Acknowledging Russian meddling doesn’t delegitimize Trump’s presidency: Kennedy
The president continues to moonwalk back his comments in the critical post-Helsinki dance, and while he has admitted to misspeaking, which is a giant, unprecedented step for him, he's also defensive about what he sees as necessary elements to Russian relations.
It is a false dichotomy to say our relationship with Russia is either pacification or all-out nuclear war. Diplomacy is fine, but they are still a corrupt state where thievery and chaos are the old normal. Vladimir Putin, like all powerful sociopaths, is a fascinating specimen. He is still slimy and cannibalistic and should never be trusted. I cannot wait to hear the contents of their secret meet and greet, and I hope when we learn about those careful whispers we also glean the president's curiosity about a clearly compromised dictator.
I know a lot of people are grossed out by our president playing footsie with a shirtless weirdo, but I think their next confab should be a no-holds-barred, televised discussion so the president can throw in some jabs and knock Putin off his murderous perch.
The president is adamant we move forward with Russia and leave the past behind us, but their hacking, meddling, interference and aggression are still very much being served at the chaos buffet as they are using all of their limited means to bring us down a peg in order to once again ascend in their digital sputnik.
The president, on some level, despite his putrid Putin fetish, must know they are hell-bent on once again shooting fish in a political barrel by screwing around with our politics. It has worked very well.
President Trump is so frustrated by the manufactured collusion narrative he will do anything in his power to change it, but he'd be better off internalizing and explaining the difference between Russia being a bunch of communist hacks and the false narrative of dumb, drowning Americans accepting Russia’s lead lifesaver. Acknowledging meddling in no way delegitimizes his presidency, but compromising confidence in hardworking Americans shows a soft weakness that smacks of his feckless predecessor who would've been eaten alive if he said he believed Putin over our domestic intelligence. And that's just dumb.