disagree. 1) The Constitution prescribes Impeachment for officials who violate their oath to uphold it through acts of bribery, treason, or other high crimes or misdemeanors. The Mueller report will almost certainly find that Trump is guilty of such impeachable offenses. Conviction does not preclude further liability, indictment or punishment in courts.
2) Faced with a bruising campaign and likely defeat at the polls in 2020,Trump may choose not to run, therefore historically no different from Jimmy Carter or George H.W. Bush as a one-termer.
3) If the current government shutdown is not evidence enough of the damage and hardship President Trump can cause to its employees, their relatives and communities, consider the pain and suffering he is willing to cause at home-through incompetent advisers and cabinet appointments-- and abroad to our Allies, trade relationships, and the planet.
4) In the balance between participatory (all voters) and representative (elected officials) democracy, Congress needs to recover its role as a co-equal branch of government and do what is necessary to check the unbridled, executive.
5) Who can guarantee that Russia or another adversary won't interfere in 2020. Others have noticed how it was done in 2016 and might be just as eager to tip the scales.
20
This editorial is a good example of what has happened to American liberalism and the mainstream media. While our wars since 9/11 have been a disaster, and the majority of Americans want them to end, The Times and other opinion-makers claim that ending the wars reflects Russian influence, rather than common sense. Impeach Trump and get him out of office asap; but if this is done because ending wars is an Impeachable Offense, we are going down the wrong road, and will pay a price.
6
@Frank Brodhead
I believe it's more about the context of the decision making process with regard to who benefits, the U.S. or Putin?
Also, I appreciate liberalism's effort to gain and maintain some presence of transparency of this train wreck of a presidency.
2
@Frank Brodhead Ending wars is good - you'll find few liberals disagreeing with that. Creating power vacuums for dictators to fill is not in the interest of Western democracy, however. And your comment on this matter skips over all the reprehensible behavior of the president who behaves like a tool of Putin. Our horror at Trump and the very real questions concerning his loyalty to the United States began long before he started pulling from Syria. Take that issue out of the bucket, and this article is no less full of truth.
1
@Frank Brodhead
Yes. It is a good example that the mainstream liberal media learned. They learned NOT to believe the president when he lies, be it about WMD or Russia ties. They learned to re-assert their independence and not depend on lying White House press secretaries.
Ending "the wars" is one very big topic. How they end and under whose influence the ends are devised is the problem. No one is for impeaching Trump for ending war. He is not ending war. He is taking the advice of enemy tyrants to "end wars". He is jeopardizing America. That is the impeachable offense. Your twisted, cherry-picked "logic" holds no water.
1
The question asked by the reporter should have been WHEN Trump became a Russian agent for Putin.
My representative, Seth Moulton, also wants to subpoena that interpreter whose notes were confiscated by Trump. I think this needs to happen and I am sorry that Trump put this individual into such a compromising position in his cover up.
45
"It’s harder to come up with a rational excuse for Mr. Trump’s secrecy about his dealings with Mr. Putin"
Because you haven't been in other countries lately, aren't you? Think about the following: Gerhard Schröder (German chancellor) prepared deals with Russia and other countries on a state level before he left office; Berlusconi, Orban and Erdogan did the same.
Trump was always fighting and defending his personal and family interests above else. After his presidency there will be, probably, a big damage to conservative America, but he and his children will have important business partners in the world.
I understand that if you the lack experience as company owner or founder you do not see it. But imagine that some wealthy families put their legacy and long term family wealth above everything else.
8
@Wirfegen
Agreed. I think they were talking about partnering (for certain concessions) on the Trump Tower Moscow (built as soon as he leaves office in 2020) and building a big beautiful golf resort complete with condos on those unspoiled North Korean beaches. He can't help himself folks. He's a salesman through and through.
2
@Wirfegen Our Constitution, the document by which we run our government and our nation, clearly says that any person who is elected to the presidency should quit the business sphere and focus on that presidency. I won’t even touch upon you naming 3 wanna-be dictators as exemplars. And if you believe for a minute that trump won’t throw his kids under the bus, you truly do not understand his character. Perhaps YOU should understand that America is a different country, run differently, than countries in the EU now, some of which have pasts that beg improvement. Live in modern Germany, please, not one still divided by a wall, and by a man who, like trump, embraced Putin and worked for Rosneft.
1
@Wirfegen
"But imagine that some wealthy families put their legacy and long term family wealth above everything else."
