You may think that all Donald Trump thinks about is himself. Or his latest grift. Or cheeseburgers. But when you look at his recent behavior, it looks like even with impeachment behind him, our president saves most of his bandwidth for the land of Tchaikovsky, Putin and borscht. He shoved aside his acting Director of National Intelligence in a fit of pique over a Congressional briefing from a top IC official saying Russia was planning to interfere in the 2020 elections and do so, again, on Trump’s behalf. He put in the DNI’s place an acting official with no intelligence background but who might be loyal and help cover Russia’s tracks. In a London court this week, lawyers for Julian Assange said Trump, through an intermediary, offered Assange a pardon if he would deny Russian involvement in 2016. Roger Stone got 40 months in prison for, according to the sentencing judge, covering up for Trump–and now, it is suspected, Trump is planning to reward Stone with a pardon. Meanwhile the AG is overseeing an investigation into the intelligence community’s past Russia investigations. In short, Trump is sending a message loud and clear to all–he welcomes Russia’s help and will protect them and he will penalize those who get in the way. We discuss with Third Way’s Mieke Eoyang, Georgetown University’s Rosa Brooks and David Sanger of the New York Times. Don’t miss it.
