Letters to the Editor

Trump Helsinki response treasonous, no surprise

What happened in the Helsinki press conference of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin was treasonous, reprehensible, but not unexpected. There standing next to Putin, the de facto dictator of Russia, an American president chastised decades-long bipartisan American policy of dealing with Russia and debased American intelligence agencies and their brave men and women who put their lives at great risk to save the Homeland. Trump defiled these brave men and women, their spirits and their lives by saying Americans had been "foolish."

This happened after 12 Russian military officials were indicted by the FBI for meddling with 2016 elections.

Trump's response to the question, "Do you hold Russia at all accountable or anything in particular? And if so, what would you consider them that they are responsible for?" was, "I think that the United States has been foolish. I think we've all been foolish. I think that the, the probe is a disaster for our country. I think it's kept us apart, it's kept us separated. There was no collusion at all. Everybody knows it. People are being brought out to the fore. So far that I know virtually none of it related to the campaign." Trump lied. Paul Manafort was his campaign manager. My question to the editor of this newspapers is, "When are you going to call Trump a liar? What are you waiting for?"

Now look at Putin's response to the question, "Did you want President Trump to win the election and did you direct any of your officials to help him do that?" Putin: "Yes, I did. Yes, I did." So, if you read the transcript correctly, Putin acknowledged that he did direct his officials to help Trump!

Look at the response by Trump to this question, "Every U.S. intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did. My first question for you sir is, who do you believe?" Trump responds: "I want to know where is the server and what is the server saying? With that being said, all I can do is ask the question. My people came to me, Dan Coates, came to me and some others they said they think it's Russia. I have President Putin. He just said it's not Russia. I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be."

Reporter's second question was "Would you now, with the whole world watching, tell President Putin, would you denounce what happened in 2016 and would you want him to never do it again?" Trump did not answer that question.

Conservatives always charged Barack Obama that he conducted apology tours. My question to conservatives is, what was this meeting with Putin? Trump meeting his master and making America servile to Russia?

Now, Mr. Editor, just imagine what would have happened if Obama, an African-American whose father is Nigerian, had said these very same things that Trump said in Putin's presence. What would have been reactions from conservatives? Would they not have politically lynched Obama?

Mr. Editor, Trump is compromised!

Ani Marathe

Bentonville