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Trump’s Efforts at Election Tampering Are Growing Bolder
Having exploited foreign assistance in 2016 and gotten away with it, the president is already trying it again in the 2020 race.
I'll sleep much easier at night after this treasonous bastard and his treasonous minions are booted out of government.
Related: Trump remarks deepen distrust with intelligence community
Having exploited foreign assistance in 2016 and gotten away with it, the president is already trying it again in the 2020 race.
6/13/19
“I’m actually a very honest guy,” Donald Trump told George Stephanopoulos in an interview aired Monday. And while that claim holds no water in general, Trump was jarringly honest on one topic: his willingness to welcome foreign interference in the 2020 election. Trump’s declaration, though, is neither especially surprising nor especially irrational. While the president has paid hefty political penalties for his behavior during the 2016 election, and while his latest comments will only stoke the fervor for impeachment among Democrats, the fact remains that the Trump campaign profited from foreign interference in 2016. It did not rebuff explicit offers of assistance from Russia, and capitalized on the roundabout assistance Russia’s release of hacked material provided. Whatever collateral damage Trump has received since the election, Russia’s interference helped him pull off a shocking upset victory in November 2016, and he’s so far escaped serious personal consequences for exploiting that aid. It’s no surprise, then, that Trump would not forswear a tactic that worked for him then. Rather, every indication is that the president’s electoral behavior will be worse in 2020, and there will be fewer constraints on him.
First, as the interview with Stephanopoulos showed, Trump is effectively already actively soliciting foreign assistance in 2020. Trump openly telling Stephanopoulos he’d look at help and not report it to the FBI is as good as a request for bids. Trump is happy to flex his power over the executive branch. After years of demanding it, Trump now has an attorney general who has launched an investigation the origin of the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump has also given Barr wide latitude to declassify intelligence, and the Justice Department is seeking to question officials at the CIA. The effect of the president’s rhetoric and the investigation will be to put any federal law-enforcement or intelligence official who might dare to object to or probe foreign interference in 2020 on notice. At best, they would face the risk of being called in front of an inquisition; at worst, the president might be airing their personal lives on his Twitter feed. The major remaining constraint on foreign interference now is that any foreign actor might worry about helping Trump only to see him lose—in the process, alienating an incoming administration. Trump’s comments to Stephanopoulos underscore what ought to be obvious by now. The president isn’t interested in a fair election, and he’s not interested in legality. He’s only interested in winning. If that requires foreign interference, so be it.
I'll sleep much easier at night after this treasonous bastard and his treasonous minions are booted out of government.
Related: Trump remarks deepen distrust with intelligence community