There’s a reason why we have written agreements.<\/b>
\nIt\u2019s hard to believe that it has not yet been a week since President Donald Trump shared a stage with Russian President Vladimir Putin to give the press a taste of what they had discussed behind closed doors in their Helsinki meeting \u2014 and,\u00a0since then, little has been revealed.
In less than an hour, President Trump heaped praise on Putin, said he had no reason to doubt that Russia had not interfered with the 2016 presidential elections (which counters U. S. intelligence reports), seemed to indicate a willingness to let Russia in on the investigation of said interference, and blamed everything on Hillary Clinton\u2019s servers and e-mails.
And that was just what he said in front of reporters on Monday. Since then, there has been a frenzy of statements and clarifications. For instance, the president said he didn\u2019t see any reason why Russia would be responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee\u2019s servers, but later claimed he meant he didn\u2019t see any reason why Russia wouldn\u2019t be responsible.
The weird use of the double negative aside, this largely ignores the other times in the presser that the president let Putin and Russia off the hook.
But what\u2019s troubling everyone \u2014 including the president\u2019s own advisers \u2014 is what happened during the 2.5-hour meeting with Putin, in which the leaders were accompanied only by their interpreters. Especially after Russia\u2019s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, told journalists back home on Wednesday that \u201cimportant verbal agreements\u201d had been reached.
The Washington Post reports:
There\u2019s also a lot of concern over reports that President Trump is actually considering offering up the former U. S. ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul (among other U. S. citizens), for questioning to Russian authorities. White House Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders did not rule this out on Wednesday, but moments later, State Department Spokeswoman Heather Nauert called the notion \u201cabsolutely absurd.\u201d
(The White House seemed to change course on that by Thursday, but then, it\u2019s only Thursday and things could change yet again).
Despite having to explain what he meant and didn\u2019t mean, the president still sees his \u201cperformance\u201d as a success:
Among those on the president\u2019s lower ends of intelligence would be McFaul himself, who tweeted that he expects his government to protect him:
Just last month, President Trump had another such conversation with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The only others present were interpreters, and the only written document produced from the meeting in no way matched what the president said he had achieved in the meeting.
Unsurprisingly, what has emerged from talks has been a PR disaster: Attempts to forge ahead with North Korea\u2019s denuclearization have stalled, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo totally flaming out in the talks that followed in Pyongyang. In fact, reports \u2014 which the Trump administration is (at least publicly) is ignoring \u2014 indicate that North Korea is continuing to develop its nuclear weapons program.
These sorts of \u201cunwritten\u201d agreements, especially with countries such as North Korea and Russia, which are, at best, \u201c competitors \u201d (to use Trump\u2019s term) and worst, our adversaries, are dangerous and unprecedented, said retired ambassador Barbara Bodine.
\u201cI can assure you it is not only not common, it is wholly unprecedented, irresponsible and dangerous,\u201d she told ThinkProgress.
She said that only in rare exceptions (a \u201cfelonious crime,\u201d like murder) does a state hand over its diplomats for questioning by another state.
There is the separate but related issue of even equivocating on whether an ambassador can be handed over to any government for his\/her work as a diplomat. There are exceptions made, but rarely and only when there has been a felonious crime committed.
\u201cAs the State Department spokesperson said \u2014 it is ludicrous that the President even considers such a thing,\u201d said Bodine.
And the fact that such discussions are not documented is all the more alarming.
\u201cA state, a government, a leader is only as good as their word. Credibility, consistency and dependability are the currency of international relations \u2014 and one would assume of business, as well. This is why we have written agreements and the business world has contracts,\u201d she added, answering questions via e-mail.
Even prior to the Helsinki meeting, there were misgivings on both sides of the aisle\u00a0 on having President Trump, a man who has admitted that he does not like to prepare for such meetings, sit down, unflanked by advisers, with Putin, a lifelong intelligence operator and by far the more experienced statesman.
Since the meeting, Democratic lawmakers have called for the interpreters to be subpoenaed, with Republican lawmakers blocking that effort on Thursday.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who called for the subpoena, said, \u201cThis is an extraordinary remedy, I realize, but then it\u2019s extraordinary for the president of the United States to ask all of his senior staff essentials to leave the room and have a conversation with an adversary.\u201d
Bodine is aghast over President Trump\u2019s apparent habit of shutting out his own team.
\u201cIt is also wholly unprecedented, irresponsible and dangerous to a) not at least listen to your own advisers, b) meet with no one else present, c) publicly and repeatedly discount and contradict your own administration leadership and Cabinet.\u201d<\/p>\n