Putin’s predicted putative puppet
San Francisco: Re “Open Treason” (front page, July 17): During one of the 2016 presidential debates, Hillary Clinton accused Donald Trump of being Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “puppet.” She said: “You are willing to spout the Putin line, sign up for his wish list, break up NATO, do whatever he wants to do.” Trump responded by childishly retorting: “No puppet. No puppet. You’re the puppet! No, you’re the puppet!”
Clinton may not have been elected President, but she has proven a prophet. Trump is acting as Putin’s puppet, just as she predicted. Trump’s response to last year’s deadly rally by neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., when he insisted that there were “very fine people on both sides” — unashamedly defending racists and anti-Semites — remains his lowest moment as President. Even so, his publicly siding with Putin over America’s intelligence agencies, despite their conclusion that Russia interfered in America’s democratic election, was shameful, indefensible, unconscionable and disgraceful. Stephen A. Silver