American Betrayal by @BloggersRUs

American Betrayal

by Tom Sullivan

A sitting U.S. president threw his own intelligence services under the bus and sided instead with Russian president Vladimir Putin, the former KGB agent they concluded had attacked the American democratic process. It was an unprecedented betrayal before the entire world by a man formally sworn with defending this country. For those not in Donald Trump's cult of personality, it was a punch to the gut. The transcript of the Helsinki press conference on Monday cannot do it justice. Watch it here.

Donald Trump had already (and repeatedly) undermined U.S. relations with its European trading partners and NATO allies in meetings last week. Before the press conference began Monday, former U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation Michael McFaul described Trump's trip to MSNBC as a "Blame America first" tour. Germany had already declared Europe could no longer rely on a White House that considered the E.U. a "foe."

ABC's George Stephanopoulos told viewers, "All of you who were watching today will be able to tell your friends, family, your children, your grandchildren you were watching a moment of history. It may not be for the right reasons." The U.S. president winked coyly at the accused murderer of reporters and former Russian spies and behaved like a white cat in the lap of the leader of SPECTRE.

Twice when reporters directed questions to Putin, Trump jumped in to run interference for him, once on extraditing indicted Russian intelligence agents and once in regard to Russia's role in propping up Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

It is long rumored Putin has kompromat on Trump that has rendered the grandiose narcissist "an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation." That kind of skeleton "would have been discovered during any serviceman’s background investigation," tweeted retired Major General Paul Eaton Monday night. It is the only explanation for Trump's behavior, Eaton wrote, rendering him "unfit to command our troops."

National security experts warned it would be a colossal error to allow the undisciplined, amateur public servant to spend hours in a room, alone with a trained KGB officer. The press conference the two held after they emerged from their meeting was the sum of all their fears, a spectacle too improbable for a Tom Clancy novel.

A Reuters reporter asked, given the Mueller probe into Russian interference in his election, did Trump hold Russia accountable for "anything in particular," and if so what? Trump said the United States had been foolish, "we've all been foolish," for not having the dialogue earlier. "There was no collusion at all. Everybody knows it," Trump interjected before attacking Democrats for losing the election to him.

Through a translator, Putin called collusion stories "utter nonsense."

But every U.S. intelligence agency concluded Russia engaged in election interference, a reporter asked later, inviting Trump to denounce what had occurred and warn Putin publicly never to do it again. Trump launched into an unintelligible disquisition on a DNC email server. He asked why his FBI had not examined it. He spoke of missing emails and questioned the conclusion of national security adviser Dan Coats:

My people came to me, Dan Coats 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.

Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of “high crimes & misdemeanors.” It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???

— John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) July 16, 2018