Russia details fail to rouse Trump anger
TRUMP FRUSTRATED, BUT NOT OVER RUSSIAN ELECTION-MEDDLING
A curious thing has unfolded since the release of details about a Russian campaign to interfere in U.S. politics, with a secretive unit that allegedly had 80 employees, a $1.2 million-amonth budget, and impersonated real Americans by stealing their personal information.
It involves the reaction of the president of the United States.
Since an indictment sheet revealed these details Friday, Donald Trump has tweeted about it at least 14 times. He’s blamed the FBI and the news media. He’s scolded his national-security advisor. He’s even used the Florida school shooting to argue that he’s being wronged.
One thing he hasn’t done: Voice displeasure with Russia.
His reaction stands in sharp contrast with some members of his own party who sound disturbed by this alleged Russian election interference. It has Democrats questioning his motives. He’s being condemned by survivors of the Florida shooting.
It has also drawn news headlines like, “We’ve Just Hit A New Presidential Low,” from the Washington Post, “Trump blames everyone but Russia,” from CNN, and “Trump Quiet In A U.S. War On Meddling,” on the front page of Sunday’s New York Times.
Trump’s first tweet after Friday’s indictments was enthusiastic — he claimed his own exoneration. That’s because the charge sheet said some Americans who interacted with the Russian information campaign did so unwittingly, and a senior Justice Department official added that there was no evidence this unit’s work swayed the 2016 election result.
By Saturday evening, he expressed frustration.
Trump tweeted about the school shooting that left 17 people dead, and linked it to his own plight: “Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign — there is no collusion. Get back to the basics.”
Then came a gusher of tweets Sunday morning. He chided his top national-security official, H.R. McMaster, who this weekend said it’s now “incontrovertible” that Russia interfered in the election: “General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians,” Trump said.
He insisted he never called Russian election-meddling a hoax: “I said ‘it may be Russia, or China or another country or group, or it may be a 400 pound genius sitting in bed and playing with his computer.’” Some people find his reaction abnormal. On ABC, his former campaign ally, Chris Christie, said: “The president should be staying out of law-enforcement business.” On NBC, Sen. James Lankford was asked whether the president’s reaction bothers him: “It does,” Lankford replied. “Because Russia’s clearly tried to advance their agenda into the United States.”
The president’s reaction was in stark contrast with another politician who allegedly benefited from Russian information campaigns.
Sen. Bernie Sanders was also mentioned in the indictment sheet.
Special counsel Robert Mueller alleges that a Russian operation called, “The Translator Project,” had instructions to go after all sorts of American politicians, Democrats and Republicans, to sow discord in the U.S. — with two exceptions: Trump and Sanders.
Sanders sounded like he was taking it seriously.
He acknowledged, in an interview on “Meet The Press,” that when his Democratic primary campaign appeared lost, Russians flooded Facebook pages to spread negative messages about the eventual nominee, Hillary Clinton. He said a member of his team even reached out to Clinton’s campaign to opine that something weird was happening.