By Dustin Rowles | Politics | June 29, 2020 |
By Dustin Rowles | Politics | June 29, 2020 |
Over the weekend, we learned that American intelligence officials concluded that Russian military was secretly offering bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan, including American troops. That was the top-line of a bombshell report that has inexplicably gotten relatively little media attention over the weekend.
Context: The intelligence has been known for months. Moreover, 20 Americans were killed in 2019, and some bounties were collected, but it is unclear how many — if any — of those American deaths are associated with the bounties. (The Post reported that deaths definitely did result from the bounties).
Bottom Line: According to the Times, Trump was briefed on the bounties in March, although White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany denied that either Trump or Pence was briefed on it, which means either one of two things:
1) The intelligence community doesn’t trust Donald Trump with sensitive information concerning Putin:
This is so bad for Trump. Trump fired the Director of National Intelligence, replacing him with an acting DNI who is a walking caricature of incompetent buffoonery and then with an equally unqualified wing nut congressman. He's surely lying, but the lie makes him look foolish. /1 https://t.co/BIlQ4nJGKX
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) June 27, 2020
2) Trump knew, and committed actions that are inexplicable bordering on treasonous.
Since Trump learned of Russian bounties on the lives of American soldiers, he’s
— House Foreign Affairs Committee (@HouseForeign) June 27, 2020
Provided Russia ventilators✔️
Joint statement with Putin✔️
Withdrawn from Open Skies✔️
Pushed to invite Russia to G8✔️
& reduced troops in Europe✔️
Is there anything Trump won’t do for Putin? https://t.co/s1dXLlR8pD
The Lincoln Project was quick to come out with an ad.
Putin paid a bounty to kill American soldiers. @realDonaldTrump knew about it but did nothing. How can Trump lead America when he can't even defend it? pic.twitter.com/oEbnc2cWbT
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) June 28, 2020