U.S. fears meddling in the 2018 elections, but Trump grovels before Russian dictator

In this cartoon by freelancer Milt Priggee, President Trump uses the hammer and sickle to redecorate the exterior of Air Force One.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Just when you think a single week of Donald J. Trump as president couldn't get more bizarre, the New York billionaire tops himself in all the wrong ways.

After last Monday's disastrous press conference with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin at his side, Trump spent days amending, correcting and trying to lie himself out his treasonous behavior.

The news media just sat there and soaked it all up for dissemination around the world.

Not a single reporter confronted Trump and urged him "to stop lying to the American people."

Grovels before Putin

Here is an essay by Graham West, spokesman for the Truman Center for National Policy and Truman National Security Project: 

"There’s no softer or more polite way to say it: President Trump groveled before Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland. His display – and the conduct of his administration in the days since – sent a dangerous message to our intelligence communities here at home and audiences watching around the world, while also leaving some serious questions unanswered.

"The focal point of the presser [press conference in Helsinki, Finland] was when the president was asked point blank who he believed on Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election: his own intelligence agencies, or Vladimir Putin himself. It is a question Trump has struggled with many times before. Predictably, when asked at the presser, he whiffed; his answer was garbled per usual, but he ultimately said he “didn’t see why it would be” Russia who meddled.

"Every news cycle since has been dominated by the White House’s attempts to clarify (that is, change) the president’s statement, with the president qualifying his heavily scripted walk back, saying contradictory things in different interviews, and freewheeling on Twitter. This has all been complicated by contrasting statements from national security leaders within the Trump Administration. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coates maintains that the Russians are actively working to interfere in the fall midterms, while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen still can’t admit that they were helping Trump in 2016.

"The net effect of all of this is a massive strain on the relationship between the White House and the intelligence community, which is self-evidently bad for our national security. It is also leading to a failure to respond to what Coates correctly identifies as an ongoing problem: Russian interference in elections to come. Perhaps because they felt the need to rally around their besieged leader, House Republicans blocked Democrats’ attempts to bolster funding for the Election Assistance Commission, which protects the critical voting infrastructure of states.

"There was also optical damage done at the Trump-Putin meeting, on which the eyes of the world were trained. President Trump missed an opportunity to call out Russia’s destructive behavior on the world stage. Instead of denouncing the invasion of Crimea, the downing of a civilian airliner, the poisoning of ex-pats on foreign soil, the killing of journalists, the arrest of opposition leaders, or the protection of murderous Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, he offered his classic ‘both sides are to blame’ take when asked about the source of difficulties in the U.S.-Russian relationship...."

(Copyright 2018 Graham West, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

(Graham West is the Communications Director for Truman Center for National Policy and Truman National Security Project, though views expressed here are his own. You can reach West at gwest@trumancnp.org.)

Six months in, Trump lurches from one disaster to another with no end to the lies

Jimmy Margulies, onetime editorial cartoonist at The Record of Woodland Park, and others are having a field day with President Trump's failure to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act and, in the process, screw tens of millions who got health insurance under the law.

This gem is from cartoonist Rick McKee at The Augusta Chronicle in Georgia.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

The collapse of Republican efforts to overhaul health care puts President Trump's entire legislative agenda at risk, USA Today reports:

"Trump and aides have repeatedly said that their hopes for tax reform hinged on a new health care law, because it included changes to the tax code.

"Plans for an infrastructure bill, a budget plan and raising the debt ceiling may also be in doubt because of bruised feeling left over from the health care fight," USA Today reporter David Jackson says in The Record of Woodland Park (9A).

According to New York Times Op-Ed Columnist David Leonhardt, the No. 1 lesson to take from the collapse of the Republican health care bills is this:

"They have demonstrated that facts still matter and that the truth has some inherent advantage over falsehood," Leonhardt says.

The Times columnist reminds us "Trump, after all, won the presidency despite a constant stream of falsehoods" [and those tweeted and spoken lies continue unabated].

"He launched his political career with a lie about Barack Obama's birthplace and just kept on lying about almost every imaginable subject. He also admitted to being a sexual molester. He refused to release his tax returns.... And yet he was elected president.

"There was, and still is, ample reason for despondence."

Now, Trump claims President Obama's Affordable Care Act is collapsing, "when in fact it has mostly worked well -- and its flaws, while real, are eminently fixable through bipartisan legislation," Leonhardt reports.

A Record editorial today says "now's the time to work with Democrats" (10A).

Of course, the paper's Editorial Board could have and should have run that editorial every week since 2010, when Republicans won a majority in the House and the Tea Party ignited racial warfare against Obama.

Putin bromance

The latest legislative disaster comes not long after Trump jumped back into bed with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin at the G-20 summit.

Then, before The Times published them, Donald Trump Jr. released emails about his excitement over meeting during the 2016 presidential campaign with a Russian lawyer who promised to deliver "dirt" on Democratic Hillary Clinton.

And, remember, Trump took office on Jan. 20, just six months ago, and has already earned the title of worst U.S. president ever.

Local news?

On The Record's Local front today, two photos show the Englewood Night Market, but there is no mention the event was sponsored by a unit of Gannett Co.'s North Jersey Media Group, which publishes the paper.

Today's Better Living cover on dining near Grand Central Terminal -- from USA Today -- is aimed at people who live in New York State and Connecticut, and ride Metro-North Railroad.

Very little of the food shown on the cover, 2BL and 3BL is suitable for people who don't eat meat.

Next: Do auto media

 exist solely to sell cars?