Within 5 hours of Trump's statement, GRU officers targeted for the first time Clinton's personal office. After candidate Trump's remarks, Unit 26165 created and sent malicious links targeting 15 email accounts. The investigation did not find evidence of earlier GRU attempts to compromise accounts hosted on Clinton's email domain. It is unclear how the GRU was able to identify these email accounts, which were not public.
He thought he could roll into Ukraine and the world would roll over. Instead he met a wall of strength he never imagined. He met the Ukrainian people. From President Zelenskyy to every Ukrainian, their fearlessness, their courage, their determination, inspires the world. Groups of citizens blocking tanks with their bodies. Everyone from students to retirees teachers turned soldiers defending their homeland.
Let each of us here tonight in this Chamber send an unmistakable signal to Ukraine and to the world. Throughout our history we've learned this lesson when dictators do not pay a price for their aggression they cause more chaos. They keep moving. And the costs and the threats to America and the world keep rising.
That's why the NATO Alliance was created to secure peace and stability in Europe after World War 2. It matters. American diplomacy matters. American resolve matters.
Together with our allies--we are right now enforcing powerful economic sanctions. The U.S. Department of Justice is assembling a dedicated task force to go after the crimes of Russian oligarchs.
Together with our allies we are providing support to the Ukrainians in their fight for freedom. Military assistance. Economic assistance. Humanitarian assistance. We are giving more than $1 Billion in direct assistance to Ukraine.
Let me be clear, our forces are not engaged and will not engage in conflict with Russian forces in Ukraine. As I have made crystal clear the United States and our Allies will defend every inch of territory of NATO countries with the full force of our collective power.
He also said conditions in Ukraine had changed drastically. "China supports Russia negotiating with Ukraine to resolve the problem," Xi was quoted as saying. "China's basic position on respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries and abiding by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter is consistent."
China's assessment of the crisis is being watched closely, with Beijing in a quasi alliance with Moscow and both nations in an increasingly intense stand-off with Washington. Xi and Putin met most recently in February on the sidelines of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
After the meeting, both nations said they opposed the expansion of NATO, describing it as a cold war approach to international affairs. The two nations said no state should ensure its security "at the expense of the security of other states".
"This playbook is all too familiar to us all," she said of the events unfolding near Ukraine's borders. "Russia will plead ignorance and innocence. It will create false pretexts for invasion, and it will amass troop and firepower in plain sight."
Ms. Harris argued in her speech that the crisis had driven NATO allies together. "As President Biden has said, our forces will not be deployed to fight inside Ukraine," she said, touching on--but not exploring--the decision to leave the fighting to Ukraine's own military. "But they will defend every inch of NATO territory."
Putin may be a liar and a demagogue, but it is hypocritical for the US to insist that we do not accept the principle of "spheres of influence" [which Putin claims as the rationale for keeping Ukraine out of NATO].
To put it simply, even if Russia was not ruled by a corrupt authoritarian leader like Vladimir Putin, Russia, like the United States, would still have an interest in the security policies of its neighbors. Does anyone really believe that the United States would not have something to say if, for example, Mexico was to form a military alliance with a US adversary?
President Putin talks about lots of things he's concerned about. Yet the very actions he's taken have precipitated much of what he says he wants to prevent. Back in 2014, before Russia invaded Ukraine, 25% of Ukrainians supported Ukraine joining NATO. Now it's about 60%. Similarly, NATO felt compelled to put more forces and equipment on its eastern flank close to Russia. So, it's Putin's actions that are precipitating what he says he doesn't want.
"We're surprised to see things happening in countries that see themselves as flagships of progress. The struggle for equality and against discrimination turns into aggressive dogmatism verging on absurdity. Opposing racism is a necessary and noble thing, but the new 'culture of abolition' turns into 'reverse discrimination.' Here in Russia the absolute majority of our citizens don't care what color a person's skin is."
"In the coming era of global readjustment, which may last quite long and whose final outlook is unknown, moderate conservatism is the most reasonable line of conduct."
"People who dare to say that men and women still exist as a biological fact are almost ostracized. Not to mention the simply monstrous fact that children today are taught from a young age that a boy can easily become a girl and vice versa. Let's call a spade a spade: This simply verges on crimes against humanity under the banner of progress."
