President Trump’s campaign to normalize his disturbingly close relationship with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin continues to unfold at breakneck speed.
Just four days after his last summit with the Russian leader, Trump has already dispatched National Security Advisor John Bolton to invite Putin to visit the White House “sometime in the fall.”
In Helsinki, @POTUS agreed to ongoing working level dialogue between the two security council staffs. President Trump asked @Ambjohnbolton to invite President Putin to Washington in the fall and those discussions are already underway.
— Kayleigh McEnany 45 Archived (@PressSec45) July 19, 2018
The president announced this morning that he was “looking forward” to his second meeting with Putin and praised himself for all the “accomplishments” of his first meeting – but other than a preposterous offer to hand over Americans citizens, including a former U.S. Ambassador, over to the Russians for interrogation, it’s unclear what – if anything – was actually decided or accomplished during the meeting.
Of course, we could find out what was said behind those closed doors if the House Intelligence Committee was allowed to subpoena the translator and ask her what was said – but House Republicans immediately shot that down, preferring to allow the president to continue to hide his potentially treasonous agenda with impunity.
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats happened to have been in the middle of a live interview at a cybersecurity forum when the news broke – and his response speaks for itself.
“Say that again?!”
“Ooookay.”
“That’s gonna be special.”
On the #AspenSecurity stage, DNI Dan Coats reacts in realtime to news that Vladimir Putin🇷🇺 will visit the White House🇺🇸. pic.twitter.com/aGeeBJ8k4d— The Aspen Institute (@AspenInstitute) July 19, 2018
Not merely content to rub his relationship with the man who interfered in one of our elections in all our faces, he couldn’t help but take a cheap shot at President Obama – and in doing so project onto our last president what he himself is definitely guilty of.
President Trump to CNBC: "Obama was a patsy for Russia. He was a total patsy."
— Michael Del Moro (@MikeDelMoro) July 19, 2018
It’s incredible to hear him say that with a straight face, as Trump has spent the past four days shamelessly apologizing for Russia and the hacking campaign that helped lift him to the presidency – and as evidence emerges that Russia is already making moves to interfere in the 2016 election, his excitement for Putin’s next visit should be treated with the utmost suspicion.
