Trump’s Deputy Assistant, Sebastian Gorka, spoke with Jake Tapper a few minutes ago about Russia and actually explains why Trump won’t punish Russia for the election meddling.
Watch the clip first as I’m sure you’ll find it very interesting:
The first question from Jake is why Trump is considering the return to Russia of diplomatic compounds (in Md and NY) that the Obama administration seized last year.
Gorka’s direct response was because Trump wants to give ‘collaboration and cooperation’ with Russia a chance. Why? Gorka explains, citing Syria as the primary example, that there are issues of ‘common cause’ and that if we see good faith efforts coming from the Kremlin, such as their efforts in the ceasefire, then we can improve our relations with Russia.
Jake’s follow up is to ask why Trump would reward Russia with these diplomatic compounds when Trump’s own intelligence officials testified before Congress that Russia absolutely meddled in our elections last year, something that Trump seems to only half-heartedly agree with.
Gorka’s response to this one is amazing, asking Jake in turn why he wants the US to have bad relations with Russia. !!! It was a good, logical question by Tapper but Gorka’s response is to impune the motivation of Tapper? C’mon, that’s pathetic.
Gorka goes on to suggest that Trump is a pragmatist on our relations with Russia and that it’s not a good idea for us to ‘escalate’ tensions with them.
Jake then asks Gorka if it isn’t a weak response by Trump to let Russia go without any punishment. Well that got Gorka’s ire up a little, because he can’t just let Tapper suggest that Trump is weak, and so he goes through a litany of reasons why Trump is not weak in any way, shape, or form. Seriously.
Gorka finally gets around to answering the question – sort of – saying that Trump PRESSED Putin on this at the G20 and now we just have to move on because people in Syria are dying.
So that’s basically it. We have to give back Russia’s diplomatic compounds and not punish them in any way so we can cooperate/collaborate with them in Syria.
Isn’t that the very definition of weakness?