There is no need for imagination. This president demonstrably makes money every day from his presidency, not the least of which is taxpayer dollars flowing from the treasury right into his properties. This is in direct violation of the Constitution, but there has not been a single whimper from the GOP about Emoluments Man's un-American monetization of the office.
2
"Americans deserve to know what the president and Vladimir Putin are talking about."
In Putin's old life he was a KGB boss. In his present one he's a combination head of state and mafia boss. Bearing in mind that trump has had several business contacts with (and in) Russia over the years, going back to Soviet times, it's not too difficult to surmise what they were taking about.
6
Once, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin partitioned the world into geo-political spheres of influence. Now state-sponsored criminals divide ill-gotten spoils. Global kleptocracy.
We demand to know what Trump and Putin discussed.
27
In 2012, Putin made an offer. We would work together to bring an end to the conflict in Stria, develop a unified government, and Assad would be phased out. At the time about 10,000 deaths had been the result of the war. Obama turned his back on him.There were no reports that Obama even talked to him about the offer. How would that offer been handled by Trump? Russia has 6,000 nuclear tipped missiles pointed at us. During Obama's administration, the Russian Military was talking about a "Nuclear Option." Have we heard that in the last two years? We need to be in communication with Russia's leader like Trump has done and is doing with China and North Korea. Today one of the headline stories was that some Ukrainians came to the Inauguration, And shockingly hoped for some Ukrainian Influence. What are all those Embassies around Washington for? Not just to issue visas. We need our leader to be in communication with the leaders of countries like Russia and North Korea, We can't be turning our back on countries we have worked with in the past because the people who are in charge are not our president's choices such as Netanyahu in Israel or el-Sisi in Egypt after Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood were thrown out. To try to turn communication between leaders and make one of them an agent of the other is beyond absurd.
4
The last time I looked, 50% of our military budget goes towards land, sea and air defense against aggression by the Soviet Union. China is late to the party. NATO, the Strategic Air Command and our fleet of Polaris-carrying nuclear subs were all created to deal with the threat of a military strike by the Soviet Union. As was the race to put a person in orbit, and to be the first to land a person on the Moon. As was the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, for allegedly giving military secrets to the enemy.
Now we have a President who shares classified information with the Russians, and bars American reporters from his meetings with our mortal enemy of the last 70 years. A man who won't release his tax returns because they'll show just how far in debt he is to his Russian lenders.
This suggests treason, plain and simple. The American people have a right to know if their national security is being compromised because a debtor can't pay his bills to a foreign power. Trump deserves the same inquiry the Rosenbergs got, and the same fate if he's doing what we all think he's doing.
76
@alexander hamiltonI wonder why we expect his tax returns to be truthful? Lying to the IRS is probably normal for him.
4
@alexander hamilton Putin's goal is collective weakening of the country and government across the board. National debt, frayed economy, dysfunctional civil government departments, poor digital security skills, a sick hand to mouth citizenry, science leadership slipping, alliances damaged, etc. Oh, and getting Putin and his oligarchs money into laundered hidden accounts. Trump and his GOP think tank criminals are selling out the country for personal gain and perhaps idiotic beliefs. Treason comes with many enablers.
7
All this talk and analysis is nice and perhaps makes some of us feel better in these troubling times. If we don't start facing the kind of person who we have in the White House and to whom his real loyalties may be, we are going to lose our country. Just how close are we to becoming a Russian province? That's the answer we really need and then we can get started trying to dig ourselves out.
14
Terrific comprehensive piece. Thanks to all journalists who are helping Americans retain a semblance of sanity through these strange days. And let's not forget Don Jr. saying the money was flowing in from Russia. Why was that? Do we really know?
25
@Naomi Shihab
Hey, unless there are multiple Naomi Shihabs running around San Antonio, you visited my elementary school classes and sang about rutabagas and wrote some poetry that was formative to my young adulthood! I turned out to be kind of awful, but I'm pretty certain that's not your fault.
Thanks for contributing to the culture!
4
The inner workings of negotiations between states are not, and should not, be a matter of public record. To make them so would be to inhibit those involved in ways that would cripple any attempt to accomplish anything.
"Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made." - Otto von Bismarck. The same is true of treaties, which are nothing but laws writ large upon an international stage.
1
@mikecody, I don't know what you mean by "inner workings", but if Trump made any commitments on our (and your) behalf, they must be made public. That cripples nothing except an aspiring autocrat's desire to keep everything from his/her subjects.