"Our expectation is that these people, the Taliban, that now clearly control Afghanistan, will see that the situation develops in a positive way. If that happens, we would decide to take them off the list of terrorist organizations. I think we're coming to that, and Russia's position will be to move in this direction."
In his state-of-the-nation address in January 2020, Putin described Russia's declining population as one of the country's biggest problems. "Exiting this demographic trap is our historical duty," he said. "The preservation and growth of our nation is the highest national priority."
One year later, he backed plans to proactively discourage Russian women from terminating pregnancies. "Simply convincing a woman not to have an abortion is obviously important, but what's more important is creating conditions to help the woman and her family in raising the child, placing the child on its feet, and giving the child the possibility to receive a decent education," he said.
Independent experts say the report--"No 32-04\vd"--appears to be genuine.
The UK's former ambassador in Moscow said, "There is no sense Russia might have made a mistake by invading Ukraine. There is a good deal of paranoia. They believe the US is responsible for everything."
Trump did not initially respond to a request for comment. Later, his spokesperson, issued a statement: "This is disgusting. It's fake news, just likeÿRUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA was fake news. It's just the Radical Left crazies doing whatever they can to demean everybody. It's fiction, and nobody was tougher on Russia than me, including on the pipeline, and sanctions. At the same time we got along with Russia. Russia respected us, China respected us, Iran respected us, North Korea respected us. And the world was a much safer place than it is now with mentally unstable leadership."
The key meeting took place on 22 January 2016, the papers suggest, with the Russian president, his spy chiefs and senior ministers all present. They agreed a Trump White House would help secureÿMoscow's strategic objectives, among them "social turmoil" in the USÿand a weakening of the American president's negotiating position.
Russia's three spy agencies were ordered to find practical ways to support Trump, in a decree appearing to bear Putin's signature. By this point Trump was the frontrunner in the Republican nomination race. A report prepared by Putin's expert department recommended Moscow use "all possible force" to ensure a Trump victory.
Independent experts say the report--"No 32-04\vd"--appears to be genuine.
The UK's former ambassador in Moscow said, "There is no sense Russia might have made a mistake by invading Ukraine. The report is fully in line with the sort of thing I would expect in 2016, and even more so now. There is a good deal of paranoia. They believe the US is responsible for everything. This view is deeply dug into the soul of Russia's leaders."
PROMISE KEPT: (CNN, 4/15/21): The Biden administration slapped sweeping sanctions on Russia over Moscow's alleged interference in the 2020 election, the massive SolarWinds hack and the ongoing occupation of Crimea, signaling it is adopting a tougher posture toward the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
ANALYSIS: President Trump denied all sanctions against Russia for interference in the 2016 presidential election; that was the focus of the first Trump impeachment. The Mueller Report detailed Russian interference, but Trump referred to it as "the Russia Hoax" and "Fake News." Biden's action signifies that the United States no longer considers Russian actions to be a hoax.
PROMISE BROKEN: (CNN, 4/15/21): A senior Biden administration official said the US intelligence community had only "low to moderate confidence" in the information about bounties, and said Biden was not taking action to punish Moscow on the issue. "We have conveyed through diplomatic and intelligence channels strong direct messages on this issue," a senior administration official said, saying that if a pattern of behavior continues--presumably with a greater degree of confidence--the US would respond.
The Department will innovate at a speed and scale that matches a dynamic threat landscape. This will require advances in our joint warfighting concepts and a commitment to rapid experimentation and fielding of capabilities. Where necessary, we will divest of legacy systems and programs that no longer meet our security needs, while investing smartly for the future. In turn, we will improve the efficiency of the force and guarantee freedom of action in contested, complex operating environments.
We must meet the new moment accelerating global challenges--from the pandemic to the climate crisis to nuclear proliferation--challenging the will only to be solved by nations working together and in common. We can't do it alone. We must start with diplomacy rooted in America's most cherished democratic values: defending freedom, championing opportunity, upholding universal rights, respecting the rule of law, and treating every person with dignity.
That's the grounding wire of our global power. That's our inexhaustible source of strength. That's America's abiding advantage.
