The "Russian Bounty" Issue Posted on 7/2/2020 at 17:28:13 by Bill crawford, (14)
I personally think that the best way for Trump to tamp down the "Russian Bounty Issue" would be to go on TV and, in a very even-handed way, explain that his not knowing about the matter was the result of a U.S. Intellligence slip-up; that the info had not been included in his daily oral briefing because the evidence was unconfirmed; that he had failed to pick up on the story when going over his daily, lengthy written Intel briefing (which presumably covers a whole host of matters not considered critical enough to be included in the daily oral briefing); that he had subsequently taken the necessary steps to ensure that such a slip-up would not occur again; etc..---end of story.
It does not do Trump any good to throw up his hands and say that he knew nothing about the whole issue, or even worse, to say that he thought that the whole thing was a political attack against him cooked up by the New York Times, working in cahoots with the Democrats. (which might have bit of truth mixed in with the matter)
He should then direct his intelligence folks to make every effort to come up with some incontrovertible evidence of the Russian tampering.
If they do, he should come down hard on Putin, including making some meaningful retaliatory moves.
If they are unable to corroborate the reports, then he should just let the matter die.
If he went to Putin at this point and said that he had some unconfirmed reports about the involvement of Putin's intelligence agents, Putin would obviously deny the fact.
Again, I say that all of Trump's waving of arms; calling this nothing more than a New York Times/Democratic hoax; etc., is hurting him rather than helping him. Replies:
