“Russia if you’re listening … I could use a little help again”
by digby
Trump doesn’t want to talk about election interference. At all. Ever:
In the months before Kirstjen Nielsen was forced to resign, she tried to focus the White House on one of her highest priorities as homeland security secretary: preparing for new and different Russian forms of interference in the 2020 election.
President Trump’s chief of staff told her not to bring it up in front of the president.
Ms. Nielsen left the Department of Homeland Security early this month after a tumultuous 16-month tenure and tensions with the White House. Officials said she had become increasingly concerned about Russia’s continued activity in the United States during and after the 2018 midterm elections — ranging from its search for new techniques to divide Americans using social media, to experiments by hackers, to rerouting internet traffic and infiltrating power grids.
But in a meeting this year, Mick Mulvaney, the White House chief of staff, made it clear that Mr. Trump still equated any public discussion of malign Russian election activity with questions about the legitimacy of his victory. According to one senior administration official, Mr. Mulvaney said it “wasn’t a great subject and should be kept below his level.”
Even though the Department of Homeland Security has primary responsibility for civilian cyberdefense, Ms. Nielsen eventually gave up on her effort to organize a White House meeting of cabinet secretaries to coordinate a strategy to protect next year’s elections.
As a result, the issue did not gain the urgency or widespread attention that a president can command. And it meant that many Americans remain unaware of the latest versions of Russian interference.
The assumption that he is only worried about the legitimacy of his 2016 election is way too generous. He knows that 70,000 votes across three states meant he needed all the help he could get. Knowing Trump, I’d say the better assumption is that he doesn’t want to stop them from helping him in 2020.
It’s not just his ego. He has a criminal mind. He is totally corrupt and entirely without morals or ethics. And while he’s monumentally stupid, he has a strong feral survival instinct. He knows he has to win election by any means necessary or risk facing immediate legal problems.
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