At the same time, I made it clear to President Putin, in a manner very different from my predecessor, that the days of the United States rolling over in the face of Russia's aggressive actions--interfering with our elections, cyberattacks, poisoning its citizens--are over. We will not hesitate to raise the cost on Russia and defend our vital interests and our people. And we will be more effective in dealing with Russia when we work in coalition and coordination with other like-minded partners. The politically motivated jailing of Alexei Navalny and efforts to suppress freedom of expression are a matter of deep concern.
We're reviewing a series of Russian actions that are deeply, deeply disturbing. Interference in our elections, the use of cyber tools in the so-called SolarWinds attack that Russia appears to be responsible for getting into computer networks both public and private, and finally, we have the reported bounties on American troops in Afghanistan. Depending on the findings of those reviews, we will take steps to stand up for our interests and stand against Russian aggressive actions.
"It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon," Trump tweeted. "Congratulations to @GenFlynn and his wonderful family!"
Flynn is the 2nd Trump associate convicted in the Russia probe to be granted clemency by the president. Trump commuted the sentence of longtime confidant Roger Stone just days before he was to report to prison. It is part of a broader effort to undo the results of an investigation that for years has shadowed his administration and yielded criminal charges against a half dozen associates.
The action voids the criminal case against Flynn. Democrats lambasted the pardon, calling it undeserved & unprincipled.
Susan Rice recounts her own experience of working through three transitions, including from Obama to Trump. She describes how she "laid out in depth the numerous challenges (Trump) would confront immediately--from the campaign to defeat the Islamic State to threats posed by Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. I stressed the need to be prepared for less obvious threats, like the potentially catastrophic collapse of the Mosul Dam in Iraq and pandemic disease."
The reaction from Trump and his people was typical both in its arrogance and blithe disinterest.
Rice notes that in the current "transition phase," Trump's people have denied the Biden team access to intelligence briefings with respect to national security threats, COVID-19, and related economic issues.
BIDEN: Climate change is an existential threat to humanity. I was able to get environmental organizations--as well as people worried about jobs--to support my climate plan. Because it will create millions of new good paying jobs, we're going to take 4 million buildings and 2 million homes and retrofit them so they don't leak as much energy, saving hundreds of millions of barrels of oil in the process and creating significant number of jobs.
BIDEN: I asked everyone to take the pledge: Any country, no matter who it is, that interferes in American elections will pay a price. They will pay a price. And it's been overwhelmingly clear this election--I won't even get into the last one--this election, that Russia has been involved, China's been involved to some degree, and now we learn that Iran is involved. They will pay a price if I'm elected. They're interfering with American sovereignty. That's what's going on right now. They're interfering with American sovereignty. I don't think the President has said anything to Putin about it. I don't know why he hasn't said a word to Putin about it. His buddy Rudy Giuliani--he's being used as a Russian pawn. He's being fed information that is Russian that is not true. And then what happens? Nothing happens.
BIDEN: Every single person, when he was going through his impeachment, said I did my job impeccably, not one single solitary thing was out of line. The guy who got in trouble in Ukraine was this guy trying to bribe the Ukrainian government to say something negative about me, which they would not do and did not do because it never ever, ever happened.
TRUMP: I was put through a phony witch hunt for three years. It started before I got elected. They spied on my campaign. Let me just say this, Mueller and 18 angry Democrats and FBI agents all over the place spent $48 million. They went through everything I had, including my tax returns, and they found absolutely no collusion and nothing wrong.
TRUMP: I'm very underlevered. I have a very, very small percentage of debt compared. In fact, some of it, I did as favors to institutions that wanted to loan me money. $400 million compared to the assets that I have, all of these great properties all over the world, and frankly, The Bank of America building in San Francisco.
Q: Are you confirming that you do owe some $400 million? TRUMP: It turned out that I am under audit. No person in their right mind would release, prior to working out the deal with
the IRS. Q: There is no law or rule that prohibits you from releasing your tax returns. TRUMP: No, except common sense, and intelligence. I would love to release them, and as soon as we come to a conclusion, I will release them, and very gladly.
