Dispatches from Trump's America: Those pesky Russia connections simply won't go away
During the past two months, Donald J. Trump and his various spokespeople (Sean Spicer and Kellyanne Conway being the chief mouthpieces of the Administration) have stated that no one in the Administration has any links to Russia or its kleptocratic leader, Vladimir Putin. And, despite evidence to the contrary, they insist that there is no hint that Russian hackers with connections to Russia's military intelligence agencies planted "fake news" in U.S. social media sites and tried to sway the election in Mr. Trump's favor.
In one of Mr. Trump's rare Presidential press conferences back in February, he repeated this claim even after he had to accept then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn for allegedly misleading Vice President Mike Pence about his pre-election contacts with Russia's ambassador to the U.S.
According to a February 16 report on NPR.org (National Public Radio's website), Mr. Trump vehemently denied any link between his campaign and members of Putin's government:
Asked at the news conference about reports that members of the Trump staff were in contact with Russia during the campaign, Trump said, "Nobody that I know of."
Well, Mr. Trump is - as he is wont to do - constantly denying that he or any of his advisers have had any relationship with Moscow since his campaign started in 2015. He also swears that any suggestions to the contrary are clever exercises in political misdirection by his adversaries.
Again, per NPR:
"Russia is a ruse," Trump said. "I know you have to get up and ask a question. It's so important." He reiterated, "Russia is a ruse. I have nothing to do with Russia. Haven't made a phone call to Russia in years. Don't speak to people from Russia. Not that I wouldn't. I just have nobody to speak to. I spoke to Putin twice. He called me on the election. I told you this. And he called me on the inauguration, a few days ago."
Unfortunately, we think Mr. Trump doth protest too much.
Not only do Mr. Trump's statements in support of Brexit (Great Britain's departure from the European Union) and his belief that the NATO alliance is obsolete play into the hands of Putin and his oligarch friends in the Kremlin, but at least five highly-placed individuals in Trump's campaign and present Administration have connections with Moscow.
Inside this week's Time cover story, "Is Truth Dead?" (page 36, April 3, 2017 issue) there is a graphic titled Russia and the Trump Campaign.
Under the banner "Trump's People," the following men are listed as having had business ties with or accepted money from individuals and agencies within the Russian government:
- Mike Flynn, former National Security Adviser. According to the print version of the article, "routine intercepts of (Russian ambassador) Kislyak's calls overheard Flynn discussing U.S. sanctions on Russia while President Obama was still in office. Flynn was also paid over $33,000 to speak at a gala for Russia's state-run broadcaster RT."
- Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign manager. Time writes: "Manafort was Trump's campaign manager during the pivotal conclusion of the Republican primaries and the start of the general election. He was pushed out of the campaign over concerns about his consultancy work on behalf of Ukrainian strongman Viktor Yanukovich - who was backed by the Kremlin.
- Jeff Sessions, Attorney General. At his confirmation hearing, Sessions denied having communications with Russian representatives. However, "on March 1, the Washington Post revealed that Sessions had met twice with Moscow's envoy Kislyak while serving as one of Trump's top 2016 advisors."
- Roger Stone, Adviser. Per Time: "The veteran GOP adviser and longtime Trump confidant admitted to communicating with Guccifer 2.0, a hacking group that claimed responsibility for leaking a stolen trove of Democratic National Committee documents in the 2016 campaign. Stone claims that the contacts were "completely innocuous and denies any connections to Russia." Oh, did we mention that it was Stone who recommended that Trump hire Manafort to run his campaign?
- Carter Page, Campaign Adviser. Last year, Mr. Trump "identified Page, a former investment banker who has done business in Russia, as an adviser." Four months later, he "gave a speech in Moscow in which he criticized U.S. foreign policy to Russia."
As the online edition of Time's article "Can Trump Handle the Truth?" laments:
And
what reality is Trump creating? He entered national politics in 2011 peddling
the incredible theory that Obama might have been born in Africa–and therefore
constitutionally barred from the presidency. In those days Trump was widely
dismissed as a reckless self-promoter, though he clung to his story for five
years, using it to get television bookings and newspaper coverage, before
surrendering it with a shrug. Looking back, it’s striking to see a future
President testing the waters by charging the elected incumbent with fraud and
illegitimacy without introducing a shred of evidence.
That
was a fitting warm-up for Trump’s official entry into the 2016 campaign. The
Mexican government, he alleged, is deliberately dumping its hoodlums in the
U.S. Later that year, he answered the Paris terrorist attacks by claiming,
without substantiation, that he had seen “thousands and thousands of people”
celebrating in New Jersey as the Twin Towers smoldered on 9/11 on television.
(No footage is known to exist.)....
Trump
has discovered something about epistemology in the 21st century. The truth may
be real, but falsehood often works better. It is for this same reason that
Russia deployed paid Internet trolls in the 2016 campaign, according to U.S.
investigators, repeatedly promoting lies on U.S. social networks to muddy the
debate. In the radical democracy of social media, even the retweets of outraged
truth squadders has the effect of rebroadcasting false messages. Controversy
elevates message. And it keeps the President on offense.
In other words, Mr. Trump has proven that George Orwell right all along. Black is white, and lies are the new truth.
Sad.
Sources:
http://www.npr.org/2017/02/16/515624391/nobody-that-i-know-of-trump-denies-campaign-contacts-with-russia
http://time.com/magazine/
Time magazine (print edition, April 3, 2017 issue, "Can Trump Handle the Truth?" (page 36 graphic)
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