British Prime Minister Theresa May did several things during a speech to the House of Commons Monday that stand out as truly novel in the context of leaderless U.S. politics today. First, she backed the conclusions of her country’s law enforcement officials:
Prime Minister Theresa May said Monday that British investigators have concluded it was “highly likely” that Russia was responsible for the poison attack that left a former Russian double agent and his daughter comatose on a park bench last week.
Then she explained Russia's involvement to her citizenry.
"It is now clear that Mr. Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia," May told lawmakers in a statement on Monday. She said the agent has been identified as one of a group of nerve agents called Novichok, which Russia has previously produced.
She added that there are just two explanations for the apparent poisoning — either Russia directly carried out the attack or it lost control of its supply of the deadly nerve agent.
She then demanded answers from Russia ...
The Russian ambassador has been summoned to explain how this happened, May added, and has been asked to give a formal response by Tuesday.
… and promised consequences.
And if that response is not credible, May said, "we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom. And I will come back to this house and set out the full range of measures that we will take in response."
Last month, a grand jury indicted 13 Russians for attacking the heart of our democracy—our elections. Donald Trump did nothing other than declare himself exonerated of collusion. Take note, Donald, what May is doing is what a leader is supposed to do when another country attacks your country and your citizens.
We may as well forget about Trump ever having the guts to protect the U.S. from Putin. Trump's White House is so weak it couldn't even stand behind May's assertion that Russia was culpable for the attack. Just think about that—Trump is so scared of Putin that his White House couldn't simply say that they support the U.K.'s conclusion that Russia is responsible. In fact, the White House spokesperson couldn’t even say the word: “Russia.”
Putin was very pleased with Trump’s response, with Russian media tweeting out: “The White House refused to blame #Russia for #Skripal poisoning.”