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Trump’s “Free Pass” for Putin …
Let’s us count the ways.
Trump Once Again Gives Russia A Pass After Massive Cyberattack
by FRANK BAJAK and JILL COLVIN — Talking Points Memo — Dec 19, 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — Contradicting his secretary of state and other top officials, President Donald Trump on Saturday suggested without evidence that China — not Russia — may be behind the grave cyberattack against the United States and tried to minimized its impact.
In his first comments on the breach, Trump scoffed at the focus on the Kremlin and downplayed the intrusions, which the nation’s cybersecurity agency has warned posed a “grave” risk to government and private networks.
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Throughout his presidency, Trump has refused to blame Russia for well-documented hostilities, including its interference in the 2016 election to help him get elected. He blamed his predecessor, Barack Obama, for Russia’s annexation of Crimea, has endorsed allowing Russia to return to the G-7 group of nations and has never taken the country to task for allegedly putting bounties on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
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Russia has said it had “nothing to do” with the hacking.
While Trump downplayed the impact of the hacks, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has said it compromised federal agencies as well as “critical infrastructure.” Homeland Security, the agency’s parent department, defines such infrastructure as any “vital” assets to the U.S. or its economy, a broad category that could include power plants and financial institutions.
One U.S. official, speaking Thursday on condition of anonymity to discuss a matter that is under investigation, described the hack as severe and extremely damaging.
“This is looking like it’s the worst hacking case in the history of America,” the official said. “They got into everything.”
Trump downplays Russian hack in first comments on massive breach, implicates China
by Lauren Egan and Josh Lederman NBC News — Dec 19, 2020
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"The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality. I have been fully briefed and everything is well under control. Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything happens because Lamestream is, for mostly financial reasons, petrified of... discussing the possibility that it may be China (it may!)," Trump wrote on Twitter.
Trump's comments are the latest example of his unwillingness to criticize Russia, which U.S. intelligence agencies have said interfered in the 2016 election to help Trump.
The White House was preparing on Friday to formally attribute the cyber hack to Russia in a statement but were told to stand down, according to a U.S. official. The move was first reported by the Associated Press.
The official did not say who gave the instruction to stand down.
Analysis by Marshall Cohen, CNN — August 4, 2020
Trump has repeatedly praised Putin
Trump suggested Russia can keep Crimea
Trump aides softened GOP platform on Ukraine
Trump gave Russia classified intelligence
Trump congratulated Putin on his sham election
Trump directed CIA to share intel with Russia
Trump ignored warnings of Russian bounties
Trump never raised Russian bounties with Putin
Trump spread Russian myths about Ukraine
Will Trump Be Meeting With His Counterpart — Or His Handler?
by Jonathan Chait — NY Magazine, Intelligencer — July 2018
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It is often said that Donald Trump has had the same nationalistic, zero-sum worldview forever. But that isn’t exactly true. Yes, his racism and mendacity have been evident since his youth, but those who have traced the evolution of his hypernationalism all settle on one year in particular: 1987. Trump “came onto the political stage in 1987 with a full-page ad in the New York Times attacking the Japanese for relying on the United States to defend it militarily,” reported Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “The president has believed for 30 years that these alliance commitments are a drain on our finite national treasure,” a White House official told the Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin. Tom Wright, another scholar who has delved into Trump’s history, reached the same conclusion. “1987 is Trump’s breakout year. There are only a couple of examples of him commenting on world politics before then.”
What changed that year? One possible explanation is that Trump published The Art of the Deal, which sped up his transformation from an aggressive, publicity-seeking New York developer to a national symbol of capitalism. But the timing for this account does not line up perfectly — the book came out on November 1, and Trump had begun opining loudly on trade and international politics two months earlier. The other important event from that year is that Trump visited Moscow.