PENCE: My son is in captain in the United States Marine Corps. My son-in-law's deployed in the United States Navy. I can assure all of you with sons and daughters serving in our military, President Donald Trump, not only respects,
but reveres all of those who serve in our armed forces and any suggestion, otherwise is ridiculous. Let me also say the American people deserve to know-
BIDEN: Putin knows me; the reason he doesn't want me as president: he knows I mean it [when I say that Russia] attempting to interfere
with our election is a violation of our sovereignty. I don't mean war. But they'll pay a price. They'll pay a price for it, and it'll be an economic price. I've made it clear, early on, there will be a price to pay. And if it's done again, which it
appears to be being done, there will be a price to pay. Q: Can you be more specific? What is the price to pay? BIDEN: It wouldn't be prudent for me to be more specific. But I assure you, they will pay a price. Q: Do you believe Russia is an enemy?
BIDEN: I believe Russia is an opponent. I really do. Putin's overwhelming objective is to break up NATO, to fundamentally alter the circumstance in Europe, so he doesn't have to face an entire NATO contingent, any one country he is stronger than.
BIDEN: I believe Russia is an opponent. Q: Do you view China as an opponent? The President says you've been too cozy with China, too accepting of them in the international community. BIDEN: I'm not that guy.
We now have a larger trade deficit than we've ever had with China. [Trump in a negative way] keeps going on about the World Trade Organization; they just ruled that his trade policy violated [WTO rules with its tariffs on China]. In our Administration,
when the WTO [was dealing with China], we sued. We went to the World Trade Organization 16 times, 16 times. Q: Do you view China as an opponent? BIDEN: I view China as a competitor. Q: Competitor? BIDEN: A serious competitor. That's why,
I think, we have to strengthen our relationships and our alliances in Asia. As you may recall, when I was in China, I said to Xi, "We're going to abide by international norms. That's what we're going to do and insist that they do."
BIDEN: One of the things we have to do is make sure that we investigate exactly what involvement there has been in our election and
to protect against it. One of the things we have to do as well is provide the states with the wherewithal to be able to upgrade their [voting] lists, their machinery, and to make sure their encryption is safe for the voting rolls,
and makes it more difficult to have cyber intrusions into anything that's being done. That requires money. There is a plan that's been put together in the Senate, by the Democrats, and I would push that plan. But it requires us to help states
provide for the wherewithal to change the nature of the machinery. And I think we have to be able to be in a position where you have a paper ballot left after what happens with regard to the actual counting and the voting machine.
Touching on the restrictions in place in Russia, the president mentioned the ban on the promotion of homosexuality among minors. "Let a person first grow up, become an adult, and then let them decide on their own fate,"
Putin insisted, explaining the logic of the ban. "Nothing must be imposed, that's what we are against," he said.
Furthermore, a better measurement of testing would count a per capita basis, the number of tests per million population, as World-o-Meter does. On that scale, the USA is in 39th place, just behind Germany, well behind Russia & Italy.
[President Trump] did stand next to
Vladimir Putin. There was a hostile, foreign attack on our election last time and the president sided with the hostile foreign power. That's why I started "Need to Impeach." That's what we have to do.
We have to oppose a president who sides with a hostile foreign power that commits cyber warfare against the United States of America. That's where we are. Where are all these patriotic Republicans who wave the flag, but when we're actually under attack,
they side with our enemies? It's outrageous. That's why he should have been impeached. They covered it up. And I was years before these people. There's something wrong here. We're under attack, and they're not doing a darn thing about it.
WARREN: Look, I think that what we've got to do is we have to provide humanitarian relief. We need to work with our allies on this. But this is not a moment for military intervention.
We have got to use our military only when we see a military problem that can be solved militarily. We cannot send our military in unless we have a plan to get them out. So, for me, this is about working with our allies. It is about standing with the
people who are under enormous pressure right now. This is recognizing what Donald Trump has put us in, in a terrible box around the world. But the solution is not to use our military. The solution is to use the other tools here.
BUTTIGIEG: Well, first of all, I stand with the people of Idlib, who are being targeted, as you said, in a brutal fashion by a dictatorship that has already been so brutal for so many years.
And this is one of the reasons we have got to change the balance of power in the region, because the president has basically vanished from the stage when it comes to even playing a role in the future there. Turkey, Russia, Iran all have so
much more of a say than we do. We don't have to be invading countries to be making a difference, working with our international partners, in order to deliver peace and support those who are standing up for self-determination.
