Emboldened by Trump’s Inaction, Russia Interferes Again - Rob Horowitz

Tuesday, September 01, 2020

Rob Horowitz, MINDSETTER™

 

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Putin and Trump's relationship

President Donald Trump’s predictable and completely irresponsible reaction to a recently released 1,000-page report by the Republican-controlled and Senator Marco Rubio-chaired, Senate Intelligence Committee confirming the findings of the Mueller Report that Russia extensively interfered in the 2016 election, did so to benefit Trump and its support was welcomed and used by the Trump campaign was to call the report a “hoax.”   

Given Trump’s stubborn refusal to recognize or concede this plain as day reality and his corresponding refusal to credibly deter President Putin from continuing to interfere in our elections and politics, it is not surprising that Trump’s own  Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security William R. Evanina, in his latest election security threat assessment, confirmed that the Russians were interfering once again to help the president:  “We assess that Russia is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former Vice President Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia “establishment.”

Despite this analysis from his own hand-picked intelligence people, Trump will still not send a strong message to President Putin to cut it out.  That is what makes the findings of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which go even further than the Mueller report on the counter-intelligence dangers posed by the 2016 Trump campaign’s too cozy contacts with Russia, still all too relevant to today.

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Among the new findings are that the Russian former business associate of  Trump's Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort shared private campaign polling with is a Russian intelligence agent.  The report concludes, “Manafort's high-level access and willingness to share information with individuals closely affiliated with the Russian intelligence services, particularly Kilimnik and associates of Oleg Deripaska, represented a grave counterintelligence threat.”   

Similarly, the report spells out the counter-intelligence threat that was posed by a Trump transition involving too many people with close connections to Russia and other nations without the experience required to proceed with caution: “The existence of a cadre of informal advisors to the Transition Team with varying levels of access to the President-elect and varying awareness of foreign affairs presented attractive targets for foreign influence, creating notable counterintelligence vulnerabilities. The lack of vetting of foreign interactions by Transition officials left the Transition open to influence and manipulation by foreign intelligence services, government officials, and co-opted business executives.”

Instead of taking these disturbing new revelations to heart and following up with appropriate action in the wake of a powerful and ongoing threat to the integrity of our elections, Trump appears to be moving in the opposite direction.  He recently prevailed on his Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe to cancel scheduled briefings of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees on current election security threats. Ratcliffe announced all information in this area would now be supplied only in writing, eliminating the need to answer any probing questions.

Putin has received high return on his investment in interfering in our democracy and in assisting Donald Trump. The United States is now at its lowest ebb in world opinion and credibility since the beginning the post-World War II era-- held in even lower esteem today than immediately after Vietnam.  Additionally, Putin has achieved his major strategic goals in dividing and weakening NATO and gaining a larger foothold in the Middle East.

 As the Russian dictator wantonly interferes in another American election, President Trump is either burying his head in the sand or tacitly welcoming the help.   Either way, it is a complete dereliction of duty.


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Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, various non-profits, businesses, and elected officials and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island.
 

 

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