Some interesting opinion pieces have emerged in the wake of President Trump's shocking performance alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland last week.
What could Putin have on POTUS?
A Theory of Trump Kompromat (The New Yorker)
There is no need to assume that Trump was a formal agent of Russian intelligence to make sense of Trump’s solicitousness toward Putin. Keith Darden, an international-relations professor at American University, has studied the Russian use of kompromat—compromising material—and told me that he thinks it is likely that the President believes the Russians have something on him.
Did Putin share stolen election data with Trump? (Washington Post)
[S]hared data could explain why Russian state media, the Russian Internet Research Agency and the Trump campaign were all doing the same kinds of things at the same time. Shared data could also explain why Trump appeared to feel so indebted to Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, why he wanted to speak to him with no aides present, why he is so reluctant to acknowledge Russian interference. It could even explain why he talks so obsessively and inaccurately about the size of his great electoral victory: because he himself believes that the Russians helped him win.
Republicans speaking out:
Calling my fellow Republicans: Trump is clearly unfit to remain in office (LA Times)
Trump’s turn toward Russia is indefensible. I am a lifelong Republican. I have campaigned and won as a member of the party, and I have served more than one Republican president. My Republican colleagues — once rightfully critical of President Obama’s engagement strategy with Russian leader Vladimir Putin — have to end their willful ignorance of the damage Trump is doing both domestically and internationally.
Who met with Maria Butina? (Washington Post)
Voters surely are entitled to know whom [Maria Butina] tried to influence and who, if anyone, got allegedly [Alexander] Torshin-laundered money.
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Republicans — if they have clean hands and want to protect American democracy — should be chiming in to demand prompt disclosure of such information. Until we can see how much Russian money went into the NRA, where it went and with whom Torshin and Butina met, a cloud will hang over all pro-NRA candidates, which is most Republicans.
Sorry, Trump. Your misdirection won’t work this time. (Washington Post)
Trump is clearly furious that he didn’t get the credit he thinks he deserves for a “GREAT meeting with Putin.” ... All that the public saw was that Trump accepted Putin’s lies over the truth-telling of the U.S. intelligence community, and that he refused to criticize the Russian dictator for his many offenses — including ongoing cyberattacks on the United States. Trump’s subservience triggered a week of toxic headlines as criticism poured in from past intelligence officials.
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The next move was as predictable as Trump golfing at one of his resorts: He tried to change the subject.
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It is, of course, a good thing that Trump is not turning out to be the warmonger that many feared he would be. But there is a real danger from having the president revealed as a BS artist, too: His threats carry less weight. That, ironically, makes it harder for him to achieve his objectives without resorting to force.
A call to protect the Russia investigation:
I Led the F.B.I. Mueller Is Just Doing His Job. (New York Times)
Mr. Mueller, a former Marine and decorated Vietnam combat veteran, was unanimously confirmed twice by the Senate to run the F.B.I. He’s a no-nonsense prosecutor with unquestioned integrity who calls balls and strikes devoid of ideology. Lest anyone wonder, he is of the same political party as the president and the majority in Congress. These are facts, and as John Adams once said, “Facts are stubborn things.”
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We should not run down our own institutions, trivialize the impartial actions of our own grand juries, degrade our own justice system, or bully a free press for doing its job. We do so at our peril. The president should want this investigation to follow the facts where they lead and bring America the answers we all deserve.