BIDEN: Well, I think they are. They're acts that are violating our sovereignty. I'm the guy who went over to our NATO colleagues and worked out an agreement before their last series of elections a year and a half ago, where we got everybody running
for office to take a pledge that they would let anyone know that if there was any interference taking place, they would reject any outside help. And one of the very reasons why the president got impeached is because he went to outside folks, seeking
help in our election. Putin is a guy who, in fact, is not anything remotely approaching a democrat with a small "d." His entire objective is to weaken Eastern Europe, bring down NATO, so that he does not have to face the constituency he faces now.
BIDEN: In retrospect, there is something. We were informed by the director of central intelligence, that there was evidence
that they were interfering in electoral process, trying to break in everything from machines, to changing voter registration. That was in August; Barack Obama was worried, if we spoke out against it, without having more proof and support, then what
would have happened is they'd say we're trying to interfere in the election. And so it wasn't until after [the election]--before we left the White House--that we knew the detail of how deep they were. But we went to the Republican leadership in the
House, they said, "no, we don't want any part of pointing this out." We had clear, overwhelming circumstantial evidence that it was being done. And Obama did confront Putin, saying that stop it. Putin denied he was doing it. We believed he was doing it.
Trump was angry when he heard the news. He felt it was one thing for Clinton's advisors and allies to accuse Russia of meddling in the election; he could just accuse the Democrats of sour grapes. But retaliatory action against
Russia by the US government effectively confirmed that Russia had interfered in the election--and that, Trump believed, raised doubts about his own victory. Trump was piqued that the Obama administration was sticking his team with an aggressive
slap at Russia--a significant foreign policy move--without so much as consulting him. Obama had signed the sanctions order with plans to announce it, but a few news outlets [leaked the story] that some retaliation against Russia was expected soon.
This claim is false, according to the unanimous assessment of the U.S. intelligence community and the former special counsel Robert Mueller, who spent two years investigating
Russia's election interference effort. The Russian government, not Ukraine, interfered in the 2016 election "in sweeping and systematic fashion," the
Mueller report concluded, working to boost Trump's bid while damaging his Democratic rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Trump repeatedly pushed or referenced a conspiracy theory that
Ukraine and the Democrats framed Russia for election meddling in an attempt to discredit his presidency.
Trump's former Russia expert, Fiona Hill, called the idea that Ukraine meddled in 2016 a "fictional narrative" promoted by Russian intelligence and rebuked House
Republicans for using it to defend the president against impeachment. "In the course of this investigation,
I would ask that you please not promote politically driven falsehoods that so clearly advance Russian interests," Hill said in her opening statement to Congress. "I refuse to be part of an effort to legitimize an alternate narrative that the
Ukrainian government is a U.S. adversary, and that Ukraine--not Russia --attacked us in 2016."
He says that Trump is in a "state of denial" about
Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, which Bloomberg calls "a hostile power's intrusions into U.S. sovereignty."
He says that lifting any sanctions on Russia or recognizing its annexation of Crimea would be "a monumental mistake."
He argues that Washington must continue providing Ukraine with lethal aid for it to defend against Russian aggression and maintain faith in U.S. security guarantees. He has called Putin a "strongman" who seeks territorial expansion and the
destabilization of Europe and who has abetted war crimes in Syria by supporting Bashar al-Assad's government. He opposes the planned Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and Europe, arguing that it would give Putin increased leverage over
European countries. He calls for talks with Russia to extend the New START treaty, a nuclear arms reduction agreement set to expire in 2021, as well as to revive the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty.
He says that
Trump's request that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky investigate fellow presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden is "a crime in and of itself" and calls for Trump's impeachment.
Walsh emphasizes the benefits of traditional U.S. alliances and criticizes President Trump for undermining long-standing relationships. Walsh says Trump "embarrasses our allies" and "embraces tyrants abroad."
Steyer says he would "work with our traditional allies in a multilateral way"
and argues that Trump's pullback from global institutions has left a vacuum that China and Russia are eager to fill. He says he will "reinvigorate" the State Department, where Trump has sought budget and staffing cuts.
Steyer opposes President Donald J. Trump's trade war with China but says the
United States must "stand up strongly" to Beijing's theft of U.S. intellectual property. He believes that Trump's America First policy has created a void in international power politics that China and Russia are eager to fill.
