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On July 2nd, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said that US President Donald Trump was “soft” on Russian President Vladimir Putin and distracted by less important issues.
This relates to reports that Russia offered bounties to the Taliban in Afghanistan for killing US troops.
“Our armed forces would be better served if President Trump spent more time reading his daily briefing and less time planning military parades and defending relics of the Confederacy,” Pelosi and Schumer said in a joint statement.
Top intelligence officials, including CIA Director Gina Haspel and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, conducted the closed-door briefing for a group of lawmakers dubbed the “gang of eight” — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the top Republicans and Democrats on the two intelligence committees.
The White House has insisted that Trump wasn’t briefed on the assessments because they hadn’t been verified, even though it’s rare for intelligence to be confirmed without a shadow of doubt before it is presented to senior government decision-makers.
“The White House has done a con, saying that because all of the agencies of intelligence have not signed off on this, it wasn’t worthy of the president’s attention,” Pelosi said. “You know the death of our young people in Afghanistan or any place is worthy of the president’s attention.”
Administration officials have insisted they have taken intelligence seriously. National security adviser Robert O’Brien said that CIA and the Pentagon pursued the leads and briefed international allies.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the situation was handled “incredibly well” to ensure the safety of U.S. troops.
“We took this seriously, we handled it appropriately,” Pompeo said, without giving additional details.
Trump has called reports of the intelligence assessments a “hoax” and has so far declined to address whether the U.S. has or will respond to Russia.
The Russia Bounty story is just another made up by Fake News tale that is told only to damage me and the Republican Party. The secret source probably does not even exist, just like the story itself. If the discredited @nytimes has a source, reveal it. Just another HOAX!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 1, 2020
A video is, however, circulating social media, purportedly made by Russians who simply admit that US President Donald Trump’s biggest ally is, in fact, Russian President Vladimir Putin.
American soldiers’ lives are in danger and Trump has done nothing to stop it.
Add ‘America First’ to the laundry list of scams Trump has sold in his life. It’s clearly Trump first, Russia second, and America last. pic.twitter.com/sqiRyqtJBE
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) July 1, 2020
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I thought Lincoln Project was a parody like The Onion but it looks like they’re actually “serious” which makes it even more hilarious :)
As if Pelosi and Schumer gave a toss for their troops on the ground, thousands of miles from the US.
If Pelosi ever got sober, she might realise that they are occupation troops, not spreading demockery.
So far this year, Commucrats have ruined the economy, erased much of our physical history, turned every major city into into a burning shithole, and unleashed violent racist Mobs; they might as well start a war with Russia to finish off 2020.
It shows the envy and jealousy Kremlin have for an exceptional American and our free and civilised world. Giving Bounties to Taleban for an exceptional American. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1ce30580a10791f8909f07b25d05d047680d876b1aed1516d7c0ebcb77e6ae9a.jpg
Here are some interesting comments from Vladimir Putin about how Russia views American exceptionalism:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2020/05/putin-on-american-exceptionalism-and.html
It is always interesting to listen to the “other side” of the Russia-America geopolitical divide since the Russian version of the story rarely makes it to the Western mainstream media.