Michael Whatley,Ā Donald Trumpās hand-pickedĀ RepublicanĀ National Committee (RNC) chair, lumped in Ukraine with China and Iran when listing the United Statesā āaggressiveā adversaries onĀ Fox NewsāĀ Sunday Morning Futures.
āJoe Bidenās feckless leadership has shown China, has shown Ukraine, has shown Iran, that they can feel free to be much more aggressive on the world front to the point where even they will try and meddle with our elections here,ā Whatley told hostĀ Maria BartiromoĀ on Sunday.
It makes me think Putin doesnāt actually have anything on Trump and the other Russia loving Republicans. They just really like him and are envious of his authoritarian regime.
Trumpās been a tool of the Russians since before the fall of the Soviet Union. Stalin liked the term āuseful idiotā for people who would do his bidding without realizing they were puppets.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/78dvw4/a-timeline-of-trumps-long-history-with-russia
Iām pretty sure he did. But it was all about campaign funding through the NRA. That little bit of news did slip out a while back. None of the GOP got in trouble. Thatās why they donāt care now.
Why not both? They could have something on those politicians and also be envied by them.
Unless everything we know about Russian intelligence is wrong, Putin almost certainly has kompromat on many politicians. There was an article recently from a politician about how after he was elected, he started being approached by young beautiful women, and he realized after talking to other politicians just how trivial an effort it would be to get compromising material on most of them.
According to George Clooney, he always saw Trump in NY bars trying to sleep with random women in the early 2000s. Trump was already a world famous ābusinessmanā at the time who was into politics. Exactly the sort of person Russia could target and who would be easily compromised.
Itās fine to consider, but itās also just an unnecessary step. Aligning with each other ideologically is enough to explain the cooperation we see.
Thatās what Iām thinking too. Because to say that Putin has something on Trump at this point, is in some ways taking agency away from Trump. But I think Trump and the other Putin lovers are terrible enough people on their own. He doesnāt need to have any dirt on them, they just want to work with him because they think heās doing well for himself, and they want that kind of power too. It feels like a much simpler explanation.