Trump aids and abets our enemies
Of the countless reasons Donald Trump deserves defeat in November, one stands out.
Trump aids and abets our enemies in undermining our country and our democracy.
The betrayal began in 2016 when Trump’s campaign manager met secretly “on numerous occasions” with Russian military intelligence to share the campaign’s polling data and its strategy for defeating Hillary Clinton, the better for the Russians to design their own pro-Trump campaign. Trump knew the Russians were helping him and he welcomed their interference. This is all from the August 18 report of the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee.
The betrayals escalated when Trump took office.
He has denied, downplayed and dismissed the overwhelming evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 election, calling it “the Russia hoax.”
Trump has gone along only reluctantly with congressional sanctions on Russia and has lifted some of them when he could.
After American intelligence told him in his Presidential Daily Brief that Russia had offered and paid a bounty to the Taliban for killing our soldiers in Afghanistan, Trump did nothing. When the matter became public, he said he hadn’t been told about it. And he still did nothing.
His “briefers” report that they can’t brief him orally about Russian aggression against America and our allied countries because Trump will explode at them if they do.
When the German government and NATO concluded recently that Russian President Vladimir Putin had poisoned yet another political opponent, Trump defended Putin.
When Russian warplanes buzz U.S. Navy ships and come dangerously close to our own airplanes, Trump does nothing.
According to Reuters and other new outlets, he has lobbied to have Russia readmitted to the G7 group of nations that Russia was ejected from in 2014 for its aggression against Ukraine.
On several occasions, when pressed for a reaction to Russian outrages, Trump has responded by repeating Russian propaganda claiming that we are just as bad as they are.
Now, as reported by CNN, he refuses to give a full briefing to members of Congress about foreign interference in this year’s election. And a top official at the Department of Homeland Security alleges that he was told to ignore Russian interference in this election and to report only on other countries’ activities.
So only Trump and his enablers in the White House will know how Russia is interfering in the election, and on whose behalf.
Worst of all, Trump has sabotaged the coming presidential election by slowing the mail just as polls show record numbers of Americans plan to vote by mail. He has done that for two reasons. First, polls show 50 percent of Democrats plan to vote by mail but only 10 percent of Republicans do. Second, he is trying to create doubt about the outcome of the election in the event he loses. Trump has also falsely claimed that mail-in voting is corrupt, even though he votes that way himself. And he has urged his supporters to try to vote twice, and has falsely claimed that his opposition is rigging the election.
His actions guarantee that whichever side loses the election will feel cheated and outraged. And that will tear our country apart.
Putin couldn’t be happier.
Michael Comiskey
Connellsville, PA