President Trump claims to have pressed Russian President Putin twice about the alleged election interference during their private meeting, but the left isn’t satisfied. Naturally, Putin denied any involvement. Rather than spend the entire meeting trying to trick Putin into a confession, President Trump decided that it was “time to move forward in working constructively with Russia.” He reacted strongly to allegations that he didn’t try hard enough – and had some stinging criticisms of his own for former President Barack Obama. Just what did the then-president do when he was informed about the interference – in August?
Donald Trump took to his favorite social media platform – Twitter – and explained in a series of Tweets that he did question President Putin about the issue. He also took the opportunity to slam Democrats – Barack Obama in particular – over the former administration’s handling of the situation. As you may recall, President Trump was still just Candidate Trump when all of this allegedly occurred – Obama was President, and the Democrats controlled the Executive Branch. According to President Trump, other world leaders have asked why the Democratic National Committee (DNC) refused to turn their server over to the C.I.A and F.B.I. Fox News reports:
At the start of the weekend summit that concluded Sunday, Trump tweeted that the leaders were interested in why John Podesta, the campaign manager for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, didn’t help U.S. officials when his emails were hacked.
The tweet sparked a Twitter battle between Trump and Podesta in which Podesta essentially dismissed the claim and called Trump a “whack job.”
President Trump also Tweeted:
Questions were asked about why the CIA & FBI had to ask the DNC 13 times for their SERVER, and were rejected, still don’t…
…have it. Fake News said 17 intel agencies when actually 4 (had to apologize). Why did Obama do NOTHING when he had info before election?
The president also criticized Obama during a press conference while in Poland. When discussing the reasons, he believed Obama didn’t do anything about the Russian interference, he said: “The reason is he thought Hillary was going to win. If he thought I was going to win, he would have done plenty about it.”
The meeting of the two presidents was a highly anticipated event. Putin denied the allegations that Russia attempted to interfere with the U.S. election, but there were questions after the meeting as to whether President Trump believed him. The Russian President said that he felt Mr. Trump accepted his statements, yet Chief of Staff Reince Priebus claimed that the president “absolutely did not believe” Putin. While President Trump has stated his belief that Russia meddled, he has been hesitant to say he knows it definitively. As to whether or not the president believes Putin’s denial, he tweeted that he has already stated his opinion. That could mean that his prior statements that Russia probably meddled still hold – or it could refer to his opinion that it is time to move on.
Of course, there is still the matter of Democrat conduct when intelligence agencies discovered the Russian attempts. President Trump asked a valid question; the American public should know why the DNC refused to cooperate with the investigation and why the President-at-the-time did nothing. In fact, the Obama administration has faced criticism from both Republicans and Democrats over their inaction.
President Trump’s approach to dealing with his Russian counterpart has always drawn criticism from the left. The establishment media has pushed the Russiagate narrative since the day Donald Trump won the Oval Office. Naturally, the press gave President Obama a pass on his failure to act on the information provided to him regarding the meddling – as they tend to give him and other Democrats a pass in most otherwise embarrassing situations. While there are some on the left willing to call out the former president, most are too loyal to the progressive cause.
Details of the conversation regarding election interference between the two presidents are unclear. It is entirely possible that we may never know the exact words exchanged. However, President Trump has taken actions that go directly against Russia’s interests. That alone should prove that he is not a puppet of Putin – regardless of whether or not he adequately pressed the election issue. The President took a harder stance against the Russia-backed Assad regime in Syria than his Democrat predecessor ever did – even going as far as to launch a missile strike on a Syrian airbase in response to the use of chemical weapons. He also adopted a far harsher stance toward North Korea than Russia would like. Unfortunately, these actions do not fit into the left’s narrative and must be ignored.
Regardless of what happened during President Trump’s meeting with President Putin, it is vital that our president continues to adopt policies that put our interests first. We need a leader who is willing to stand up to other world leaders – like Putin – rather than appeasing them. It does at least appear that Donald Trump is doing so – he certainly doesn’t seem to care whether or not he offends anyone. Compared to a president who refused to acknowledge Islamic terror or the Christian genocide, Trump is refreshingly politically incorrect. Love him or hate him, the man has a good point. Just what was Barack Obama doing while Russia was allegedly rigging the election? Perhaps just as importantly – why is this question just now being asked?
