'Somewhere in his discussion of Putin’s invasion of E. Ukraine in February, 2022 (during the ‘debate’ with Biden), Trump said: “Putin saw that, he said, you know what, I think we’re going to go in and maybe take my—this was his dream'
How can Trump keep giving his ‘assurance’ that Putin will release Evan Gershkovich (the Wall St Journal reporter being held hostage by Russia) as soon as he wins the November election and even before he moves into the White House? Perhaps Trump, despite being an inveterate liar, does have a reason to believe this will happen. Perhaps he does have a direct political connection to Putin.
It’s possible because Trump, through Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager and a direct conduit to Putin, has been part of a collusion with Putin to help Putin meet his goal of swallowing Ukraine back into his Russian ‘empire’ and former Soviet sphere of influence over a period going back to before the 2016 election. Putin received very little pushback, except from Ukraine, for its 2014 occupation of Crimea and the Donbass. Trump’s failure to then blackmail Ukrainian President Zelenskyy was not the only reason he subsequently threatened to withhold American military aid.
Manafort spent close to two years of a 7.5-year sentence in prison (released early due to the COVID pandemic) for bank and tax fraud, illegal foreign lobbying and witness tampering conspiracies. Convictions were obtained by Robert Mueller as he investigated Manafort’s alleged collusion with the Russian government and Russian operatives in 2016.
Manafort agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s team and prosecutors - then lied during those interviews. He was believed directly responsible in helping get Trump the GOP nomination in 2016. Trump later pardoned him of these crimes and has since brought him back into this presidential campaign.
Now, Trump seems all but certain Putin will unconditionally free Gershkovich for him alone. Now, as in 2016, Putin remains an active supporter of Trump presidential campaign.
Clearly, Mueller was spot on when he identified collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. But Bill Barr (Trump’s then Attorney General acting as his personal attorney) worked to obfuscate and ensure this reality was barely brought to light. And an American media, some already intimidated and well on their way to being emasculated by Trump barely made a whimper.
Others, like A.G. Sulzberger, chairman of the the New York Times Company and publisher of the NYT, have and continue to directly support the violent and illiberal criminal, Trump, and his plans. There is a direct thread running from the NYT’s full front page histrionic and wildly misrepresentative spreads on Hillary Clinton’s emails and cough in 2016 to it’s just made statement that Biden should give up his soon to be nomination for President.
And that thread actively includes support for Trump and Trump’s support for Putin in his brutal, criminal war against Ukraine. Directly undermining Trump’s competition, ranging from HRC and now to Biden is not remotely coincidental or stemming from any ‘patriotic’ realities.
Hillary Clinton, as Biden is now, was dead set against Putin’s imperial wet dream of subsuming Ukraine and its industrial region while reasserting Soviet style control over Ukraine - as Putin continues that attempt today.
‘The Mueller Report continued: “That plan, Manafort later acknowledged, constituted a ‘backdoor’ means for Russia to control eastern Ukraine” (p. 140). The region that Putin wanted was the country’s industrial heartland. He was offering a “peace” plan that carved off much of Ukraine and made it subservient to him.
This was the dead opposite of U.S. policy for a free and united Ukraine, and there was no chance that former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who was running for the presidency against Trump, would stand for it. But if only Trump were elected….
And, in November 2016, he was….’
It is yet another clear and priority reason why Trump must - never - come anywhere close to political power again. He is more than a violent insurrectionist and criminal sex offender also guilty of massive tax fraud. Trump brings a long strong history of treasonous behavior and a direct pro-Putin position. And with him, goes a pandering, sycophantic GOP House and members of the GOP Senate
It’s yet another reason why spineless Democrats need to figure this out, pull together and strengthen, unconditionally, behind Biden and his extremely effective presidency in 2024. Democrats cannot risk, once again, pulling defeat from the jaws of victory. The stakes are far too high