Dan Simpson: The questions continue to accumulate
We need to find out exactly how the Trumps are connected to Russia
July 12, 2017 12:00 AM
Dan Simpson / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Americans have come out of the past few days of interactions between President Donald J. Trump and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and of other U.S.-Russian developments with two questions answered and one still pending.
The first was answered by the two-hour-plus meeting between Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump at the Hamburg G-20 meeting: Yes, U.S.-Russia relations will be close while Mr. Trump is president, in part to the exclusion of traditional American allies. Americans also are going to have a difficult time finding out what actually transpires in those relations, particularly at the presidential level.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin extended their meeting in Hamburg long past the initially scheduled time, bumping Mr. Trump?s private meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May.
More to the point, Mr. Trump steered America?s position at the summit to one of separation from the other nations on trade and climate change.
The others responded by making it clear that they did not much care what Mr. Trump thought about either subject, although they would have preferred that he maintain a position of U.S. leadership in both domains.
Mr. Putin basically smiled as he watched Mr. Trump cede leadership ground to China, Germany, the European Union and, perhaps, to his Russia.
The only other U.S. official in the meeting, Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, claimed that Mr. Trump ?pressed? the subject of Russian meddling in our elections with Mr. Putin.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov said Mr. Putin denied the allegations and that Mr. Trump accepted his denial.
Americans will have difficulty accepting this unsatisfying fan-dance.
Mr. Lavrov could have been expected to put this gloss on the exchange.
As for the version rendered by Mr. Trump and his people, they have now told so many documented lies that no one could possibly believe anything they say about so sensitive a subject.
The second question that was even more emphatically answered in the past few days was the one that special counsel Robert S. Mueller and the intelligence committees of the two houses of Congress are exploring: How involved were the Russians in the 2016 U.S. elections on behalf of the Trump campaign?
The latest gem in that regard was the revelation that, in response to an offer by lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who is close to the Kremlin, to provide the Trump campaign juicy morsels on rival candidate Hillary R. Clinton, Ms. Veselnitskaya got to meet with Donald Trump Jr., then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort (he of the pro-Russian Ukrainian payroll) and the now magnificently placed Trump son-in-law, Jared C. Kushner, at Trump Tower on June 9 of last year.
We are told that Mr. Trump wasn?t there, but who knows.
If anyone had any bright ideas about just letting the three investigations of the Russia-Trump connection lapse into late summer nothingness, news of this meeting, coming on the back of the Hamburg festival, should re-energize official and public interest in the vital question of exactly how the Russians played with our elections last year.
It isn?t just a historical question. The results of the inquiries should shape a strategy for keeping them out of future elections.
Do Americans really want Mr. Trump to re-orient American foreign policy away from NATO, European and Asian foreign partners to Mr. Putin and Russia?
The third question, still unanswered, is how much of Mr. Trump?s family, brand and pro-Russian reorientation of U.S. policy will Americans put up with?
There already is mumbling about the divisions in American society that are manifesting themselves as Mr. Trump?s administration proceeds into its sixth month.
We can live with that if our country emerges with satisfactory results at the end of the sharpening debate. I lived as an adult through the Vietnam War days ? ?LBJ, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today??
And Nixon and Watergate. And Jimmy Carter and the attack rabbit, Ronald Reagan and Irangate, and the Clinton bedroom farces.
Americans and America are durable in the face of passing comedies.
But they have to pass.
Mr. Trump needs to get his sometimes-hapless family members out of the picture.
Americans don?t like the idea of the First Family as shameless promoters of shoes, scents and hotels.
Nor do they like the idea of the president?s son meeting with people he knew via Mr. Trump?s beauty pageants to try to scoop up dirt on political opponents.
Americans like to know, even if only in general terms, what was discussed when their president meets for two hours-plus with people like Mr. Putin.
Did Mr. Trump offer Mr. Putin a deal on Ukraine and economic sanctions?
What was said about the now six-year-plus Syrian war that resulted only in a tentative ceasefire in a corner of the country?
Russia has a short border with North Korea, the bad boy of Northeast Asia.
Did they talk about that?
Were Mr. Putin?s nerves rattled at all by the demonstrators who tore up the pea patch in Hamburg during the G-20 summit?
Americans certainly don?t trust Mr. Trump enough, given his lies and tweets, to be content with his negotiating on our behalf without knowing what actually took place.
This can?t go on like this.
Dan Simpson, a former U.S. ambassador, is a Post-Gazette associate editor (dsimpson@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1976).
