President Trump and his party need to treat Russian President Vladimir Putin seriously, not affectionately.
The Justice Department on Friday indicted a dozen Russian hackers for stealing Democratic Party emails during the 2016 election and sending them out to be published shortly before the Democratic National Convention. This was a Russian intelligence kompromat effort to sew chaos and meddle in America’s election and undermine our democracy.
In short, Russia is an adversary of the U.S. Trump and the GOP need to act more consistently as though they understand and accept that that is the case.
During the campaign, Trump jokingly asked the Russians to hack Hillary Clinton’s personal email. He also denied that Russia was the hacker, positing a conspiracy theory: “We believe it was the DNC that did the ‘hacking’ as a way to distract from the many issues facing their deeply flawed candidate and failed party leader.”
Throughout his presidency, Trump has avoided squarely blaming Russia for the hacking. Even after today’s indictment, the White House response was a statement about “alleged hacking.” Sure, indictments are mere allegations, and the 12 Russians are alleged hackers. But the hacking itself isn’t up for debate, except among conspiracy theorists.
Trump has repeatedly downplayed Putin’s misdeeds, deflecting questions about him being a “killer” with the outrageous reply, “There are a lot of killers. You think our country is so innocent?”
For perspective, Putin’s Russia intimidates and assassinates domestic critics, has invaded two neighboring countries in the past decade, and allies itself with the oppressive regimes in Iran and Syria. While Trump is correct that better relations with Russia are possible and possibly beneficial, he shouldn’t pretend that Putin is just another national leader looking out for his people’s interests.
Putin is a force for ill in the world, and that’s how Trump needs to approach him.
In their meeting on Monday, Trump must confront Putin forcefully about his meddling, making it clear that our government has the goods on 2016, and will not tolerate meddling in 2018. The Russian leader has been caught red-handed, which is appropriate for a former KGB officer.
Congressional Republicans have done better than Trump, including pushing hard for sanctions on Russia. Still, they shouldn’t deny or hide from the fact that Putin meddled in the 2016 election. It is embarrassing to admit you won with an enemy alien trying to help you, but it needn’t be, because so far there’s no reason to conclude that Russian efforts made a difference in any state.
An indictment is not a conviction, and the dozen Russians Mueller indicted could be innocent. But after the CIA and other intelligence agencies pinned this on Russia, and after the FBI found 12 names for which it had probable cause, and after a grand jury agreed, it’s time to come to terms with the overwhelming probability Russia hacked the DNC emails in an effort to undermine a U.S. election.
And it’s time for the Republican Party to listen to what Mitt Romney said (to liberal derision) in 2012 and treat the perpetrators as the adversaries they are.
One more aspect of the indictments is noteworthy. None of the 12 can be expected ever to face trial. Their public, unsealed indictments may well have been justified on the evidence, but they were clearly more for show than for any practical benefit to the investigation, still less for any actual convictions and punishment.
They will doubtless now be tallied in those memes you see from the Left pressing the case that Mueller has been an especially successful special counsel. But still, not a single indictment, confession, or shred of evidence has yet revealed a glimpse of the Left’s holy grail of collusion.
It’s also worth noting that the timing of the indictments, on the eve of the Helsinki summit is highly notable, even if it is mere coincidence.
