Trump’s view on Ukraine belies his Russia ties
To the Times:
In light of the impeachment Inquiry open hearings, one of the talking points in the president’s defense is that he has been “tougher on Russia than the Obama administration” was. Therefore, he can’t be guilty of withholding $400 million in military aide to the Ukraine unless there was a good reason,because his administration approved military help for Ukraine back in 2017.
Somehow, it is hard to square President Trump as the person helping a country that has been invaded by Russia in 2014 with any kind of aid, much less military, since he has done nothing but kowtow to Vladimir Putin and Russia in words and deeds.
Who can forget the sorry Helsinki meeting where he stood in front of the entire world and denied what all the intelligence agencies proved conclusively – that Russia was behind the meddling in the 2016 election to Trump’s benefit? Trump claimed that Putin denies it, so he accepted his word! Trump has never said a bad word in public about Russia or Putin. Instead, he and his cohorts are pursuing a conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia is behind the 2016 election meddling.
Fiona Hill, Trump’s former top adviser on Ukraine and Russian affairs who testified in the impeachment hearing recently, chastised anyone spreading this falsehood as being damaging to the nation and promoting Russian interests in the process.
Yet, in 2017, military aid was released to Ukraine for the first time. Did this idea come from President Trump? No, of course not. H.R. McMaster, his national security secretary at the time, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense, Gen. James Mattis, who all had a much more conventional view of Russia, all pushed for the military aid to Ukraine. As expected, President Trump was not willing to get on board with this strategy, especially if it was not paid for. He finally came around when his cabinet convinced Trump that Ukraine would become a regular customer paying for military hardware in the future.
As everyone now can see, Trump’s intentionally holding up military aid that the Congress appropriated in May for the Ukraine in exchange for an investigation into his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his obsessive need to justify his election by denying any Russian help – by promoting the debunked Ukranian meddling conspiracy theory – are all important elements in the impending impeachment of this president. After this week, there really is no question of Trump’s guilt, or his fitness for office. The only question left is how many Republicans, if any, are willing to put country before party?
We will find out in the U.S. Senate very soon.
“Who can forget the sorry Helsinki meeting where he stood in front of the entire world and denied what all the intelligence agencies proved conclusively – that Russia was behind the meddling in the 2016 election to Trump’s benefit?”
— Tom Buglio