The Russia scandal has gotten more and more tangled as time has gone on, and much of the responsibility for that rests with the president himself. He’s taken steps left and right to undercut law and order in an effort to get out of facing accountability for the Russia investigation, acting in a way that’s the exact opposite of the way one would expect him to act if he’s really as innocent as he claims to be.
Among the steps that he’s taken like that is the abrupt firing of FBI Director James Comey last year.
Concurrent to this problematic behavior, the president has also ignored the very real threat posed by Russian information warfare against the U.S. and the West in the context of our electoral processes. Russia has been documented to be engaging in efforts to alter the courses of Western elections to more fit their agenda, and it’s not as though the president can’t decide what to do about it. Rather, he can’t even decide if he believes in the reality of the situation or not.
The most recent vice president, Joe Biden, has an idea of why this might be the case.
During a conversation with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, Biden suggested, as has been alleged in the past, that the Russians have dirt on the current U.S. president and that’s why he refuses to confront them over their abuses of power.
He began by expressing his utter bewilderment at the fact that Trump has been so standoffish on the issue of Russian election interference. He’s spent his time taking on an array of issues — from the made-up issue of NFL players taking a knee during the anthem to the made-up issue of Muslim immigration to the U.S. — all the while ignoring the issue of Russian election meddling.
Biden commented:
‘I can’t fathom why the president, just as a patriotic American, let alone as president, would not be looking for every single bit of data and evidence that would show what [the Russians] were doing and what they’re continuing to attempt to do.’
Many millions of Americans no doubt share Biden’s viewpoints, with the nation anxious to find someone to replace Trump at the time of the next presidential election. Biden’s name has been floated, notably, as a possible 2020 presidential contender.
Mitchell and Biden went on to discuss some of the specifics of the situation, including the fact that there has apparently yet to be an interagency meeting in the highest levels of government to discuss a plan to address Russian meddling.
Mitchell eventually asked the former vice president why he believes Trump has been so hesitant to address the issue, to which Biden replied by saying:
‘Look, you know, I want to give every American, including the president, the benefit of the doubt, but I can’t fathom any reason other than he is concerned of what Putin might say or do, or what information he may or may not have. But look, unrelated to the whole issue of whether or not there’s collusion, separate and apart from all that, it’s necessary for us to stem this problem. It’s necessary for us to corral the Russians.’
Check out video of Biden’s appearance on MSNBC below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq7NWHIRo9s
Biden went on to address the fact that Trump has been more than neutral on the issue of Russian election interference, with him having sought to discredit the nation’s investigative bodies and thereby helping Putin along in his efforts to discredit the American political system.
Featured Image via Screenshot from the Video
