The Washington Board Editorial Board calls out Donald Trump and his defense of Vladimir Putin hacking our elections. They point out the many false statements he made about Russia and Syria as well.
This points to even a bigger problem than Donald Trump’s love affair with Putin. Trump is stunningly ignorant about U.S. foreign policy and his decisions would be based on his pocketbook.
Entire editorial takedown of Trump here: www.washingtonpost.com/...
Once again, the GOP nominee played the part of Vladimir Putin’s lawyer. “She doesn’t know if it’s the Russians doing the hacking,” he said of Ms. Clinton. “Maybe there is no hacking.” Mr. Trump is receiving classified intelligence briefings, so he is certainly aware of the evidence that hackers backed by Moscow have stolen email and other records from the DNC and tried to penetrate state electoral systems. So why does he deny it? Mr. Trump’s advocacy on behalf of an aggressive U.S. rival, and the opaqueness of his motivation, is one of the most troubling aspects of his thoroughly toxic campaign.
he has defended Mr. Putin and his crimes throughout his campaign. He brushed off the fact that journalists and other opponents of the Russian ruler have been murdered and claimed Russia had not invaded Ukraine. He has repeatedly called Mr. Putin a better leader than President Obama.
In Sunday’s debate, Mr. Trump reeled off a series of false statements about Russia’s intervention in Syria, saying it was aimed at the Islamic State even though almost all of Russia’s bombs have fallen on rebel groups fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad, or on civilians. He then rejected the statement by running mate Mike Pence that “provocations by Russia need to be met with American strength” and the United States should consider using “military force to strike military targets of the Assad regime” if Russia’s bombing of Aleppo continued. (Abjectly, Mr. Pence on Monday attempted to deny that he said those words in the vice-presidential debate.) “I think it would be great if we got along with Russia because we could fight ISIS together,” Mr. Trump said at Sunday’s debate.
Here’s what we don’t know: Does Mr. Trump propose this collaboration with a regime obsessed with thwarting and weakening American power out of ignorance and naivete, or because of personal and business interests he has not disclosed? Mr. Putin surely knows the answer to that question — but U.S. voters do not.