We reported all weekend that the details regarding this scandal would be flushed out over the next week as the seriousness of it sets in on a busy American public, one that is often too busy to concentrate on the daily news cycle. Additionally, we will all certainly learn more about the story, whether the details get worse or show that there were mitigating circumstances. Right now, it appears that the matter is only getting worse for Trump, to the point that we continue to state that this scandal may bring Trump down before the election.
According to ex-RNC head Michael Steele, speaking on Morning Joe, he does not doubt that Trump knew about the Russian bounty program and knew it early. The transcript is brought to us by Rawstory [1]:
“I will take up that challenge and say they did brief him,” Steele replied. “I do not believe that something as important and severe as this was left untold to the president of the United States.”
“What I think is disturbing is his reaction to it once he was told — the fact that there has been nothing done,” he continued. “There has been no rebuke officially from the United States and the fact that the White House, even over the course of the president’s tweets still has not denied the underlying intelligence that this is, in fact, what happened and this is, in fact, what we do know and the reality is.”
We wrote about the same thing yesterday. The Trump administration hasn’t denied the underlying facts, they’re not saying it didn’t happen. But most damningly, they’re not screaming at Russia, not making threats, not demanding explanations, there are no calls for sanctions, no movement of troops, none of the things that one would expect from a president interested in protecting the troops and the nation, upon hearing something so horrific.
Trump is still not doing anything about it!
“This is a bounty placed on the heads of American soldiers, you are the commander in chief, alright?” he continued. “So this isn’t about politics. This is about what you do as a leader of men and women in uniform who now find out that you are okay with a bounty on their head by your — by our adversary. So this is what he’s going to have to account for — he can’t spin this out. There may be some Republicans who will run to his defense, that will be curious to watch.”
So far we haven’t seen a single Republican run to Trump’s defense, which is only part of the reason that we believe that Trump will have a tough time surviving this scandal. A president’s first and most sacred duty is to protect Americans from harm, especially American troops. To do nothing about a price put on the head of American soldiers out of fear of Putin is a criminal dereliction of duty in our opinion.
We will follow the story throughout the day but two things seem clear already. No Republican will come to Trump’s rescue on this. And two, Trump will not confront Putin.
Horrific.
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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom