Trump's subservience to Putin us beyond any doubt.
BY LAURA KELLY
President Trump on Friday cast doubt on the consensus from Germany that leading Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny was poisoned in an assassination attempt in Siberia, saying he is waiting to review the evidence.
“We haven’t had any proof yet,” Trump said during a briefing at the White House.
“I would be very angry if that’s the case, so we’ll take a look at the numbers and the documents, because we’re going to be sent a lot of documents over the next few days,” he added.
The president’s remarks came hours after NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said there is “proof beyond doubt” that Navalny was poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent. The NATO head called it a violation of international law that required an international response.
Lets see if Trump will sign on to any international response? I doubt it.
Alexei Navalny being arrested
Under Trump the USA is no longer the force for freedom and democracy in the world that it once was, before Trump came to power (with Putin’s assistance).
"President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be," ~ Donald Trump
And thanks to Trump's subservience to Putin the people of Belarus can’t look the Trump’s America for any support in their struggle to throw off the dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko.
THE BELARUSIAN PEOPLE MAY YET ACHIEVE THE END OF THE LUKASHENKO ERA, BUT IT WILL BE IN SPITE OF THE UNITED STATES’ SILENCE.
BY DANIEL B. BAER
Stunning mass protests erupted in the wake of the flagrantly rigged Aug. 9 elections in which incumbent Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko—in power for a quarter century and known as “Europe’s last dictator”—claimed victory despite widespread fraud and a likely loss to opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. Having stepped up in July after her husband was denied registration as a candidate and arrested by the regime, she proved a capable if unlikely politician, and she managed to consolidate the opposition and draw huge crowds at rallies in the weeks before the election. After Lukashenko declared himself the winner, Tsikhanouskaya fled to Lithuania, fearing for her safety.
The official U.S. reaction to the rigged election and resulting protests has been weak, but the U.S. diplomatic response is even more disappointing.
Once more, we have to wonder whether President Donald Trump is more worried about ruffling feathers in Moscow than he is about advancing democratic values and U.S. national security interests.
Putin sensed the United States and Europe were not coordinated, and decided to move forward with his own agenda.
It’s a missed opportunity. A different president, whether Republican or Democratic, would have had long calls with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
For Americans wondering what political courage they might be called upon to muster in the face of an authoritarian sabotaging elections, the people defiantly protesting in Belarus because they are unwilling to play the fools for Lukashenko’s farce have been an inspiring example. As for Americans, they cannot say that they believe in universal values like freedom and human dignity and not hear the call of the Belarusian people, and cannot be champions of those values without making an effort to answer it. The Belarusian people may yet achieve the end of the Lukashenko era, but it will be in spite of the United States’ silence, rather than in harmony with its commitment to freedom.