During the Soviet era, Russian intelligence cast a wide net to gain leverage over influential figures abroad. (The practice continues to this day.) The Russians would lure or entrap not only prominent politicians and cultural leaders, but also people whom they saw as having the potential for gaining prominence in the future. In 1986, Soviet ambassador Yuri Dubinin met Trump in New York, flattered him with praise for his building exploits, and invited him to discuss a building in Moscow. Trump visited Moscow in July 1987. He stayed at the National Hotel, in the Lenin Suite, which certainly would have been bugged. There is not much else in the public record to describe his visit, except Trump’s own recollection in The Art of the Deal that Soviet officials were eager for him to build a hotel there. (It never happened.)
Trump returned from Moscow fired up with political ambition. He began the first of a long series of presidential flirtations, which included a flashy trip to New Hampshire. Two months after his Moscow visit, Trump spent almost $100,000 on a series of full-page newspaper ads that published a political manifesto. “An open letter from Donald J. Trump on why America should stop paying to defend countries that can afford to defend themselves,” as Trump labeled it, launched angry populist charges against the allies that benefited from the umbrella of American military protection. “Why are these nations not paying the United States for the human lives and billions of dollars we are losing to protect their interests?”
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Reuters — July 9, 2017
(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter on Sunday that he discussed forming a cyber security unit to guard against election hacking with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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“Putin & I discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded and safe,” he said following their talks at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.
Trump said he had raised allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election with Putin.
“I strongly pressed President Putin twice about Russian meddling in our election. He vehemently denied it. I’ve already given my opinion.....”
- On September 8, 2016, in an interview with Russia’s government-backed cable news channel RT, Trump said he thought it was “probably unlikely” that Putin had ordered the hack, saying, “I think maybe the Democrats are putting that out. Who knows, but I think it’s pretty unlikely.” Later that day, at NBC’s Commander-in-Chief Forum, Trump defended Russian President Vladimir Putin, citing Putin’s poll numbers and saying he has been “a leader far more” than President Barack Obama.
- On September 26, 2016, during the first presidential debate, Trump questioned the intelligence community’s finding that Russia was behind the DNC hack, saying, “I don’t think anybody knows it was Russia that broke into the DNC. [Clinton’s] saying Russia, Russia, Russia, but I don’t—maybe it was. I mean, it could be Russia, but it could also be China. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, ok?”
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- On October 19, 2016, during the third presidential debate, Trump again questioned whether hacking had occurred, saying “our country” had “no idea whether it is Russia, China, or anybody else.”
- On December 7, 2016, Trump reiterated that he was not convinced Russia was behind the hacks, saying, “It could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey.”
themoscowproject.org
Who is responsible for the attack?
On Friday evening, secretary of state Mike Pompeo became the first Trump official to publicly confirm the attack was linked to Russia, telling a conservative radio host: “I think it’s the case that now we can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians that engaged in this activity.”
Previously, US officials speaking on condition of anonymity, as well as prominent cybersecurity experts, told media outlets they believed Russia was the culprit, specifically SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence outfit.
Andrei Soldatov, an expert on Russia’s spy agencies and the author of The Red Web, told the Guardian he believes the hack was more likely a joint effort of Russia’s SVR and FSB, the domestic spy agency Vladimir Putin once led.
Russia has denied involvement: “One shouldn’t unfoundedly blame the Russians for everything,” a Kremlin spokesman said.
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“It will take years to know for certain which networks the Russians control and which ones they just occupy,” Bossert wrote in the New York Times. “The logical conclusion is that we must act as if the Russian government has control of all the networks it has penetrated.
“A ‘do-over’ is mandatory and entire new networks need to be built – and isolated from compromised networks.”
DONALD TRUMP — Dec 19, 2020
The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality," Trump tweeted Saturday morning [...] [Lamestream are] petrified of discussing the possibility that it may be China (it may!)"
Again with the misdirection.
Why is that Donald Trump’s GO TO strategy — with All Things Putin?
When is he ever going to get around to PROTECTING THIS COUNTY …
from all enemies, foreign and domestic?
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Why is it, the “Lamestream” Media, as Trump puts it, is always so willing to give Donald Trump a “FREE PASS” ???
Enough with the kid-gloves treatment already. Time to call a loser, a LOSER!!!
If the active betrayal fits …
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