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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Trump-Russia Facts Lead To Only One Reasonable Conclusion
The Trump-Russia Facts Lead To Only One Reasonable Conclusion
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-patterson-trump-russia-collusion_us_5b72400be4b0bdd0620c350f
This fact is incontrovertible: By word and deed, on the world stage Donald Trump has become an invaluable asset to Russia.
The question is whether Americas president is also a Russian asset specifically, whether Trumps bewildering affinity for President Vladimir Putin is simply a matter of ego and admiration or whether Putin possesses information that empowers him to influence Trumps conduct.
This question has the gravest implications for our foreign policy, national security, electoral integrity and rule of law. If the answer is damning, Trump must quash special counsel Robert Muellers investigation not simply to protect himself but also to conceal that, in matters critical to Russia, his actions as president are circumscribed by Putins wishes.
Such a scenario remains difficult to accept. But a mass of publicly available evidence regarding Trumps behavior over 30-plus years suggests that Putin is positioned to function as Trumps handler. This history makes it imperative to protect Muellers inquiry until it finds the truth.
The most obvious potential leverage between Trump and Russia is the most contemporary: that Trumps campaign accepted Russian help to defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, perhaps in exchange for a promise of sanctions relief. Disclosure of such an arrangement would likely doom Trumps presidency, rendering him susceptible to Russian pressure. Indeed, the bare public revelation that Trump knowingly accepted Russian assistance even without an explicit quid pro quo would be unacceptable to Trump: As a political and psychological matter, he clearly would do anything to avoid the delegitimization of his victory.
Either way, Putin holds secrets that Trump is desperate to conceal giving the Russian an invaluable source of leverage over Americas president. But there is compelling evidence that Russias electoral help in 2016 is the culmination, not the genesis, of Trumps enthrallment by the Kremlin.
2naSalit
(86,765 posts)president and could expose him in a heartbeat. They will probably do him in when he has disrupted the country enough to take over.
nature-lover
(1,470 posts)... would guarantee the most disruption to our democracy.