Sanders Humiliates Herself With Pathetic Clean-Up Job After Trump Backs Russia Again

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The White House’s efforts to clean up the mess left by the president’s major policy mishaps are continuing this week. After the administration already had to come up with an excuse for Trump having said that he “didn’t see any reason why it would be” Russia that had meddled in the 2016 election, on Wednesday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had to explain why Trump had denied the ongoing nature of that threat.

At a Wednesday Cabinet meeting, Trump said “no” when asked by a reporter if he believed Russian meddling to represent an ongoing threat to the United States. That contradicts the consensus of the United States intelligence community, expressed in part just this week.

Sanders, asked about this statement at the Wednesday White House press conference, said:

‘The president said ‘thank you very much’ and was saying no to answering questions. The president and his administration are working very hard to make sure that Russia is unable to meddle in our elections.’

Pressed further, she added:

‘We certainly believe that we are taking steps to make sure they can’t do it again. Unlike previous administrations, this president is actually taking bold action and reform to make sure it doesn’t happen again. He does believe that they would target, certainly, U.S. elections again.’

It’s not immediately clear what “bold action” Sanders has in mind. Trump has whined about Barack Obama supposedly not having done enough to combat Russian meddling while he was in office, but his administration did, in fact, work to combat the activities through sanctions and public warnings. It’s Trump who has fallen short on those points.

Sanders’ Wednesday explanation is a convenient bit of rhetorical maneuvering on Sanders’ part, but Trump’s “no” comment — whatever exactly he was intending to say — came after months and months of him downplaying the threat to the United States posed by Russia. Thus, there is a strong precedent for the meaning that many people originally took from what the president said on Wednesday, and the president has the responsibility to prove that Sanders’ explanation is credible through future efforts that may or may not ever materialize to combat the threat posed by Putin’s government.

That threat was made abundantly clear yet again recently through the indictment of twelve Russian intelligence officers for crimes related to their efforts to meddle in the 2016 U.S. elections. They were acting in their official capacities, not as rogue private citizens.

Also recently, the U.S. government unveiled spying charges against a Russian national, Maria Butina, who had spent years cultivating relationships with interests including the National Rifle Association.

The Russia investigation is far from closed, and still includes scrutiny of the Trump team. Trump would do well to get in line and cooperate, but the two cooperation eyeing walk backs this week of major statements from the president come after months and months of Trump refusing to acknowledge the Russia investigation’s legitimacy. Few are therefore holding out hope for any such acknowledgement to be incorporated into the president’s actions anytime soon.

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