WHY IS TRUMP SO AFRAID OF RUSSIA?
Former CIA director John Brennan pulled no punches Wednesday when he was asked why President Donald Trump had congratulated his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, for his victory in a rigged election, even after Trump’s national security staff warned him not to.
“I think he’s afraid of the president of Russia,” Brennan said, on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program, of the phone call on Tuesday between the two presidents. “The Russians, I think, have had long experience with Mr. Trump and may have things they could expose.”
The possibility that Putin could have some hold on the American president has lurked in the background over the past year as Trump displayed a mystifying affection for the Russian leader and ignored or excused his aggressive behavior and nefarious activities, most important, his interference in the 2016 campaign, a subject of the special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Some Trump defenders noted that President Barack Obama also called Putin when he was elected president in 2012.
But the circumstances are very different. In the intervening years, Putin has become an increasingly authoritarian leader who has crushed most of his political opposition and engineered a deeply lopsided re-election this week. American intelligence officials say they are certain he meddled in the 2016 American election on behalf of Trump and is trying to meddle again in the 2018 election, as well as in many European elections.
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, is waging war in other parts of Ukraine and is enabling President Bashar Assad in Syria.
While the administration recently imposed its first significant sanctions on Russia for election interference and other malicious cyberattacks and has faulted Russia for the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain, Trump has refrained from criticizing Putin or calling him to account. The phone call reinforced that approach.
What Trump didn’t say to Putin was as significant as what he did say. He did not demand that Putin stop meddling in American elections or others, he did not even raise Moscow’s role in the poisoning.
He made no mention of the unfair political system that deprives Russians of a real say in their government. The White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, later reinforced Trump’s lack of interest, telling reporters it was not America’s place to question how other countries conduct their elections.
The disparity between Trump and his advisers, who seem to take threats from Russia more seriously, is becoming more pronounced.
A senior administration official told The Times that Trump didn’t want to antagonize Putin because fostering rapport is the only way to improve relations between the two countries. On Tuesday, the president said he hoped to meet Putin soon and discuss preventing an arms race — an arms race both leaders have encouraged with loose talk and investment in new weapons.
Engaging Russia and preventing an arms race are undeniably important. But it’s hard to see how praising and appeasing a bully will advance American interests. That’s not the approach Trump has taken with adversaries like North Korea or Iran, or, for that matter, even with some allies.
While Trump panders to Putin, his criticism of Mueller, is becoming harsher, as the investigation raises increasingly serious concerns about a web of ties connecting Trump’s associates to Russia.
Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, has pleaded guilty to lying about his involvement with Russia. A former foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos, has pleaded guilty to lying about his involvement with Russians. A former deputy campaign chairman, Rick Gates, who had his own Russian connections along with a now-indicted former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has pleaded guilty to lying about Russian-related matters.
Mueller has subpoenaed Trump’s company for any documents involving Russia. Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee say Trump was “actively negotiating a business deal in Moscow with a sanctioned Russian bank” during the 2016 campaign season.
And Mueller has charged 13 Russians with conspiring to subvert the 2016 election and put Trump in the White House. Brennan’s fears clearly arise from some of those elements. Brennan knows more than most about possible threats to America, but he is not the only one speaking out. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., slammed Trump, saying “an American president does not lead the free world by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections.” Even the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, who rarely crosses Trump, said calling Putin “wouldn’t have been high on my list.”
If Trump isn’t Putin’s lackey, it’s past time for him to prove it.