He says the United States should respond to abuses by authorities in Hong Kong by creating a coalition of democracies to push back, rather than seeking a bilateral solution.
He argues that the United States can't isolate itself from China, since working with China on climate and regional security will require maintaining a good relationship with Beijing.
Yang: It's clear why Americans can't agree on impeachment. We're getting our news from different sources, and it's making it hard for us even to agree on
basic facts. Americans don't trust the media networks to tell them the truth. If you turn on cable network news today, you would think Donald Trump's our president because of some combination of Russia, racism, Facebook, Hillary Clinton, and e-mails
all mixed together. What we have to do is we have to stop being obsessed over impeachment, which unfortunately strikes many Americans like a ballgame where you know what the score is going to be, and start actually digging in and solving the problems
that got Donald Trump elected in the first place. We have to take every opportunity to present a new positive vision for the country, a new way forward to help beat him in 2020, because make no mistake, he'll be there at the ballot box for us to defeat.
YANG: We're going to live up to our international commitments. We're going to recommit to our partnerships and alliances, including NATO. And it was James Mattis that said "the more you
invest in diplomats and diplomacy, the less you have to spend on ammunition." That has to be the path forward to help build an international consensus not just against Russia, but also to build a coalition that will help us put pressure on China,
in terms of their treatment of their ethnic minorities, and what's going on in Hong Kong. I want to propose a new world data organization, like a WTO for data, because right now, unfortunately, we're living in a world where data is the new oil and we
don't have our arms around it. These are the ways that we'll actually get Russia to the table and make it so they have to join the international community and stop resisting appeals to the world order.
YANG: Well, first, I'd say "I'm sorry I beat your guy." Or not sorry.
And, second, I would say the days of meddling in American elections are over and we will take any undermining of our democratic processes as an act of hostility and aggression. The American people would back me on this.
We know that they've found an underbelly and they've been clawing at it, and it's made it so that we can't even trust our own democracy. The third thing
I would say is that we're going to live up to our international commitments. These are the ways that we'll actually get Russia to the table and make it so they have to join the international community and stop resisting appeals to the world order.
The Obama administration provided hundreds of millions of dollars worth of nonlethal military and security aid, such as military training, communications equipment, vehicles, night-vision goggles and counter-mortar radar to detect incoming artillery
fire. It's true that in 2014, Obama balked at providing Ukraine lethal military aid, despite a plea to the U.S. Congress for such assistance by Ukraine's then-President Petro Poroshenko.
Joe Biden: I think I may be, doesn't make me any better or worse, but may be the only person who spent extensive time alone with Putin, as well as with Erdogan. And Erdogan understands that. You talk about should he stay in or out of NATO?
He understands that he's out of NATO, he's in real trouble. But the fact of the matter is we have been one willing in this administration because we have an erratic, crazy President who knows not a damn thing about foreign policy, and operates out of
fear for his own reelection. Think what's happened. The fact of the matter is you have Russia influencing and trying to break up NATO. What does the president do? He says, "I believe Vladimir Putin. I don't believe our intelligence community."
CEO Andrew Yang: We have to let Russia know, "Look, we get it. We've tampered with other elections. You've tampered with our elections. And now it has to stop." Senator Klobuchar: I don't see a moral equivalency
between our country and Russia. Vladimir Putin is someone who has shot down planes over Ukraine, who has poisoned his opponent, and we have not talked about what we need to do to protect ourselves from Russia invading our election.
This wasn't meddling--that's what I do when I call my daughter on a Saturday night and ask her what she's doing. This was much more serious than that. This was actually invading our election. So to protect ourselves in 2020, we need backup paper ballots
in every single state. And then we need to stop the social media companies from running paid political ads, without having to say where those ads came from and who paid for them. That's the Honest Ads Act, that's a bipartisan bill that I lead.
O'Rourke: Yes, we
must be unafraid in ensuring that we hold Russia accountable for invading the world's greatest democracy, and being able to do it, thanks to Donald Trump, functionally, with impunity so far. So if there are not consequences, we will continue to see this
problem going forward. Q: How do we stand up to Russia on the global stage? O'Rourke: We do that by renewing our alliances and our friendships. That is what makes America stronger. There isn't enough money in this country to do everything that we
want to accomplish militarily. And the Kurds are case in point. In fact, because we turned our backs on them, those Kurds who fought for us in Syria, helped to defeat ISIS, not just for themselves, but for the United States of America.
Andrew Yang: We have to let Russia know, "Look, we get it. We've tampered with other elections. You've tampered with our elections. And now it has to stop. And if it does not stop, we will take this as an act of
hostility against the American people." I believe most Americans would support me on this. But Russian hacking of our democracy is an illustration of the 21st century threats: artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, climate change,
loose nuclear material, military drones and non-state actors. These are the threats that are going to require our administration to catch up in terms of technology. We all know we are decades behind the curve
on technology. As Commander in Chief, I will help pull us forward, and that's going to be a huge responsibility of the next president.
He said such an agreement, which is intended to remove or reduce trade barriers between countries such as import duties, would be similar to Russia's arrangement with Iran.
A: We have to go through Cuba, China and Russia to rationalize the situation in Venezuela. Most of the top decision makers there are Cuban, which has
hollowed out Venezuela's government, & the spillover into our ally Colombia has been dramatic. I would propose multi-party talks, in which the dynamic new Pres. Duque of Colombia, who greatly impressed me recently in Cartagena, could perhaps play a role.
A: Ukraine, while not a NATO member, is an EU partner and a treaty-recognized buffer zone between Russia and NATO. Ukraine has a sizeable population and economic zone whose
seizure would be a major first step toward reconstituting the old Soviet Union's borders and corresponding influence--for Putin, it is therefore a major opportunity if it could be seized intact. Conversely, Ukraine has shown itself willing to fight and
take losses in blood and treasure. Allowing Ukraine to fall would effectively "Finlandize" Europe, to the extent it has not already been. Accordingly, I would provide military aid to Ukraine--as much as was necessary. I would make it clear that if
the Ukrainians wanted to defend their territory, we would help, and further incursions would be costly. I would continue to hold exercises in Eastern Europe and look at ways to defend the Baltics.
Walsh: Helsinki wasn't the turning point for me--it was the final straw with Trump--when he stood in front of the world and said "I like that guy. I believe Putin," and not my own people. So it doesn't matter about American security.
He'll sit down and have a summit with Kim Jong Un, no matter how brutal and bad that guy is. If Donald Trump can get a photo op, does it matter if it's a bad horrible thing to invite the Taliban to Camp David. As long as Donald Trump might get the
Nobel Peace Prize, we've got a president who can't put the country's interests ahead of ours. We need a president who will put the country's interests first.
That same month, December 9, 2016, retired general Michael Flynn, Trump's designated National Security Advisor, called Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak and determined he should raise the possibility of repealing sanctions on Russia.
The call immediately drew the attention of American intelligence concerned that Flynn may be undermining the United States.
"I believe the United States and EU must respond with deeds more than words to strengthen our economic and strategic defenses,"
Pence said in the prepared remarks his team leaked to Fox News. "I believe we must take immediate steps to deploy a robust missile defense in Europe, especially in Poland, and
the Czech Republic-to protect the interest of our Nato allies and the United States in the region. Stronger economic ties and stronger defense is the strategic response to Russian aggression.
But the summer of
2016, American intelligence had picked up on some troubling actions by Putin and his operators in Russia. Behind the scenes, Russian hackers and operatives had been hard at work the years before laying the groundwork for an attack on the very roots of
American democracy--an army of internet trolls, working out of Moscow, not only spread propaganda and disinformation online, but also actively paid Americans to protest. Russians even set up real American bank accounts and actively recruited Americans
to perform for them. The troll farm paid one man to build a wooden cage, and another woman to dress up in a Hillary Clinton costume--and then she rode in the cage at a pro-Trump rally and chanted "lock her up!"
Meanwhile, within a half an hour of the news breaking, WikiLeaks began posting thousands of e-mails from the account of Hillary
Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. The e-mails had been stolen in a hack that Democratic cybersecurity experts traced to Russia--it seemed awfully convenient that when the biggest "October Surprise " to land in modern
American politics dropped on the head of Trump, a half hour later an equally startling surprise landed at the feet of the Clinton campaign. It was whiplash for the American public.