14
@mikecody
Since the early 80’s every scrap of paper related to presidential proceedings is mandated to be saved. It’s the LAW!
Those records are considered public property. Not private property. They may not necessarily be available for the public to see for some years after they’ve left office (depending...). BUT they are there so members of an administration can view them, so they’re all on the same page.
Which begs the question: What page is DJT on, that he wants to keep secret, even from his advisors/
24
@mikecody
The "inner workings" of negotations between sovereign powers may not be matters of public record; neither should they be beyond the purview of elected officials who are sworn to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.
5
When and if Trump submits to impeachment he may be compelled to reveal his privileged conversations exchanged confidentially with Russian, British, Israeli, Chinese, Saudi Arabian and other foreign leaders. But that would deter future President’s from what Pres. Obama once described as political “flexibility” to negotiate international agreements. The Constitution empowers our President to have privileged conversations with foreign leaders as part of his sworn duties. Some of his remarks to establish a relaxed setting, or to keep the conversation going with foreign leaders, surely could be taken out of context by critics and would accent differences rather than points of agreement.
Recall that absent a “hot mike,” unbeknown to President Obama, would we know Obama’s off-the-record exchange in his Seoul South Korea meeting with Russian President Dimitri Medvedev, March 26, 2012?
As Republican critics put it, Obama sounded as though he was begging the Russians for time to deal with U.S. domestic opposition to our NATO “missile defense” so as to make it acceptable to Russia after his November re-election.
Unless legally compelled to do so, President Trump’s doesn’t have to let anyone know all his personal conversations with any foreign leaders.
1
@Bayou Houma
If Trump is impeached, he does’t get a choice about whether to “submit’ to it. (Unless he resigns. In which case there are probably already sealed indictments against him.)
1
Missing in this hard hitting editorial is the central question:
Does the public have a right to know the substantive details of conversations between a US president and foreign leaders?
The answer of course is, it depends, but I will draw a bright line and suggest that the answer is yes. The public has a right to know everything an elected official does in office.
But not every right however comes with a remedy. How do you get the information?
It almost comical to read between the lines in this editorial evincing the Times’ frustration that they have not yet found anyone to leak it.
Eventually the Democrats in the House will use their subpoena power for this purpose as they try to do everything in their power to tarnish this president. And maybe a special prosecutor will be appointed to investigate.
It never ends does it?
The smart people just tune it out. I’m not there yet.
5
@Steven Roth That's a willful misunderstanding of the article. The point is NO ONE on our side knows what happened in that meeting. But EVERYONE on the Russian side knows. The President has an enormous staff and government at his disposal-- he doesn't do foreign policy BY HIMSELF. Get it?
1
Where do you think the Russian oligarchs got all their money? ... from selling off assets owned by the Russian people. Putin and his associates privatized the entire country to a favored few creating a bunch of billionaires.
Then these billionaires can buy their way out of anything. Think about it; Saudi Arabia wants to quell the revulsion engendered by mercilessly killing a journalist, they probably budgeted 50 million to buy everybody off. You don't think that very wealthy men can influence public opinion? Take a look at our elections. And speaking of elections, the polling data allowed Russia to target specific voters and I'm absolutely certain that when all the evidence comes out, which may not happen for many years, we will see the Russians tipped the presidency to Trump.
Their brilliant use of social media directed to people powerfully influenced by Fox/Limbaugh/Hannity et al will be the legacy of the "Days of Trump."
26
@Paul
Their brilliant use of social media directed to people powerfully influenced by Fox/Limbaugh/Hannity et al will be the legacy of the "Days of Trump".
Might be good time to investigate possible connecion/money between the FOX and Limbaugh folks and Russia. It's becoming more and more suspicious their manipulation of the news and support of tRump.
1
As a new citizen I was thrilled to vote for the first time last November, despite so many of my Canadian friends questioning why on earth I wanted to become an American under Trump. The answer is so I can vote, and participate in a democratic system that ensures a peaceful transition of power from one leader to the next. Donald Trump will be gone one way or the other at some point and our system will adjust and we will have a new president. What happens when Vladimir Putin dies? Russian will be thrown into chaos and all of his carefully planned geopolitical strategies will simply go away because they are based on a despot’s wims, and not a lasting form of government. Trump is a passing phenomena. I feel bad for Russians - they are stuck in a long cycle of tyranny that it appears they are unwilling or unable to get out of. I feel bad for my fellow Americans, but at least we know here that the system will ultimately kick in and Donald Trump will simply go away. If this is the so called ‘deep state’ kicking in so much the better.
