The President shows no signs of admitting the Russian government, in what is an act of war, hacked our election (his election). And, even if the President raises the hacking with Vladimir Putin on Monday, he’s already told the Russian what he should say – deny it.
He lowered expectations perfectly for Putin.
And, he continues to lie.
The President visits England but not London because 250,000 English men and women were protesting under a snarky blimp version of a baby Donald Trump. He then says the English love him because he truly does create his own reality for himself.
He wails to a reporter from The Sun that the English prime minister is leading her country badly (in spite of him advising her otherwise, he claims) and then wilts in her presence to apologize – not so much for what was reported but because the “fake news” of a key supporter’s newspaper did not publish all the nice things he said about her.
Then, on foreign soil (albeit it on the soil of what many of us consider to be our closest ally) he points a finger at his Justice Department, again, for the “rigged witch hunt” (a phrase that I think is redundant). That, despite the facts that were detailed in the indictment of 12 Russian military members who did their best to help Trump and hurt his opponent in the 2016 election. Again, by his own Justice Department.
Personally, seems to me there’s plenty of there there and Trump is not doing his duty to protect and defend the country. It is, indeed, a dereliction of his duty.
(Meanwhile, in the rest of our government, while many of us focus on the Russia meddling, the Trump White House in effect announced yesterday that the War on Poverty is over, and has been won. This despite the GOP’s claim for decades that government programs are NOT producing improvements for the poor. If you care about those among us who need help to survive, read that sentence again and go read the story on what this Administration is doing:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/white-house-declares-war-on-poverty-largely-over-amid-push-to-revamp-social-programs/2018/07/13/8f9536ea-86b2-11e8-8f6c-46cb43e3f306_story.html?utm_term=.1c4f7a5ecb81)
Let me go on the record that, in retrospect: I think Donald Trump was going to win the election without the help of the Russians. Hillary Clinton was that flawed a candidate. I said during the campaign that the only person Hillary Clinton could beat was Trump, and the only person Trump could beat was Hillary.
Our country was in a weird enough place in our history that I think it would have elected anyone running against Hillary, and “anyone” did win.
So, my intent is not taint his victory by implying the Russians tipped it for him. They didn’t hurt him, but they also I don’t think put him over the top.
I do think they need to pay a price for what they did. And be shown they can’t do that again. And it’s the President’s job to set that price. Not give Putin a way of denying he was behind it.
If all he does during his summit with Putin is raise the issue and drop it – just so he can say he did – he is in violation of his oath of office.