Democrats say Trump has yet to express public concern about the underlying issue with striking implications for America’s democracy.
Democrats are uniting behind a simple message about Russian hacking during the 2016 election: Donald Trump doesn’t care.
.. The president missed a self-imposed 90-day deadline for developing a plan to “aggressively combat and stop cyberattacks,” stayed silent after Moscow-linked hackers went after the French election and publicly renewed his own skepticism about the Kremlin’s role in the digital theft of Democratic Party emails during the presidential race.
.. administration officials said the directive is aimed at broadly upgrading the government’s digital defenses, not thwarting future Russian election hacking.
.. Instead, Trump tapped a commission led by Vice President Mike Pence to investigate an issue that elections experts call vastly overblown — voter fraud
.. In the past two weeks, The Intercept published what it called a secret NSA document that described an aggressive, Moscow-backed hacking campaign to compromise state election officials, perhaps with the ultimate goal of meddling with votes.
.. Bloomberg report detailed Russian intrusions into 39 state voter databases and software systems, including one instance when hackers tried and failed to delete voter information.
.. Comey said in his widely watched testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee. “The Russians interfered in our election during the 2016 cycle. They did it with purpose. They did it with sophistication. They did it with overwhelming technical efforts. And it was an active-measures campaign driven from the top of that government.”
.. “Russia is no friend of the United States,” said Sen. Pat Toomey
.. Comey piqued Democrats when he told lawmakers the president had never once asked him about Russian hacking
.. During Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ closely watched testimony Tuesday, Manchin focused on the idea that Trump didn’t care about potential Russian interference going all the way back to the campaign.
.. House Democrats are also fighting against Republican-led efforts to close the Election Assistance Commission, the federal agency created after the Bush v. Gore recount that offers voluntary assistance to states on running elections.
What Helmut Kohl Taught Bill Clinton
Mr. Kohl had an ignominious end to his career, perhaps the steepest fall from grace in German postwar politics, when his former protégée and now chancellor, Angela Merkel, pushed him from power over a scandal involving illicit campaign financing. At one moment he was the hero behind German reunification; the next he was seen as an embarrassment within his own party, increasingly lonely and isolated.
But recent history has been kind to Mr. Kohl, if only by showing the contrast between the sort of international statesmanship he stood for and what passes as leadership today.
there are some important lessons to be learned from Mr. Kohl.
- For one, the West is doomed when it starts giving in to Russian intimidation.
- A second: To keep and nourish an alliance, you sometimes have to do things that are good for all partners but don’t play well domestically.
- And finally, trust among allies is perhaps the most precious commodity of all, which you play with to everyone’s peril.
Chancellor Kohl knew that alliances are not measured by annual balance sheets; they pay off over a longer term. His stance on the Pershings earned the trust of his American counterparts, a credit he could draw on in 1989 when the peoples of Eastern Europe, including in East Germany, were in revolt against Soviet domination and homegrown dictators.
.. Other nations in Europe were afraid of the overwhelming power a reunified Germany could muster within Europe, and did what they could to oppose reunification.
.. It wasn’t because Mr. Bush thought he owed Mr. Kohl something; it was because Mr. Kohl had earned Washington’s trust.
.. In a time of Russian revanchism, it is crucial to remember how many billions of dollars Germany and Europe invested in Russia to stabilize a failing country.
.. the American people are against your proposal to help Russia 74 to 20.’ ” But Mr. Clinton, like Mr. Kohl, knew that a stable Russia made everyone safer. “We got hired to do the right thing here,”
.. To demonstrate the continuing German commitment to a common Europe, he agreed to give up the most cherished symbol of Germany’s postwar economic success, the mark.
.. he urged his countrymen to be more forgiving toward their European brothers and sisters in distress, because he more than anyone knew how much Germany had relied on the help of others during its own trials.
Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, hires his own lawyer in Russia probe
Michael Cohen, who for years has served as President Trump’s personal attorney, has hired a lawyer of his own to help him navigate the expanding Russia investigation.
.. In January, Cohen was involved in a separate incident that could potentially have drawn the attention of investigators. He has confirmed that he met with a Ukrainian lawmaker at a New York hotel at the urging of a former Trump business associate named Felix Sater. At the meeting, Sater gave Cohen a peace plan that the lawmaker had drawn up for his country that would have paved the way for the lifting of sanctions imposed on Russia after its 2014 military incursion in Ukraine.
.. The New York Times reported that Cohen said he took the plan and left it in the White House office of then national security adviser Michael Flynn.
.. Michael Caputo, a New York-based political operative and radio commentator who served as a senior communications adviser on Trump’s campaign
.. Caputo, who briefly worked for the campaign, was an ally to former campaign chairman Paul Manafort. He lived in Moscow for several years in the 1990s, and briefly held a contract in 2000 with the Russian conglomerate Gazprom Media to improve Russian President Vladimir Putin’s image in the United States.
Russia Detains over 1,000 Anti-Putin Protesters, Ignoring U.S. Calls to Release
Russian police waded into the crowd with batons and pepper spray, detaining more than a thousand protesters by the end of the day. Some estimates say the total is closer to two thousand.
.. Navalny himself never made it to the protest, as he was arrested while leaving his flat. He posted a photo of the swarm of officers descending upon him on Twitter with the sarcastically jaunty message, “Happy Russia Day!” Russia Day, a public holiday, fell on Monday.
.. One of the charges leveled against Navalny is that he broke an agreement with Moscow police by relocating his rally at the last minute. Police said they would allow the demonstration to proceed at the new location, provided the participants did not shout slogans or wave placards, both of which they proceeded to do with gusto. Alexander Bortnikov, head of Russia’s FSB security service, described the change of venue as a “provocation.”.. “As for those who indulged in provocative actions, breaking the law, in this case the authorities took action against them in full compliance with our legislation,” Peskov insisted... Navalny further argued that moving the location of the Moscow demonstration was not a stunt but a necessity because city authorities pressured contractors into withholding the sound and stage equipment needed. He also argued that the relocated gathering was legal under Russian constitutional guarantees of citizens’ rights to assembly.