2
I have little respect for Trump and most of his policies but I ask you what precisely did/do we expect to accomplish by our involvement in Syria or Afghanistan? Much like the history of our Middle East policy in general imho vastly more damage than benefit to their citizens or us.
5
@Baird Edmond
From the time frame perspective, not sure what you mean by "involvement", but initially wasn't the goal to stop the terrorists responsible for 9/11? Is that job completed? How can anyone know what the status is without better communication from our leaders? Something more concrete than a chaotic withdrawal announcement would have been helpful.
Also, perhaps the answer for Syria isn't the same as for Afghanistan.
1
@Martin
Much too long a conversation for this venue but as you may recall the original 911 terrorists were Saudis and no one from Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan.
@Baird Edmonds - Agreed about the Saudis. But training grounds for Al Qaeda were identified to be in Afghanistan with that governments knowledge and supposed approval.
Why is anyone surprised at Congressional Republicans' indifference to Trump's possible ties to Russia, any more than they've cared about the corruption at the core of his administration?
Let's keep in mind their real concerns:
(1) Lower taxes on the donor class
(2) Elimination of government regulation and oversight
(3) A judiciary stocked with reliable conservative judges
On those three counts -- things that really matter to Republican leaders -- Trump's administration has been dramatically successful. Best of all, to their thinking, we're so caught up in the day-to-day Trumpian soap opera of tweetstorms, scandals, and symbols that we barely have time to talk about what's occurring behind the curtain.
35
@Joel let's not forget the dismantling of the social safety net and medicare/social security. They have long wanted to be the single party in the country. They're doing a good job of it.
What continually dismays me is how the average voter falls for it, without question. I had a conversation recently with a discharged veteran, living on federal assistance to feed his kids, having a tough time keeping a job, depressed, PTSD, and not doing well at all. He thinks this administration is the best ever. When I asked him why, he gave me the usual rhetoric about upending it all. Finally, I told him flat out that he was definitely not rich enough to be a republican. They may swear up and down they care about the little people, but continually show their lack of caring. He couldn't disagree with me.
20
Those of us who were in New York City in the 1980s and 1990s watched Donald Trump come up in the era of "greed is good." He reveled in the press he got, no matter what kind of press he got. That's all he knows and, as far as he's concerned, it's the American Way. He's still pursuing that way of life: all for him and none for us. Now he's taking lessons and instructions from the most successful person he sees, and that person happens to be Vladimir Putin. Trump doesn't care who he's working for as long as he profits. He's certainly not working for America.
95
@Janna I think the words need to be spoken. He's a Russian asset any which way you look at the facts of his behavior and his speech. "A clear and present danger".
6
Any map detailing Trumps allegiances since his election would certainly contain more roads leading to Russia and other autocratic nations than the US. Top that off with his totally opaque meetings with our adversaries and his disdain of American institutions, proper protocol, rule of law, and a recipe for traitorous behavior appears.
My guess is that he is following the money because most US financial institutions avoid him like the plague. In order to sustain his wealth via the grift he needs autocrats who expect a return on their dollar. Is Trump compromised? Is there any doubt.
43
Our President seems to lack some basic understanding of history and strategy. It might be inappropriate to ask, but is Donald Trump going to invade any countries to quell the terrorism threat to this country? North Korea, Iran, Mexico, Venezuela, anyone? Most of the time unpredictability and incomprehensibility are not assets of leaders unless you're the president of a banana republic. Trump's machinations are definitely not an asset.
7
@Pauly K He's not an asset to US, that's for sure.
1
And what about the State Department? Trump was on the verge of naming Romney Sec'y of State until the Russians loudly protested. He immediately switched to Rex, recipient of Putin's "Friend" award. Rex then proceeded to decimate the State Dept., putting America at an enormous disadvantage. Who knows when we will be back to pre-2016 levels of competence & staffing at State? And what about all the unfilled positions? The trade war with China also helps Russia, because it forces China to seek closer ties with Russians, to compensate. Trump stalled for ages on sanctions against Moscow that Congress passed almost unanimously; his so-called 'tough' stance on Russia includes providing secret workarounds for Deripaska, Vekselberg & other paid-up Russian & ex-Soviet party pals. It is simply not possible to dismiss the allegations of Trump's active support of Russian geopolitical objectives -- at the expense of US interests -- because the actions taken by Trump, as well as his unhinged squawks, plus the parroting of Kremlin messaging, so explicitly reveals his obeisance to Moscow, on a daily & sometimes indeed an hourly basis.
