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“I have a full faith and support for America’s great intelligence agencies,” Trump said, reading slowly from a page of written remarks — a major break from his usual freewheeling style in these sorts of situations. Then, Trump added this: “I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place — could be other people also.”
What those five words reveal is that Trump is still not at all convinced that Russia was the one who interfered in the 2016 election — or, at a minimum, that Russia acted alone. Which means that in purposely trying to fix the mess he made by suggesting he didn’t totally believe his own intelligence community, Trump made the point that he doesn’t totally believe his own intelligence community.
- “As far as hacking, I think it was Russia. But I think we also get hacked by other countries and other people.” (January 2017)
- “I’ve said it very, I’ve said it very simply. I think it could well have been Russia, but I think it could well have been other countries. I won’t be specific, but I think a lot of people interfere.” (June 2017)
- “What I said there, I’m surprised that there’s any conflict on this. What I said there is that I believe [Putin] believes that, and that’s very important for somebody to believe. I believe that he feels that he and Russia did not meddle in the election. As to whether I believe it or not, I’m with our agencies, especially as currently constituted with their leadership. I believe in our intel agencies, our intelligence agencies. I’ve worked with them very strongly.” (November 2017)
- “Certainly there was meddling. Probably there was meddling from other countries.” (March 2018)
So when Trump said on Tuesday that “I have on numerous occasions noted our intelligence findings that Russians attempted to interfere in our election,” he’s not totally wrong. He has done that. Then, in the next sentence or the next day or the next week or the next month, he sought to systematically raise questions about the idea that Russia did, in fact, pursue a strategy to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
The conclusion here is as obvious as the nose on your face: Donald Trump has never — and does not now — 100% believe that Russia ran an active campaign to meddle in the 2016 election. He will parrot the talking point when he absolutely has to — like on Tuesday — but, even then, he feels compelled to add those words (“could be other people also”) that reveal his true feelings.
Maya Angelou had it right when she said: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
Trump cannot hold these two competing ideas in his head: 1) That Russia sought to interfere in the election to help him and hurt Clinton and 2) He is still the President whether or not he chooses to acknowledge that first idea. To Trump, admitting Russia led a massive campaign to influence the 2016 election means that he is admitting that he didn’t win fair and square or that the results are tainted. He can’t see his way around that. He’s willing to put aside the unanimous conclusions of his intelligence community (not to mention the Senate Intelligence Committee) and willing to believe the “very strong” assertions by the former KGB agent now running Russia instead.
The consequences of Trump’s blindness on this issue are not isolated to his own political standing. They are far-reaching — as we saw in Finland on Monday. Putin (and Russia) walked away with a massive victory on the geopolitical stage solely because the President of the United States can’t understand that regardless of what Russia did in the 2016 election, he’s still the President.
Remarkable. And scary.
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