“There is no way of predicting how the millions of Ukrainian refugees in European countries would react to their country being abandoned. Ukrainians have generally “behaved well” and are “very grateful” to those who sheltered them. They will not forget that generosity. But it would not be a “good story” for Europe if it were to “drive these people into a corner”.”
Did Donald Trump directly ask Russia for help winning the election? No. Did Russia want Donald Trump to win so he’d sow chaos and division? Yes.
Russia’s troll farm did their level best to help him win. Russian entities bought ads on facebook targeting swing states with inflammatory ads like “HILARY WILL TAKE YOUR GUNS”.
[https://www.wired.com/story/russian-facebook-ads-targeted-us-voters-before-2016-election/](How Russian Facebook Ads Divided and Targeted US Voters Before the 2016 Election)
Russian hackers released the info about Hilary’s email server, which hurt her severely in the election. Donald Trump has spoken glowingly about Putin on many occasions:
[https://www.npr.org/2022/02/22/1082478790/trump-praises-putin-as-savvy-amid-new-escalations-on-russia-ukraine-border](Trump praises Putin as ‘savvy’ amid new escalations on Russia-Ukraine border)
So to paint it as “Russiagate” and as something that isn’t real is a bit disingenuous and simplifying something to minimize it’s importance… It’s complicated, but clearly if Russia prefers Trump over any other candidate, there’s a reason for that.
He did, though.
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press,”
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-asked-russia-to-find-clintons-emails-on-or-around-the-same-day-russians-targeted-her-accounts
Yeah I remember that as well, and I was surprised that it didn’t even move the needle during the investigation. The investigation was looking for direct enlisting of help from russia as an agreement. Him saying “Russian, if you’re listening…” was flippant and didn’t prove what the investigation was looking for. It sucks, because if a hostile nation is rooting for one candidate over another due to the chaos and division he’ll sew, that’s a very bad sign. Here we are years after his 1 term, and we’re still fractured in a way no one in living memory has seen. This sucks, I have no idea how to even begin to heal the damage this moron has caused.