54
@Maria Ashot Please provide proof that the Russians were the ones to stop Romney from getting that job.
“Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets....we see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”
- Donald Trump Jr. in 2008
Donald Trump Sr. also made millions when he agreed to bring the Miss Universe pageant to Moscow in 2013, a deal financed in part by the development company of a Russian billionaire Aras Agalarov, a Putin ally who is sometimes called the “Trump of Russia” because of his tendency to put his own name on his buildings.
At the time, Trump mingled with the Russian business elite at a swanky after-party. “Almost all of the oligarchs were in the room,” Trump bragged on returning home.
Dollar-Bill-Donald also made an illogical amount of money from one Russian oligarch in the midst of 2008 real estate crash when he sold a mansion in Palm Beach for $95 million to Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev.
Trump had bought the home at a bankruptcy auction less than four years earlier for $41 million.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/heres-what-we-know-about-donald-trump-and-his-ties-to-russia/2016/07/29/1268b5ec-54e7-11e6-88eb-7dda4e2f2aec_story.html?utm_term=.23609c897b4a
Trump loves only himself and money.
Things like patriotism, America, law, and the Constitution have zero meaning to him.
Americans deserves to know that they are currently a Soviet satellite republic as long as TrumPence remain in hijacked political office.
D for democracy, R for Russian-Republican rot.
435
@Socrates I would add that things like patriotism, America, law, and the Constitution also have zero meaning to his supporters, inside and outside of government.
81
@Bunnell And I would add that those things no longer have any meaning to the Republican party.
26
@Socrates
Smiling and smirking Rodrigo Duterte,Recep Erdogan, Abdel el Sissi, Xi Jinping. Benjamin Netanyahu, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un and Mohammed bin Salman love, trust and respect Trump to do their bidding and to make their nations great again.
23
Sunlight is the best disinfectant.
36
@dennis Let’s also open up all the FISA documents.
How ironic that Trump is now engaging in the same behavior that brought down Hillary Clinton -- trying to keep to himself information on activities he conducted in his official capacity and which therefore belongs in the records of the U.S. government. Her most egregious failure was not that some messages that should have been classified were sent over open lines, but that she tried to withhold messages relating to her official business from the record. USG business needs to be conducted entirely on USG-owned computer systems and phones, and made part of the permanent records. The interpreter's notes and transcribed minutes Trump's meetings with Putin could well be classified and not readily available to the public, but they certainly need to be available to senior foreign affairs staff.
16
Yes but as a Democrat, few people held Hillary’s bad behavior against her. If there are any ongoing investigations the news media has been choosing to ignore them.
“With the House of Representatives newly under Democratic control, Mr. Trump might finally receive meaningful oversight that could help either uncover wrongdoing or put Americans’ minds at ease about their president.”
House Democrats may finally provide congressional oversight of Individual-1. As for putting our minds at ease, that’s an impossible task given the ever-lengthening list of transgressions and bizarre behavior exhibited by the most unqualified US President in history.
52
How can anyone doubt that Trump is working for Russia? Putin helped Trump win the election and is considered one of his main sources of wealth. Everything that Trump has done or tried to do while in office has been favorable to Putin and against the United States and its major institutions and allies, and he has made fools out of 30 to 40 percent of our citizens I have thought this from the very beginning. Why is this considered such a shock? I think the major problem we face now is containing Trump before he can do more damage to our democracy and our country. It will take many years to repair our reputation and international standing.
111
@Wally Wolf
It’s denial. Not doubt. Denial and irrational “faith” in DJT.
Although in Congress, it’s cowardice.
5
Russia’s campaign influence is impacting all of NATO’s partners
Brexit, unrest in France and Germany and the global disaster of Trump’s incompetence in negotiations threatens the alliance militarily, financially and with civil unrest
While all of the nations focus on their internal problems, they are distracted from the over arching scheme by Russia to orchestrate chaos, mistrust and financial disaster
With all of the leading institutions vilified and weakened, one wonders who will lead us out of this mess?
60
How can it be legal that the translated notes and minutes of meetings between the President of the United States and the head of a foreign national, whether friendly or not, be "confiscated" by the president of the United States?
338
@Marisa Leaf Those notes belong to the US and should be archived with all other documents created while tRump is in office.
37
@Marisa Leaf
Exactly. We elect the President. He works for us. What he does/says on our behalf belongs to us. He is not a private person. He may not have private conversations.
