Seemingly unembarrassed for being exposed as funding the Trump Dossier, having benefited from various meddling efforts by Russia, The FBI, and The DNC during her campaign, and being involved in the Uranium One deal with Russia; failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called upon President Trump to act now.. because “the Russians are still coming.”
As The Hill reports, Clinton accused President Trump of ignoring a threat to national security after Adm. Michael Rogers, head of U.S. Cyber Command, said he has not been directed to counter possible Russian meddling in the 2018 midterm elections.
In a tweet, the former Democratic presidential nominee said “the Russians are still coming” and implored Trump to take steps to secure America’s voting infrastructure ahead of the midterms.
“I say this as a former Secretary of State and as an American: the Russians are still coming. Our intelligence professionals are imploring Trump to act. Will he continue to ignore & surrender, or protect our country?” Clinton tweeted.
I say this as a former Secretary of State and as an American: the Russians are still coming. Our intelligence professionals are imploring Trump to act. Will he continue to ignore & surrender, or protect our country?https://t.co/Z6uaSCgdF6
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) February 28, 2018
This was immediately leapt upon by the left with CNN political analyst and Democratic strategist Paul Begala accused Trump of being a “wuss” in responding to Russia.
“Why is Donald Trump, a man so tough he says he would rush into a school shooting unarmed, why is he such a wuss and a wimp about Russia?” Begala said on “Anderson Cooper 360.”
It appears they are forgetting… (via ABC News)
…despite Trump’s rhetorical embrace of the autocratic leader and his regime, his administration has taken some big steps to push back on Russia, including some steps that Obama avoided.
In December, his administration decided to arm Ukraine with lethal weapons, and his State Department has consistently criticized Russia for leading, arming, and supporting separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine. While the Obama administration increased aid to Ukraine, and rallied European partners to slap Russia with international sanctions, it never crossed the line into providing lethal support.
The Trump administration has kept those sanctions in place – and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said they will remain so until Russia withdraws from eastern Ukraine, abides by the peace deals it pledged to support – known as the Minsk agreements – and returns Crimea to Ukraine, four years after it began its illegal annexation of the territory.
In fact, in June, the Trump Treasury Department actually expanded those sanctions to include 38 new individuals and companies, including two Russian officials, for their alleged involvement in the ongoing violence in Ukraine and the occupation of Crimea. The move was largely meant to bring the U.S. up to date with the European partners’ sanctions and with the changing figures and aliases of the shadowy pro-Russian actors in Ukraine.
In response, however, Russia retaliated by forcing the U.S. to shrink its diplomatic missions in Russia. Trump responded by “thanking” Putin “because we’re trying to cut down on payroll,” again stoking outrage.
But his administration took a bold step, expelling a number of Russian diplomats, and more important, shutting down two Russian facilities in New York and Washington and the Russian consulate in San Francisco – reportedly a major spy hub for the country.
The other foreign policy pursuits that his administration has used to push back on Russia are the airstrikes on Russia’s client Bashar al-Assad in Syria for the use of chemical weapons; the expansion of domestic energy production and the sale of U.S. liquefied natural gas to counter Russia’s energy strong-arming of European neighbors; and more sanctions on Russian officials for corruption and human rights abuses under the Magnitsky Act.
Presumably, nothing short of bombing Moscow would resolve the Left’s insistence that Russian meddling is akin to Pearl Harbor or 9/11?
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/2CRcWQo Tyler Durden