Repugs Befuddled.....

[SnowRider]

Another Nothingburger...... 

Republicans Befuddled By Trump’s Abrupt Reversal On New Russia Sanctions

WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump’s sudden decision not to impose tough new sanctions on Russia left many lawmakers dumbfounded this week and led some to question whether Trump had seriously undermined Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who had announced the sanctions just a day prior.

Haley made headlines during an interview on Sunday when she announced that the Trump administration would be rolling out new sanctions against Russia as punishment for its continued support of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. 

“[Treasury] Secretary Mnuchin will be announcing those on Monday, if he hasn’t already,” Haley said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” when asked whether Assad’s patrons will see any consequences in the wake of a horrific chemical weapons attack in Syria. “And they will go directly to any sort of companies that were dealing with equipment related to Assad and chemical weapons used.”

“And so I think everyone is going to feel it at this point. I think everyone knows that we sent a strong message, and our hope is that they listen to it,” she added.

 

 

United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley discusses the situation in Syria on April 14, 2018 at UN headquarters. (Drew Angerer via Getty Images)

Less than 24 hours later, however, after the Kremlin denounced the sanctions as “international economic raiding,” Trump decided to put them on hold “because he was not yet comfortable” with executing them, according to The Washington Post. Haley’s comments, the paper further reported, had “caused consternation” in the White House on Sunday.

The cleanup continued the following day after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters the administration is considering slapping additional sanctions on Russia and that it will make a decision in “the near future.” Larry Kudlow, the president’s chief economic adviser, meanwhile, pinned the blame on Haley by stating that she “got ahead of the curve.”

“There might have been some momentary confusion about that,” he told reporters in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday.

“With all due respect, I don’t get confused,” Haley later responded in a statement of her own.

“With all due respect, I don't get confused,” Nikki Haley said in a statement @DanaPerino just read on Fox News. https://t.co/5RdHwmkpQU

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) April 17, 2018

The Trump administration’s sharp reversal on sanctions ― as well as the unusual public contradiction between top aides ― left lawmakers of both parties scratching their heads on Tuesday. 

“It’s really disheartening to, one, have passed sanctions that haven’t been implemented, and two, to have the White House say, ‘All right, we’re going to do it’ and then move away from it,” Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Arizona) told HuffPost. “That’s just not a good signal to Moscow or any of our adversaries or allies.” 

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said he was not surprised by how the administration handled the matter. Corker was an author of a sanctions bill that Trump signed in August ― but also called “seriously flawed.”

“You know, two weeks ago we were moving out of Syria, and then the next day we weren’t, so it’s just sort of standard confusion,” he told reporters.

The Trump administration’s public rebuke of Haley, in particular, could undermine her standing around the world, said Keith Michael Harper, who served as the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Council under President Barack Obama.

Either Amb @nikkihaley made a terrible blunder (less likely) or she had her legs cut out from under her. Either way this will severely undermine her effectiveness since fellow Ambs can’t take her word as US policy.@JohnJHarwoodhttps://t.co/82efhGr3YY

— Keith Michael Harper (@AmbHarper) April 17, 2018

Trump has been reluctant to criticize or take punitive measures against Russia, despite its meddling in the 2016 presidential election, support for Assad, the annexation of Crimea and likely poisoning of an ex-Russian spy and his daughter in Britain. 

Trump was reportedly furious with his top aides last month after he learned the U.S. had expelled more diplomats and suspected spies ― 60 ― than European allies like France and Germany to punish Russia for its suspected role in the poison attack. “There were curse words,” one official told The Washington Post. “A lot of curse words.”

The U.S. president has offered effusive praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin and has expressed a desire to work with him to solve many of the world’s problems. He has also declined numerous opportunities to denounce Russia for election interference, leaving open the possibility that other foreign actors were responsible.

Yet Trump has also taken some recent steps to call out Russia. “To Iran, and to Russia, I ask: What kind of a nation wants to be associated with the mass murder of innocent men, women, and children?” he asked in a speech announcing U.S. missile strikes against Syria last Friday. Earlier this month, his administration also announced it was hitting 24 Russian oligarchs with sanctions over “malign activity,” including election meddling.

Republicans had few good answers on Tuesday as to why Trump has been hesitant to criticize or take action against Russia.

“I don’t know,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) told HuffPost. “I think he has criticized Russia and called them out, but, you know, I don’t know. He has long-standing relationships there.”

“I would support sanctions, definitely,” she added.

Asked why he seemed unwilling to criticize Russia, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told HuffPost, “I think he’s criticized them every day when he bombs their chief ally in Syria.”

Democrats, meanwhile, questioned Trump’s commitment to punitive actions against Russia given his reversal on new sanctions.

“The White House shouldn’t have to drag the president kicking and screaming to do the right thing when it comes to punishing Vladimir Putin and Russia,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday.