Jeesh!
KG
30
@Marisa Leaf
This is what disturbs me the most. The U.S. president forcibly took the notes of an interpreter (paid for by the people of the U.S.) so that his meeting with one of this nation's adversaries would be private.
What was he hiding? Like his tax records, Trump's secret documents need to come into the sunlight.
There are protections for executive actions and also for archival documents. There can be no excuse for Trump's seizure of materials that essential belong to this nation.
This violates the Presidential Records Act.
43
No kidding.
Putin is alleged to have stolen as much as $100 billion from the Russian people, and Trump obviously sees Putin as a role model.
Trump is also so immersed in a bubble of his own creation that whatever conscience may have existed within him was deactivated long ago.
Trump has no moral compass.
Trump does not put the best interests of either the United States or the NATO alliance front and center.
Trump only cares for Trump - and would likely throw us all under the bus if he thought: 1) he could make money doing so; b) could get away with it.
I used to think that the Republican Party had many authentic patriots among its number.
Well, to echo old Tom Paine, these again are the times that try men's souls...
200
@Matthew Carnicelli - "Putin is alleged to have stolen as much as $100 billion from the Russian people" ha-ha-ha..where does he keep it. I assume some of it here in USA!:)
"Indeed, it’s unnerving that more people — particularly in the leadership of the Republican Party — aren’t alarmed by Mr. Trump’s secretive communications with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and reliance on his word over the conclusions of American intelligence agencies."
No, it's not unnerving. This is what happens when a political party becomes so corrupt that it has no problem with a similarly corrupt president.
Mitch McConnell has been amassing power any way he can for years, with perhaps his crowning "achievement" being the blocking of Merrick Garland. That, above anything, showed how much contempt the Senate leader has for the institution he professes to love.
It's been a match made in heaven: an incompetent president willing to destroy American institutions and flout the rule of law, whose popularity with a minority of Americans gives the "regular" GOP cover to act against the best interests of the country.
Republicans only care about their political strength. Democrats care about opportunities for all Americans. The choice could not be more stark, and yet, only one party is willing to sacrifice the things that made our country great in order to prop up a probable Russian puppet.
567
@ChristineMcM Very well stated, especially with regard to McConnell. I wish there was a way to not only impeach the president, but to send others (McConnell, Pence, and certain White House staff members) packing right along with him.
11
@ChristineMcM - I would love to hear the McConnell-Chao dinner conversations.
1
@ChristineMcM
"We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."
-- As whispered by Benjamin Franklin to Mitch McConnell after high school one day.
2
I can see absolutely no reason not to look into Trump's association with Russia. An American president should be able to immediately and unequivocally state that he's not an agent of any other government. Trump's outrage at the question seems strange and exaggerated. The bar is set so low for Trump, and we've come to accept just about anything from him. But, surely if we expect nothing else of the president, we can expect loyalty to the country?
142
At this point no matter what Donald Trump says or doesn't say about having any involvement with Vladimir Putin or Russia, nothing will erase the specter of there being something incredibly wrong with this picture.
Especially when mounting evidence to the extent of the involvement of players close to his campaign and administration speak otherwise.
It also doesn't help matters that Mr. Trump has a precarious relationship with telling the truth and has been known to create his own set of facts.
One way or the other the truth will eventually come out -- but whether or not some Americans choose to believe it is another matter.
58
It is quite depressing to have to entertain that the President of the United States is beholding to the head of the Russian government. That this happens to even be a question commands the engagement of all the investigative institutions of our government. At this point is nothing more important.
125
There are matters that a president may confer about with other leaders, leaders of countries that we have alliances with in security. Those conversations may contain information that if leaked could be detrimental to alliances or the countries in question.
However, when a president sits down with an adversary in which there are no advisors, no other members of the cabinet present, this is an issue that needs to be addressed.
What was said, what was agreed to and what impact to this country as a result of the meeting bring.
As usual, the antics of the dotard brings more questions into play that need answers.
59
I wish I could share the widespread optimism (most recently exhibited in this editorial) that the new Dem majority in Congress will successfully subpoena files that contain the “truth” about Trump’s misdeeds. Mr prediction: Various committees will issue subpoenas, and they’ll all be ignored. Subsequent judicial rulings will be ignored. Unless law enforcement is willing to raid the President’s home, offices etc., nothing of value will be produced. Trump will simply run out the clock and everything will disappear down the great American memory hole.
82
@Paul
Agree! But even if, by some law enforcement miracle, the Dems actually succeed in confiscating Trump's financial records and tax returns, how does anyone believe they'll immediately show us "the truth"? The legion of slimy tax and law "professionals" Trump and his family have hired over the decades to hide his laundered money and other felonies will be shown to have been well-paid for their nefarious services. Finding any real, hard, incontrovertible evidence in those piles of intertwined lies would be the real miracle and, even then, Trump and his partners in crime and corruption already will have made sure he can spin whatever's there to his (and their) advantage.
1
@Paul
I share your fears.
4
@Paul - conspiracy theory in the making...
"hasn’t given any peace of mind even to those willing to give him the benefit of the doubt"
How would you know? That was never you. You've never had the basic decency even to talk to such people. You've no idea what they are thinking. All you know is your own insults aimed at them.
4
@Mark Thomason Also, there have been *countless* sympathetic Trump voter profiles in the NYT, far outnumbering any they've done on Clinton voters or other voters. Saying "You've never had the basic decency even to talk to such people" is inaccurate.
2
@Mark Thomason. Insults?you have it exactly backwards with the hate, racism, sexism and lies lies lies lobbed at decent people everywhere. No benefit of the doubt will ever be given to racists and haters. Sorry.
2
@Mark Thomason all we've done is listen to people like you. The mainstream media gave equal time to the transgressions of Hilary and Trump, even though Trump's were far greater. We've had to listen to "both sides of the story," regardless of how nonsensical and abnormal everything your guy does and says has been. Enough with your right-wing self-pity already. It's finally starting to dawn on people that not every viewpoint is legitimate.
2
“the unwillingness of the Republican Party to cast a critical eye upon a sitting president…..”
What is so frightening about this Republican Party is they’re “all” in lock step with the President. Not a one, including the House Reps, Senators, and 60+ million voters that are turning a blind eye to this dangerous man and his perceived/real ties to Putin and Russia.
One asks, when will these individuals wake up, and stand up to the President? Never, or at least not until the Mueller team reports damaging evidence about Trumps involvement with a foreign adversary. Even then they may falter.
The only real hope we have for a future Democracy is for the Democrats to take over the White House in 2020. And that may be too late.
467
@cherrylog754
Nonsense.
America is not nor was it ever meant to be a " Democracy".
America is and always has been a republic of a particular kind. A divided limited power constitutional republic of united states.
That is why Al Gore and Hillary Clinton were never President. That is why a half million people from Wyoming have as many Senators as 39.5 million Californians. That is why we don't vote for judges who have lifetime appointments. That is why the size of the Electoral College and House are capped to the disadvantage of more populous States.
There is no mention of any Special Counsel in our Constitution. It is not the fault of the Confederate son of Alabama aka Addison Mitchell McConnell, Jr. that the Democrats are the minority in the Senate.
If Democrats take over the White House in 2020 and are still in the minority in the Senate then what? Smiling and smirking Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin will still be in charge
3
@cherrylog754
These individuals do not care! As long as their anti-abortion, racist, anti-immigrant, anti-government agenda is moving forward, they do not care!
There are two paths to change. One is towards peeling off the Republicans who still remember about caring what the other side thinks. This has started, albeit slowly and without a champion to counter Trump. The other is to energize the third of the country who doesn't voted (a group that doesn't care in a different way) and convince them to engage. We can and should pursue both.
5
The willingness of the Republican Party and especially the Republican Congress to support Trump in acquiescing to Vladimir Putin/Russia make them accomplices in undermining American national security. No doubt they are all bought in some way by the Russians, and greed is more important to them than loyalty to America. The FBI was correct to open an investigation into Donald Trump’s questionable actions on behalf of Russia, he has invited investigation by his egregious acts. And perhaps they should look into the passive behavior of some congressional Republicans and other administration employees who show similar support of Russia at America’s expense.
10
Perhaps they discussed a government shutdown. Maybe a Wall on the southern border was one of the ideas.
We know Putin wants to destroy the U.S.
Trump appears to be an asset to Putin, for reasons we hope to find out.
I am not a fan of conspiracy theorists, but what if this is the simplest explanation that could possibly work?
177
@Just Live Well
My feeling is that Putin has money laundering kompromat on trump, going back decades. w/ trump selling millions of dollars of over-priced real estate to Russians who don't even occupy the residences.
15
@Lisa - this is good but even Tump knows not to get caught with his hand in the cookie jar. The russians would be laundering his money for him. But you have to wonder about the possibility of Trump the agent turning on his client.
