Puppetmaster Putin and Benedict Donald: These details in hot WaPo bombshell reinforce the need to remove Trump from office
This has been a weekend for blockbuster reporting. First came The New York Times‘ jaw-dropping revelations concerning an FBI probe into whether or not real estate mogul Donald Trump was working on Russia’s (read: Vladimir Putin’s) behalf following the firing of then-FBI Director James Comey.
Last night, WaPo dropped an equally shocking article behind their paywall. Here are the opening paragraphs of Greg Miller’s astounding story:
President Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, including on at least one occasion taking possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructing the linguist not to discuss what had transpired with other administration officials, current and former U.S. officials said.
Trump did so after a meeting with Putin in 2017 in Hamburg that was also attended by then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. U.S. officials learned of Trump’s actions when a White House adviser and a senior State Department official sought information from the interpreter beyond a readout shared by Tillerson.
The constraints that Trump imposed are part of a broader pattern by the president of shielding his communications with Putin from public scrutiny and preventing even high-ranking officials in his own administration from fully knowing what he has told one of the United States’ main adversaries.
As a result, U.S. officials said there is no detailed record, even in classified files, of Trump’s face-to-face interactions with the Russian leader at five locations over the past two years. Such a gap would be unusual in any presidency, let alone one that Russia sought to install through what U.S. intelligence agencies have described as an unprecedented campaign of election interference.
There is no precedent for a commander-in-chief HIDING vital information from Secretaries of State and Defense, not to mention intelligence agencies.
You might think Trump has several things to hide. You could come to believe that he has adopted a policy one would expect from autocrats.
Heck, in light of the Friday night revelation in the NY Times, you might even conclude that Donald J. Trump is acting against the interests of our nation — and that Donald J. Trump is Vladimir Putin’s puppet.
It is long past time for Trump to be removed from office. But we can forget about possible invocation of the 25th Amendment based solely on the number of “acting” cabinet mambers and Rapture-cult nutter Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s servile loyalty to the failed vodka and steak magnate installed in the Oval Office. Moreover, don’t count on members of the unpatriotic Republican Party on Capitol Hill to raise a finger.
At least for now.
DEVELOPING…
