No one respects women more than Donald Trump.
Donald Trump is the least racist person he knows.
Donald Trump is a stable genius.
Donald Trump has been much tougher on Vladimir Putin and Russia in one year than Barack Obama was in eight.
Each of those statements (and many others) is laughable and contrary to facts, but none may be more so than saying Trump has been tough on Russia.
It’s a claim Trump and Sarah Huckabee Sanders have both made.
During the presidential campaign, Trump said Putin was a leader while Obama was not. When informed that Putin had journalists killed and arrested, Trump replied, “you think our country’s so innocent?”
Trump spent over a year downplaying Russian meddling in our election. He allowed Russians into the Oval Office at Putin’s request where he disclosed classified intelligence to them that we gained from an ally. Russia has continued to spread “fake news” through social media in further attempts to meddle in our upcoming midterm elections.
After Congress passed veto-proof sanctions against Russia, Trump signed them but failed to enact. That is until pressure from our allies after a nerve agent was used against a former Russian spy and his daughter in the United Kingdom. Many are blaming Russia for the attack.
Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found on a park bench in Salisbury, England. They remain in critical condition and several of the rescue personnel attending them were also contaminated. Prime Minister Theresa May says the UK government has identified the poison as a Russian-made Novichok agent. May told Parliament, “Either this was a direct action by the Russian state against our country, or the Russian government lost control of its potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others.” The UK expelled 23 Russian diplomats after that nation refused to meet a deadline to explain the use of the substance.
The United States has joined Britain and other European allies in condemning Russia. The Trump administration has finally enacted some of the sanctions Congress authorized, but not all of them. Max Bergmann, a former Obama administration official who heads the investigative Moscow Project at the Center for American Progress called the sanctions “a mirage to make it look like they have implemented sanctions.”
Sarah Huckabee Sanders refused to say whether Russia was a friend or a foe, but she was able to say Andrew McCabe was a “bad actor” a couple days before he was fired from the FBI.
While Trump has slightly criticized Russia, he hasn’t said one negative word regarding Russian President Vladimir Putin, who just won another six-year presidential term.
Retired four-star Army general Barry McCaffrey tweeted, “Reluctantly I have concluded that President Trump is a serious threat to US national security. He is refusing to protect vital US interests from active Russian attacks. It is apparent that he is for some unknown reason under the sway of Mr Putin.”
Trump publicly asked for Russia to help him win the presidency. His campaign invited Russian spies into Trump Tower. Members of the Trump team were meeting Russians overseas and in the states to establish back channels to communicate with Putin’s government.
Yes, Putin has something on Trump and Republicans say they don’t see any evidence of collusion.
The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI issued a report describing sophisticated Russian government attempts to target American and European power plants, nuclear facilities, airports and other critical infrastructure for cyberattacks. Trump has yet to address these attacks, instead opting to attack the FBI, Robert Mueller, and others in our law enforcement.
Politifact rates Trump’s statement of being tough on Russia than Obama as “mostly false.” The majority of everything Trump says is mostly false. His defense of our nation and loyalty should be rated nonexistent.
Here’s the video.