Trump wrong about Russians
What a strange and surprising year it was that just ended. And it continues into 2017 as President-elect Donald Trump baffles nearly everyone with his stance on supposed Russian hacking.
Mr. Trump challenged the validity of the charges by citing Vladimir Putin’s denials and those of WikiLeaker Julian Assange-neither of whom qualifies as a reliable best friend of the U.S. At the same time, he questioned the integrity and competence of U.S. intelligence agencies. While Mr. Trump has the privilege to do either thing, the latter criticism should not have been done publicly. Why undermine the very people he’ll need to rely on to help him make the correct, important decisions as President?
Three weeks before the 2016 election Mr. Trump said it was going to be rigged, and he “would reserve [his] right to contest or file a legal challenge.” As far as I can tell, despite Democrats’ unhappiness, there is no serious move to challenge the results. So why would Mr. Trump now oppose any move to find out if there was at least a foreign attempt to influence our elections?
Personally, I feel the outcome of the election was influenced much more by Hillary Clinton’s poor campaign strategy, failure to heed the signs of discontent among blue-collar and rural Americans, and the shadow of mistrust that Clinton could not evade.
Mr. Trump didn’t like the fact that Hillary won the popular vote, so he planted the idea that millions of people voted illegally. Now he’s unhappy that there might be people questioning the legitimacy of his victory. (Delegitimizing the president did not seem to bother him while he raised the since-debunked birther issue on Obama for almost four years.) I believe Mr. Trump puts his ego and image ahead of our national interests-and that should be worrisome for us all. My hope is that he will start acting logically and presidential on Jan. 20.
Bernard Quarrick
Uniontown