As we have reported several times today, Trump has yet to call out Russia for putting fcking bounties on the heads of 19-35-year-old U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan. He has yelled about the intelligence community and he has denied knowing anything about it. As late as yesterday, three days after the story broke, Kayleigh said Trump had yet to be briefed on the matter! Trump has screamed about the New York Times, but he has not said one word to Russia. There is no indication at all that he’s angry with Russia. That fact, that he’s said nothing to Russia, hasn’t received near enough reporting, except here.
According to the legendary Andrea Mitchell, Trump is “gleeful” about the fact that no one “orally” told him about the fact that Russians were paying for dead Americans. He is thrilled because he thinks this makes him look less awful. (More after the tweet):
Bash: "POTUS seems utterly gleeful to have learned he didn't receive an oral briefing on this, when in fact his reaction should be exactly opposite. He should be outraged. He should be saying to his NSA, if you don't tell me these things, you're fired." #AMRstaff [1]
— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) June 30, 2020 [2]
Unbelievable.
For just a moment, let’s pretend the collective “we” are the president of the United States.
We hear that another country is paying terrorists to kill American soldiers because that country believes it will make it harder for us to get out of Afghanistan. It results in Americans coming home in coffins. As president, we are the head of the U.S. military, those are “our” soldiers. We call the families of the dead – it’s gut-wrenching. (Of course, we had read the entirety of our PDB so we found out about it long ago and acted against it back then, but let’s pretend it was buried or even hidden, it didn’t get our attention.)
We are not pretending we’re Barack Obama, or even James Mattis, we’re not genius statesmen/women, or global strategists, we’re just normal Americans. We normal people as president get the breaking news Friday night. We know damn well this is a big deal. We immediately pick up the phone, we want the Joint Chiefs, the National Security Advisor, Head of the CIA, NSA, NRO, the Secretary of Defense, State, and Treasury, in the Situation Room by 8:00 p.m. that night. We want to know everything and have everyone in the room know everything.
We go over all the information we have to get everyone on the same page. We put alerts out to all the troops, we move troops that might be more exposed back to more defensive positions. We call Putin and let him know that we’re aware of what’s happening and nothing further better happen or missiles will fly. We promise him we will talk again very soon about what we’re going to do. We assign people to go home and think things through. We want written proposals from each person there to be completed overnight and the next morning. We schedule the next meeting for Saturday at noon.
At noon we assess where we are and how we want to react.
By Saturday at 4:00 p.m. there is either a statement put out by the White House, or an address from the Oval Office listing the sanctions, demands of Russia, troop movements, complaints to the U.N., and a meeting to occur with our allies. We suspend Russian bank accounts in the U.S. and promise them that more is to come.
On Sunday we fire everyone involved in not getting this matter in front of our faces with all due urgency. We instruct people inside the White House to leak that the president is furious, not because we need the country to know but because we want Russia to know. We call family members of the dead and apologize as a nation and promise action.
By Monday we’re implementing our plan which involves isolating Russia and punishing them however we determine best. We brief each relevant committee in Congress, looking for their input and assuring them everything is going forward.
This is what a normal person shoved into the role of president does. That is how a manager at Walmart would handle the situation. There is no “deep insight” in any of that, only common sense, care for the troops, and a sense of responsibility.
But now look at what we’re getting from Trump. He is angry at the intelligence community “leaking” on his friend Putin. He is angry at the New York Times. He hasn’t said a word to Russia. And now we hear he is “gleeful” that the intelligence community merely put the matter in a written report that he didn’t read. ONLY Trump could believe that saying “He didn’t read it” excuses him from responsibility.
Trump is happy that it appears to be someone else’s fault, even though HE is president and Commander in Chief. All he cares about is that he doesn’t shoulder the blame for this. He doesn’t care that Russia did it!! He hasn’t said anything to Russia, no sanctions, no warnings, no troop movements, nothing. He had invited Russia into the G8 – he hasn’t canceled that invitation! It appears that he is going to sit back and defend himself while leaving Russia and their actions unaddressed.
We have said several times over the last two to three days that this revelation might drive Trump out of office. At some point, the GOP is going to notice that American service personnel are being killed, Trump is going to lose the election, and they need a president who can protect the troops and Americans. They also might finally acknowledge out loud that it appears that Putin controls Trump 100%.
This is not only unforgivable, but it is also borderline treasonous. IF Trump is unable to confront Putin because of financial conflicts or because he’s controlled by Putin, then he is a traitor to this country. He is functioning as a Russian asset, allowing Russians to direct the murder of American troops. At the very very least it is a dereliction of duty to a degree we’ve never before anticipated.
He is “gleeful,” GLEEFUL!! about this matter. If that doesn’t say everything one needs to know about Donald Trump, we don’t know what it will take. We’re left to wonder if it would matter if Russian troops fired the guns themselves, fired upon American troops. Would Trump act differently? Would he say that there is no “consensus” on it and focus on the leaks?
It seems as though we know.
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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom