http://dailycaller.com/2018/07/18/what-dirt-did-russia-have-on-obama/?utm_medium=email
What Dirt Did Russia Have On OBAMA?9:15 PM 07/18/2018
President Donald Trumpâs refusal to condemn Russiaâs alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. p**********l e******n has sparked renewed accusations from the usual liberal voices that Vladimir Putin must surely âhave dirtâ on the president. Leading this chorus was House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who tweeted: âSeriously, what does Putin have on Trump that heâs so afraid?â
Iâll confess that I once parroted that same line. I was especially alarmed by reports of the Trump campaign working behind the scenes to ensure the Republican Party platform watered down support for Ukraine, specifically by removing a call to arm Ukrainian government forces in their fight against pro-Russian rebels. That, plus Trumpâs refusal to criticize Putin, and my likely overconsumption of Russia-obsessed MSNBC pundits like Rachel Maddow, led me to the superficial conclusion that, to borrow from Shakespeare and my favorite movie âTrue Romance,â something was rotten in Denmark. Then I gave it some more thought.
Yes, Trump has steadfastly refused to criticize â and has even praised â Putin. But heâs also praised a host of far more brutal dictators and strongmen, from North Koreaâs Kim Jong-Un and Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines to the Islamic fundamentalist monarchs of Saudi Arabia. No one is suggesting any of these leaders âhas dirtâ on Trump, and besides, the United States has for generations supported some of the worldâs most repressive regimes regardless of whether a Republican or Democrat occupies the White House.
More importantly, even a cursory look at Barack Obamaâs policies and actions regarding Russia reveals an inarguably more accommodating stance toward Moscow than Trumpâs. From the outset, conservatives derided Obama for his ridiculous âresetâ button. Recall that during the 2012 p**********l campaign Obama mocked Mitt Romney when the latter called Russia Americaâs ânumber one geopolitical foe.â Obama scornfully retorted that âthe 1980s are calling to ask for their foreign policy back because the Cold Warâs been over for 20 years.â It was also during that campaign that Obama was caught on a hot mic suggestively promising then-Russian president Dmitry Medvedev that he would have âmore flexibilityâ to consider and presumably pursue pro-Moscow policies once he got reelected.
Even after Russiaâs invasions of George and Crimea, and even after he was informed by U.S. intelligence officials that Russia was interfering in the 2016 e******n, Obamaâs response was very measured. Yes, he expelled 35 Russian diplomats. So did Trump, following the alleged Russian bioweapon attack in Britain earlier this year â although Trump booted 25 more diplomats than Obama. Like Trump, Obama sought to publicly downplay the severity of Russiaâs actions, reflecting years of general dismissiveness toward Moscow. Yes, Obama slapped sanctions on Russia in response to Moscowâs annexation of Crimea and its alleged e******n hacking. So did Trump, who not only upheld the previous administrationâs Crimea sanctions but who also upped the ante by imposing strict new sanctions on Russian oligarchs and top government officials, all of them closely tied to Putin, in response to alleged e******n meddling.
On foreign policy, while it is true that Obama and Clinton infuriated Moscow by provocatively pushing missile âdefenseâ and NATO expansion to include former Soviet republics and other ânear abroadâ nations, the Trump administration has taken bold if unadvisable steps that have brought the United States closer to war with Russia than itâs been since the Cold War. Where Obama went to great lengths to avoid k*****g Syrian government troops and infamously reneged on his âred lineâ threat there, Trump has escalated the war against Islamic State militants to include multiple bombings targeting large numbers of Assadâs troops, and Russians have been k**led in combat by U.S. troops in Syria. Trump also blew up the Iran nuclear deal, which both Obama and Russia very much wanted to continue.
Let me be very clear: I am no Trump supporter. A quick Google search of my publishing history will likely infuriate many a reader of this website. But I also did not v**e for Hillary Clinton because I could never endorse a blood-soaked corporatist. I proudly cast my v**e for Jill Stein and was roundly ridiculed and lambasted, overwhelmingly by Clinton supporters. Like Trump, Iâve been called a âRussian stoogeâ and worse.
I assure you that Moscow has no dirt on me. There is also no evidence it has any on Trump. A sober and objective examination of his record beside that of his predecessor must surely lead any reasonable observer to conclude that Barack Obamaâs policies and actions were more conciliatory toward Russia than Trumpâs have been. Yes, Iâve got a gut feeling that something is amiss between Trump and Russia, probably regarding business affairs, if you ask. But nobodyâs asking this relative nobody, and gut feelings shouldnât form the basis of official declarations like Pelosiâs, let alone a well-informed blog post, if one wishes to be taken seriously.
For a side that proudly touts its âfact-basedâ arguments, liberals like Pelosi would do well to look at the facts and ask if maybe itâs not Trump, but rather Obama, that Russiaâs got the dirt on. That last bit might sound ridiculous, but so do public proclamations in the absence of facts.
Brett Wilkins is a San Francisco-based freelance journalist and editor-at-large for U.S. news at Digital Journal. His work is archived at
www.brettwilkins.com. (