1
I wonder has the GOP leadership done any internal acounting of where all of it's money for elections has been coming from. It might not stop with Trump, and if it doesn't then the entire GOP is in trouble.
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@Eoin
Of course they have. Why do you think McConnell refused to come out with the joint statement with Obama and the Dems regarding Russian meddling in 2016? Not only wouldn't he protect our elections, he threatened the WH that he would accuse them of partisanship.
This isn't just about Trump. As this editorial correctly reminds us, this is about the entire GOP.
Thanks to the NYT editorial board for not forgetting Dana Rohrabacher and I would like to add McConnell and Graham to that list.
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@JMM He, McConnell did threaten that. I hope that the Democratic leadership has learned to hit hard and fight back. The truth was on Obama's side. No more tip toeing around so that we don't offend Trump's base.
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@Eoin It is well known that the GOP is cruising on Russian money directly paid by Russians or trough the NRA...a lot of millions $, mainly to Trump, McConnell and PAC favouring the GOP!
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Yes, the FBI started and investigation.
Why? What had happened that caused that start? Who in the FBI?
That goes unsaid. Let's say it.
It was started in large part by the Steele Dossier sent over by the Hillary Campaign. It was done by some FBI agents who were so partisan in their behavior they have been fired for embarrassing the FBI and Justice Dept, with messages to each other about defeating the vote outcome.
Trump is a clown. The reaction to him has been awful too. The two sides are not the same, but nobody has been an adult in the room either.
Anyone who tried to speak like an adult was shouted down and marginalized. Specifically, Bernie, but there were others who were more ignored.
Instead, there is the clown who abused voters, and the people who hate him who also abuse and malign any voters who disagreed with them.
We have rarely seen such bad government. We have rarely seen such bad opposition. Our national scene is as near useless as it has ever been.
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@Mark Thomason. “It was started in large part by the Steele Dossier sent over by the Hillary Campaign.”
Incorrect. It was started after Trump on two occasions linked his firing of James Comey to the Russia investigation. That’s what triggered the counterintelligence aspect of the FBI probe. As much as some would like it to be so, not every controversy is connected to Hillary Clinton. And it’s unclear what “speak like an adult” is supposed to mean, but the rhetoric sparked by Trump’s behavior and actions send appropriately outraged to me.
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@Mark Thomason Isn't law enforcement by and large Republican? And if the FBI was on Clinton's side, why did they bring up "her emails" over and over again during the run up to the election, but kept this investigation of Trump a secret? The easiest way to derail Trump would've been to let this cat out of the bag before November. Instead, the Times had to dig it up two years later. Which suggests the FBI understood the gravity of the situation, not that they had it in for Trump. Your analysis does not fit the facts.
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@Mark Thomason
I agree. However, I think trying to oust a treacherous ignoramus who might possibly be selling us out is not partisan. ANY agent of Law & Order must investigate.
In other news: all of us who have watched Mr Trump, over the many years he’s been on-the-scene, knew full well his scams, bankruptcies and his narcissism. For some reason the Media would not illuminate any of that, instead repeating and repeating the horrific scandal of Hillary’s emails. Meanwhile . . . .
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I totally believe Trump when he says he wasn't working for the Russians. What he means is that he WASN'T PAID for what he did for the Russians. He did it for free.
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@Jay Orchard
I am 100% with you on this one, Jay. I, too, find myself believing trump for the first time when he says he wasn't working for Russia. OF COURSE he wasn't - and isn't - working for Russia: he's working for HIMSELF, as he always has. Russia's interests just happen to align with his - or they can get something out of it. Follow the money - we need to seed the trump financials - personal and corporate - before we can really know what's happening. The one thing I am sure of is that he IS NOT working for the American people.
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@Jay Orchard
He certainly did not do it for free. The trump Organization was on the ropes, in the 1990s his four casinos in NJ went bankrupt. No American bank would lend them anything. Suddenly, in the 2000s they were awash in cash, where did that cash come from. The trump sons told us, Russia.
Russia, may not have known then of the real possibility of his run for the Presidency, but when all the cards aligned they saw their opportunity and did everything to make it a reality. Trump knows and they know, a perfect marriage. Yes, our President was elected to do the bidding of Russia. What are we going to do about it? According to the Republicans, nothing.
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@Jay Orchard: You write "He did it for free."
Trump does *nothing* for free. There is always some transaction involved.
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