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In a recent federal court case, former National Security Adviser for Trump, Michael J. Flynn, pleaded guilty for making fallacious statements to the FBI about two conversations with the Russian ambassador. Flynn has been cooperating with Robert S. Mueller, the special counsel who is investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 election. Trump has been continuously defending Flynn, adverting attention away from him, and now we know why. Flynn revealed that Trump and his team has multiple conversations with the Russian ambassador, Mr. Kislyak.
I think that this whole incident really reflects negatively on Trump, as it now becomes evident that he was trying to cover something up by getting the FBI officials to back off on their investigation of Flynn. While it still is not clear whether or not Russia interfered with the 2016 election, it definitely seems plausible when taking into account Trump's hidden conversations with the Russian ambassador.
What do you think? Do you think that this can be used as evidence against Trump in this case? What do you think this indicates about Trump-Russia relations?
5 comments:
I agree that this incident is a significant blow to President Trump's reputation, although personally I believe that Russian interference with the 2016 election is unlikely. I believe that Trump may have less significant, smaller-scale issues to cover up, as most politicians likely do, and may be maneuvering to avoid discovery on these tinier issues. However, if there was indeed Russian interference in the 2016 election, it would likely be one of history's largest historical scandals, comparable to Nixon's Watergate scandal. Admittedly, no one would appreciate being continuously investigated and there is no direct evidence as of yet, so the President is innocent for now. As for what this indicates about Trump-Russia relations, not much except that they are surprisingly better than previous presidents.
I believe that Russian interference with the election is unlikely because logically speaking, it should be considerably difficult or near impossible, to have fiddled with the election (one of the most monitored events in the U.S.) and remain undetected for over a year now. What do you guys think?
I definitely agree with Arthur on this one. Though it is significant that Flynn was having backdoor conversations with Kislyak and may do some damage to both Flynn and Trump’s reputations, we cannot jump to the conclusion that this has to do anything with the alleged Russian involvement in the 2016 election. It may be used as evidence within the Russian involvement case, but I don’t know how much further it could go than simply stating that the Russian ambassador and the American National Security Adviser had a conversation since we don’t know the nature of these conversations.
In terms of whether the Russian government interfered with the elections, I am on the fence about whether they did or not. While there definitely is diction that has been said by Trump himself, his cabinet, and those close to him that points to shady relations with those involved with the Russian intelligence community, Arthur has a point that something as large as this is highly unlikely to be true if it hasn’t surfaced by now (especially since Trump has a large presence on Twitter and is notorious for not being so censored on social media - think covfefe).
Without a doubt, I would say that millions of Americans can reach a consensus at this moment that Russia was involved in hijacking the 2016 presidential election in favor of candidate Donald Trump. What I am more interested in is what happens next. Once the FBI delivers the verdict that the Trump campaign team was guilty of collaborating with Russia, will Donald Trump be impeached for treason? Will Vice President Mike Pence be installed, or Speaker of the House Paul Ryan? The US has never encountered a precedent for such a scenario in the past; it will be interesting to see in which direction we choose to pursue after the truth is uncovered.
To clarify on this post, Michael Flynn actually served as the National Security Adviser starting January 20 of 2017, which is after the election. So while Michael Flynn may have some insight into Trump-Russia relations, I don't believe Flynn would be involved with Russian interference in the election. I think it's somewhat unfair to Mr. Flynn, a once-decorated Army general, to be getting all this public shaming.
I do agree we can't immediately assume that Russia was involved with the 2016 election, but it has always been a topic floating around and I believe it needs to continue being investigated on. I think now that Michael Flynn pleaded guilty, it shows that we have ties with Russia, so it's not looking great for Trump if he has had relations with Russia behind closed doors and it gets out. I also disagree with what Arthur said about Flynn's situation being a "tiny issue" because a small issue like this that Trump covered up may be his downfall and expose the truth about what happened in the election. We will see what happens as time goes on...
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