OPINION

JOHN BRUMMETT: The Russia question

The Washington Post, with some real news, has locked down more of the goods on Donald Trump and Russia.

We don't have collusion. We don't have a crime. I don't think we have generic corruption. We don't even have a transaction.

What we have, though, is another exhibit in the already overpowering case that Trump, as a presidential candidate, was in a conflicted position of potential compromise by Russia.

What the Post discovered was that, from September 2015 until January 2016, while Trump was seeking the Republican presidential nomination and saying flattering things about Vladimir Putin and dismissive things about the Russian dictator's controversies, Trump's business people were following up on the urgings of a Russian-born real estate developer to try to build a tower in Moscow--a proposal presumably needing Putin's blessing--and, in turn, win plaudits from Putin.

In January, Trump's business couldn't secure the land necessary to proceed. The project was abandoned, which is not to say forever, necessarily, which might help explain why--still--Trump can find it within himself to ridicule everyone in sight ... except Putin.

During the relevant period from September 2015 through January 2016, Trump engaged in Republican presidential debates and gave interviews in which he was repeatedly asked questions inviting his criticism of Russia. He stubbornly resisted.

Trump was asked in a CNN debate in September what he'd do to get Russia out of Syria. He answered by saying that, first, you'd have to get Russia to respect you because Russia most certainly did not respect Barack Obama.

He never said what he'd do to get Russia out of Syria, or even if he'd try. That made sense in the context of his response in a subsequent CBS interview. He answered a question with this question: If Russia wanted to bomb ISIS in Syria, why shouldn't the United States let it bomb ISIS in Syria?

In a later interview, he said Putin got an "A" for his performance at the United Nations and that Barack Obama got a much worse grade.

At a Fox debate in November, Trump got asked what he'd do about Russian aggression and he said, hey, North Korea is a problem and China is a problem.

He never got back to the question--on Russia.

In December, Putin effectively endorsed Trump, calling him "outstanding" and a "talented personality." In a saner America, meaning the one before December 2015, that would have been a bad thing.

Later in December, on MSNBC's Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough told Trump that Putin killed political opponents and journalists and invaded countries, and asked him if he was concerned about that.

Trump replied that at least Putin was a leader, unlike what America had at the time. And he said America had done "plenty of killing" itself.

Only when pressed a third time on whether he opposed killing enemies and journalists, Trump said perfunctorily that sure he did.

He later told a Fox interviewer that there was no evidence against Putin and that the Russia leader denied any killing.

There are three key points:

• First, this man who is now president of the United States spent a key period of his campaign declining to criticize a clear adversary, even saying nice things about it. All the while, his business pursued a lucrative development opportunity in that country's capital.

That's a conflict of interest, except that Trump seemed to wrestle with no conflict. His clear prevailing interest seemed to be ingratiation with Russia, not protection of the United States' interest.

• Second, Putin and Russia proceeded later in 2016 to hack American computers in an effort to harm Trump's Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, and help him.

• Third, real estate deals can always be brought back. That makes potentially relevant the lingering curiosity that Trump continues even in the White House to behave precisely as he behaved during those three campaign months. By that I mean with unyielding flattery of, and consistent defensiveness about, Putin and Russia.

He can't stay on message in his domestic politics. But he can stay on message for Russia.

Trump tried to get the FBI director to call off the dogs. He told Russian officials that their relations would be easier because he'd fired that FBI director.

He personally took charge of a public statement to misrepresent a meeting his son and campaign aides had with Russians promising dirt on Hillary Clinton.

At the G-20 meeting in July, he derided longtime NATO allies while praising Putin.

Whenever he's asked about Russia interfering in our election, he says other countries probably interfered in our election, too.

I don't know if he'll be indicted. I don't know if he'll be impeached. I don't know if he should. I don't know if a Trump Tower will ever soar to the gray clouds in Moscow.

But I know the Oval Office should be a place of standing up for America, not sucking up to Russia.

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John Brummett, whose column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, was inducted into the Arkansas Writers' Hall of Fame in 2014. Email him at [email protected]. Read his @johnbrummett Twitter feed.

Editorial on 09/05/2017

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