We need to find out exactly how the Trumps are connected to Russia
July 12, 2017 12:00 AM
Dan Simpson / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Americans have come out of the past few days of interactions between President Donald J. Trump and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and of other U.S.-Russian developments with two questions answered and one still pending.
The first was answered by the two-hour-plus meeting between Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump at the Hamburg G-20 meeting: Yes, U.S.-Russia relations will be close while Mr. Trump is president, in part to the exclusion of traditional American allies. Americans also are going to have a difficult time finding out what actually transpires in those relations, particularly at the presidential level.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin extended their meeting in Hamburg long past the initially scheduled time, bumping Mr. Trump?s private meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May.
More to the point, Mr. Trump steered America?s position at the summit to one of separation from the other nations on trade and climate change.
The others responded by making it clear that they did not much care what Mr. Trump thought about either subject, although they would have preferred that he maintain a position of U.S. leadership in both domains.
Mr. Putin basically smiled as he watched Mr. Trump cede leadership ground to China, Germany, the European Union and, perhaps, to his Russia.
The only other U.S. official in the meeting, Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, claimed that Mr. Trump ?pressed? the subject of Russian meddling in our elections with Mr. Putin.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov said Mr. Putin denied the allegations and that Mr. Trump accepted his denial.
Americans will have difficulty accepting this unsatisfying fan-dance.
Mr. Lavrov could have been expected to put this gloss on the exchange.
As for the version rendered by Mr. Trump and his people, they have now told so many documented lies that no one could possibly believe anything they say about so sensitive a subject.
The second question that was even more emphatically answered in the past few days was the one that special counsel Robert S. Mueller and the intelligence committees of the two houses of Congress are exploring: How involved were the Russians in the 2016 U.S. elections on behalf of the Trump campaign?
The latest gem in that regard was the revelation that, in response to an offer by lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who is close to the Kremlin, to provide the Trump campaign juicy morsels on rival candidate Hillary R. Clinton, Ms. Veselnitskaya got to meet with Donald Trump Jr., then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort (he of the pro-Russian Ukrainian payroll) and the now magnificently placed Trump son-in-law, Jared C. Kushner, at Trump Tower on June 9 of last year.
We are told that Mr. Trump wasn?t there, but who knows.
If anyone had any bright ideas about just letting the three investigations of the Russia-Trump connection lapse into late summer nothingness, news of this meeting, coming on the back of the Hamburg festival, should re-energize official and public interest in the vital question of exactly how the Russians played with our elections last year.
It isn?t just a historical question. The results of the inquiries should shape a strategy for keeping them out of future elections.
Do Americans really want Mr. Trump to re-orient American foreign policy away from NATO, European and Asian foreign partners to Mr. Putin and Russia?
The third question, still unanswered, is how much of Mr. Trump?s family, brand and pro-Russian reorientation of U.S. policy will Americans put up with?
There already is mumbling about the divisions in American society that are manifesting themselves as Mr. Trump?s administration proceeds into its sixth month.
We can live with that if our country emerges with satisfactory results at the end of the sharpening debate. I lived as an adult through the Vietnam War days ? ?LBJ, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today??
And Nixon and Watergate. And Jimmy Carter and the attack rabbit, Ronald Reagan and Irangate, and the Clinton bedroom farces.
Americans and America are durable in the face of passing comedies.
But they have to pass.
Mr. Trump needs to get his sometimes-hapless family members out of the picture.
Americans don?t like the idea of the First Family as shameless promoters of shoes, scents and hotels.
Nor do they like the idea of the president?s son meeting with people he knew via Mr. Trump?s beauty pageants to try to scoop up dirt on political opponents.
Americans like to know, even if only in general terms, what was discussed when their president meets for two hours-plus with people like Mr. Putin.
Did Mr. Trump offer Mr. Putin a deal on Ukraine and economic sanctions?
What was said about the now six-year-plus Syrian war that resulted only in a tentative ceasefire in a corner of the country?
Russia has a short border with North Korea, the bad boy of Northeast Asia.
Did they talk about that?
Were Mr. Putin?s nerves rattled at all by the demonstrators who tore up the pea patch in Hamburg during the G-20 summit?
Americans certainly don?t trust Mr. Trump enough, given his lies and tweets, to be content with his negotiating on our behalf without knowing what actually took place.
This can?t go on like this.
Dan Simpson, a former U.S. ambassador, is a Post-Gazette associate editor (dsimpson@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1976).
