The Russian candidate
Richard Fulton
Some of you may remember a Hollywood film from 1959, the height of the Cold War, called “The Manchurian Candidate.”
Its plot circulates around the fact of a demagogic McCarthy-like U.S. Senator and candidate for Vice President of the U.S. who is secretly an agent of the communist Chinese.
His son has been brainwashed by the Chinese after capture during the Korean War. He is programed with a brainwash trigger to assassinate the presidential candidate, thus making the Chinese agent the popular choice for president.
This comes to mind because of the revelation that members of the intelligence community briefed president-elect Trump on a dossier, already circulating in Washington, describing information from a former British agent that purports that the Russians have compromising information on Trump and have used it to manipulate him.
This included allegations that the Russian government has been “cultivating, supporting, and assisting” Trump for years, positioning him to run for, and then promoting his campaign for, president. The allegations are unverified and the dossier contains some errors. It is a series of documents purported to be exchanges between Trump people and the Russians.
Trump has tweeted that this dossier is “FAKE NEWS—A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT.” He blamed a leak of the meeting on the intelligence leaders who presented the information to him. Furthering his vendetta against the intelligence community.
One shouldn’t, of course, take the dossier seriously unless verified later.
It is interesting that the public exposure of the dossier by CNN and Buzzfeed comes on the day before Donald Trump’s first news conference in 168 days and the same day as Secretary of State designee Rex Tillerson’s confirmation hearings.
The two gave somewhat different impressions of their views towards Vladimir Putin and Russia. Trump went out of his way to be gracious in talking about Putin. Trump grudgingly agreeing that Putin and the Russians were behind the hacking of the Democratic party offices, but added, after all others are hacking the U.S. as well.
Trump continued to be soft on Putin even thanking him for verifying that the dossier was false and that they would never do such a thing. What else would they say? Trump said “I respect the Kremlin for coming out and defending me.”
He then indicated that it was a good thing that Putin liked him; that this was an asset not a liability. These two remarks have made foreign offices sit up and take notice of the softness of Trump’s views on Putin’s aggressive attitudes and actions.
At the same time Trump was soft on Putin, his Secretary of State nominee was saying that Russia poses a danger to the world. He thought it was good to challenge the Russians over their invasion of part of Ukraine (a sovereign nation).
Because our values are different, he said the we are not likely ever to be friends.
Though as Exxon-Mobile chief executive, he claimed he knew of no lobbying against Obama’s economic sanctions against Russia. But records show his company often testified against them.
He was, after all, given the highest foreign award by Putin. Incredibly, he says that he and Trump have not discussed Russia. Curious for a person chosen, at least in part, for his closeness to Putin. Trump should have a chat with him.
Well, there has been no assassination, it was thwarted in the movie and the VP was shot instead. But it still is interesting to ponder why Trump is so enamored of Putin and soft on Putin’s mode of operation. Putin has had enemies killed. He has had journalists killed (though Trump may like this given his aggression towards the press at his press conference). Nazi techniques, he says. The last charge of a scoundrel.
