kathleen Z Roeberg
@kathleenroeberg
46s46 seconds ago
Replying to @EricaJong @thedailybeast
In 1987 Trump ran 130K of full page ads aggressively
attacking NATO right after returning from Moscow.
I think there is room in our political system for people like Trump who hold the foreign policy views that he holds. I don't agree with them. But if someone like that is elected president, that's the voters' choice.
But...and there are several big buts here at work...a number of things do not follow from that
1) quid pro quos where policy considerations are influenced by financial inducements
2) quid pro quos where policy considerations are influenced by actions taken to affect the elections
quid pro quos where policy considerations over Ukraine are traded for considerations over Syria may not be wise, but I think happen all the time in the making of foreign policy
I think Mueller's investigation is rightfully looking into 1 and 2 above. There are indications he has found a few things. Manafartov's efforts to recover financially would be one example. Another would be the negotiations over building the tower in Moscow. We don't know how closely linked those things are to policy considerations over things like sanctions, but it is very important to get to the bottom of it. We also have indications of illegal contributions to the inauguration committee. We have the Middle Eastern angle with Elliot Broidy and others. And going further back in time we need an understanding about whether a dependency relationship or symbiotic relationship developed between businessman Trump and Russian patrons. This might not necessarily be illegal but the public needs to have this information.
There are quite a few things that I think Mueller is quite properly looking into. And it is disturbing to say the least that the president is working so hard to undermine the investigation rather than giving it his full cooperation.