In reference to his hour-long phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 3rd President Trump tweeted:
Later that same day during a press conference with Prime Minister Pellegrini of the Slovak Republic, he was asked,“Mr. President, did you tell him [Putin] not to meddle in the next election?”
Here’s his answer:
“We didn’t discuss that. Really, we didn’t discuss it. We discussed five or six things. We also — we went into detail on various things, especially, I would say, the nuclear. Especially, maybe, Venezuela. We talked about North Korea at great length, and pretty much that’s it.
Also discussed trade. We intend to do a lot of trade with Russia. We do some right now. It’s up a little bit. But he’d like to do trade and we’d like to do trade.
And getting along with Russia and China, getting along with all of them is very good thing, not a bad thing. It’s a good thing. It’s a positive thing. Getting along with other countries — including your country, by the way — but getting along with countries is a good thing. And we want to have good relationships with every country.”
Set aside the typically repetitious and disjointed way he constructs (or deconstructs) sentences , you have to be disturbed that he contradicts himself on the very same day about whether or not he spoke with Putin about Russia’s election interference.
“We talked about how much of a hoax it is! Ha ha!”
“No, we didn’t even bring it up!”
Which is it?
Bottom line, in one or both instances he lied. His statements are mutually contradictory. Either, when they talked about it they laughed over it as a hoax or they didn’t talk about it at all. Both can’t be true.
As disconcerting as his lying is, what is more bothersome to me is that virtually everyone in the intelligence community as well as both sides of the aisle in Congress are absolutely convinced that Russia did interfere. Yet he still doesn’t admit it and makes light of it! (Reminiscent of his view on climate change, where he rejects the report done by 300 congressionally mandated scientists and the 13 agencies. This after he admitted he hadn’t even read it! But let’s not go there right now.)
Russia’s interference is about our free and unhindered elections, which is the most fundamental component to our democracy, something we have historically made every effort to export around the world. This is a first tier issue and our own president has no stomach for protecting it! How is that possible?
I’m not crying, “Collusion” or even “Obstruction of justice,” though the latter seems pretty dang obvious to me. I’m talking about our president lying for the millionth time and about his bromance with the Russian autocrat whose government meddled in our election and aided in getting him elected. This is intolerable to me and should be to every American!
Mr. Trump’s admiration for tyrants is not exclusive to Putin. He spoke similarly of the maniacal and ruthless demagogue who murdered 300 of his political rivals, Kim Jong Un, when he called him “a great negotiator… Good personality… Loves his people”!
I’m all for diplomacy and for our leaders going out of their way to find common ground with other world leaders, even some of the worst of them. But our president seems to find more in common with some of the planet’s most infamous dictators than he does with leaders of nations with whom we have historically been allies. He called Xi Jinping of China whose regime carries out the most state executions in the world, “a good man… a very good man.” It’s craziness!
As if that weren’t enough, the very next day Liberty University president Jerry Falwell weighed in:
In my view, Jerry Falwell embarrasses the entire evangelical tribe and thereby severely damages our testimony! Someone who has our president’s respect and ear, as does Falwell, instead praising him and labeling his opposition a “coup” should be reeling him in. Another fawning supporter of the president is preacher Paula White, who soon after the racial violence in Charlottesville compared Mr. Trump to the biblical queen Esther, and told viewers that opposing the president meant “fighting against the hand of God.” It’s ridiculous and shameful.
Rather than challenge the president’s narcissistic personality and inept policy making, Falwell, White, and others squander their moral authority by their unflinching public support and lending him political cover. By association this diminishes the moral authority of every person who identifies as “Christian.”
Their attempts to sanitize the president and support him at the cost of the Church’s already teetering reputation grieves me. That Christ followers, who are the guardians of morality and whose role it is to call for stronger character and deeper souls, have wandered so far from biblical revelation and been so completely sucked into the orbit of such an unscrupulous man as Mr. Trump should grieve us all.
Falwell went on to make a snide remark about “reparations,” which was obviously meant to disparage the proposals for reparations for African Americans whose ancestors were brought here and enslaved. (I’m not necessarily supporting the idea of reparations for the progeny of slaves. I’m merely saying shame on Mr. Falwell for praising Mr. Trump in this contemptuous and condescending, yet passive-aggressive way.)
Brothers and sisters, it’s past time to consult the Lord about cutting ties with this terrible and toxic president. We should be sickened by his character and conduct instead of praising and defending him.
If I didn’t think it would widen our nation’s already cavernous divide and incite riots among fans in red hats I’d prefer impeachment. Short of a blistering hot smoking bazooka, the red hat brigade would go crazy. Their denial reminds me of the duck hunter who claimed he never misses. He took aim and shot as the duck kept on flying unimpeded. He said to his hunting partner, “There flies a dead duck!”
If no such bazooka materializes, and if we (I) can stand it for another couple years, we will have the opportunity to use the ballot box to send him off for the last time to Mar-A-Lago to work on his golf swing.
If you’re a lesser-of-evils voter, in my view you can’t help but find in the enormous pool of possibilities, a lesser evil than the one we’ve got now. If you’re a registered Republican, check out former Massachusetts governor, Bill Weld, for instance. I’m not endorsing him. I’m just saying, take a look. For you Democrats, you have much more work to do to study up and choose from among the couple dozen of candidates. Then there will be a Libertarian and any number of independents from which to choose.
From where I sit, just about anyone with a pulse who wants the job would do a better job as President of these great United States than Donald Trump!
barney wiget 