“Nikki Haley must be so embarrassed today,” he added. “That she forthrightly says, we’re going to be tough on Russia and do additional sanctions one day and the president contradicts her the next. Do they talk to each other? Do they have a set plan? Or is it just up to the president’s whim, day to day, moment to moment?”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said Russia had annexed Ukraine. Russia annexed Crimea, which is a part of Ukraine.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/republicans-befuddled-trump-abrupt-reversal-231414783.html

[SnowRider]

 

Trump Enraged After Finding Out He Stood Up to Putin

 

We always hurt the ones we love.

Nothing distinguishes Donald Trump from the Trump administration like Vladimir Putin, toward whom Trump remains inexplicably solicitous despite his advisers’ insistence that Russia is a grave national-security threat. The most generous interpretation of this discrepancy is that the president is pursuing a good-cop, bad-cop strategy to bring Russia back into the international community. This is a worthy goal, of course, if somewhat naive. As my colleague Peter Savodnikwrote last month, in the wake of the Skripal poisoning in Salisbury, the friendship Trump long sought with Putin has been forestalled by circumstances outside his control. “That breakup is happening now, whether the American president wants to be broken up with or not.”

Trump, naturally, has accepted this geopolitical reality with all the dignity of a lovesick teen whose parents have taken away his phone. As The Washington Post reports, the president had been adamant with his handlers in the White House that the U.S. response to the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain be limited. Indeed, the president was initially hesitant to believe intelligence that Russia was responsible for the attack at all, and resisted pressure that he should respond in accordance with European allies. “Why are you asking me to do this?” Trump asked in a call with British Prime Minister Theresa May, according to a senior White House official. “What’s Germany going to do? What about France?” At his Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump was assured by aides that both nations would expel the same number of Russians diplomats. “We’ll match their numbers,” Trump finally agreed. “We’re not taking the lead. We’re matching.” Trump was furious, then, when it was announced that France and Germany didn’t even come close to matching the U.S., and were expelling only four Russians each:

His briefers tried to reassure him that the sum total of European expulsions was roughly the same as the U.S. number.

“I don’t care about the total!” the administration official recalled Trump screaming. The official, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

Growing angrier, Trump insisted that his aides had misled him about the magnitude of the expulsions. “There were curse words,” the official said, “a lot of curse words.”

Despite Trump’s private anger, his government has taken a number of increasingly aggressive steps to counter Putin. Last year, the Trump administration approved the sale of lethal arms to Ukraine. Earlier this month, his administration sanctioned a clutch of Russian officials and oligarchs, prompting Russia’s Foreign Ministry to threaten a “harsh response.” And yet Trump himself is torn. “Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and ‘smart!’ You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!” he raged on Twitter last week, after an alleged attack that killed dozens of Syrians in the rebel-held town of Douma. Just a bit later, however, he seemed to think better of poking the hornet’s nest. “There is no reason for this. Russia needs us to help with their economy, something that would be very easy to do, and we need all nations to work together,” he pleaded. “Stop the arms race?” Later that morning, he made a point of blaming “Democrat loyalists” and the “Fake & Corrupt Russia Investigation” for any “bad blood” with Russia. “No Collusion,” he added, instinctually.

Over and over, however, the president’s befuddling personal admiration for Putin seems to get in the way of domestic politics. Last summer, Trump was forced to sign a sanctions bill he had opposed when Congress presented him with a veto-proof majority. (Privately, the Post reports, Trump lamented that the Mueller probe had thwarted his efforts to befriend Putin. “I can’t put on the charm,” he complained.) When Trump grudgingly approved the arms sale to Kiev, the Postreports, he was infuriated that news of the deal became public. (“For some reason, when it comes to Russia, he doesn’t hear the praise,” a senior administration official said.) More recently, he disregarded clear instructions from advisers to “NOT CONGRATULATE” Putin for his fraudulent re-election win, but did so anyways, even inviting him to visit the White House.

The tension between Trump and his government has resulted in what are, effectively, two separate Russia strategies: one pursued by the president, and one by his administration. On Monday, the president and his Cabinet butted heads again, with Trump throwing cold water on preliminary plans to impose additional economic sanctions on Russia, announced Sunday by U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. Trump, according to the Post, told his national-security advisers that he was not comfortable with how punitive they were. The least generous interpretation of that decision seems to speak for itself.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/trump-enraged-finding-stood-putin-201948188.html

[franks pond]

[Snake]

[ICEMAN!]

[Dave]

8 minutes ago, ICEMAN! said:

"NOT" the white house.

[SnowRider]

1 hour ago, DAVE said:

"NOT" the white house.

And you’re not  

[Highmark]

[Zambroski]

2 hours ago, ICEMAN! said:

Yeah....her and the Obama admin worked that all “worked that out”.  Hint hint wink wink.

15 minutes ago, Highmark said:

YUP!

[Highmark]

2 hours ago, ICEMAN! said:

Trumps house was raided by the FBI?