Representative Mike Quigley,
Democrat of Illinois, questioned Mueller on Mr. Trump's response to WikiLeaks. Mr. Mueller did not mince words: "It's problematic -- is an understatement, in terms
of what it displays in terms of giving some hope or some boost to what is and should be illegal activity," Mr. Mueller responded.
A: My first act in foreign policy, we're breaking up with Russia and making up with NATO.
Sen. Michel BENNET (D-CO): The biggest threat to our national security right now is Russia, not China. When I see these kids [being separated from their families] at the border,
I see my mom, because she was separated from her parents during the Holocaust in Poland. For Donald Trump to be doing what he's doing to children and families at the border, the president has turned the border of the United States into a symbol of
nativist hostility when we should be represented by the Statue of Liberty. We need to make a change. Andrew YANG: I just want to agree that I think Russia is our greatest geopolitical threat, because they have been hacking our democracy
successfully and they've been laughing their asses off about it for the last couple of years. We should focus on that before we start worrying about other threats.
A: It's Donald Trump. You want to talk about North Korea, a real threat in terms of nuclear arsenal, but what does he do? He embraces Kim Jong-un, a dictator, for the sake of
a photo op. Putin--you want to talk about Russia? He takes the word of the Russian president over the word of the American intelligence community when it comes to a threat to our democracy and our elections.
I would make sure that if there is any possibility of a conflict--and we're having this debate in Congress right now--that he comes to Congress for an authorization of military force. I would do that.
Trump: I think maybe you do both. I think you might want to listen.
There's nothing wrong with listening. If somebody called from a country, Norway, "We have information on your opponent."
Oh, I think I'd want to hear it. It's not an interference. They have information. I think I'd take it. If I thought there was something wrong,
I'd go maybe to the FBI. The FBI doesn't have enough agents to take care of it, but you go and talk honestly to congressmen. They all do it; they always have.
TRUMP: I think maybe you do both. I think you might want to
listen. There's nothing wrong with listening. If somebody called from a country, Norway, "We have information on your opponent." Oh, I think I'd want to hear it. STEPHANOPOULOS: You want that kind of interference in our elections?
TRUMP: It's not an interference. They have information. I think I'd take it. If I thought there was something wrong, I'd go maybe to the FBI. If I thought there was something wrong. But when somebody comes up with oppo research, right, that they come
up with oppo research. "Oh, let's call the FBI." The FBI doesn't have enough agents to take care of it, but you go and talk honestly to congressmen, they all do it, they always have. And that's the way it is. It's called oppo research.
[Trump's defenders also say that] "high Crimes and Misdemeanors" requires charges of a statutory crime or misdemeanor. In fact, "high Crimes and
Misdemeanors" is not defined in the Constitution and does not require corresponding statutory charges. The context implies conduct that violates the public trust--and that view is echoed by the Framers of the Constitution and early American scholars.
Supplemental information and analysis:A senior prosecutor in the Special Counsel's Office said that the Aug. 2 meeting goes "very much to the heart of what the Special Counsel's Office is
investigating." Caveats:Although Kilimnik and Manafort shared the view that Trump's support for the Ukraine peace plan would help it succeed, "the investigation did not uncover evidence of Manafort's passing along information about
Ukrainian peace plans to the candidate or anyone else." The Report then notes that Manafort lied to the Special Counsel Office about the peace plan & his meetings with Kilimnik. Also, Kilimnik continued "to promote the peace plan into the summer 2018."
"I DID NOTHING WRONG," Trump said. "If the partisan Dems ever tried to Impeach, I would first head to the U.S. Supreme Court." The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in 1993 that authority for impeachment trials resides in Congress and "nowhere else."
The power of impeachment belongs to Congress and proceedings must be launched in the House, according to the U.S. Constitution. If representatives vote to impeach, the case is tried in the Senate.
To reach larger U.S. audiences, the IRA purchased advertisements from Facebook that promoted the IRA groups on the newsfeeds of U.S. audience members. According to Facebook, the IRA purchased over 3,500 advertisements, and the
expenditures totaled approximately $100,000. IRA-purchased advertisements referencing candidate Trump largely supported his campaign. The first known IRA advertisement explicitly endorsing the Trump Campaign was purchased on April 19, 2016, for its
Instagram account "Tea Party News" asking US persons to upload photos with the hashtag "#KIDS4TRUMP." In subsequent months, the IRA purchased dozens of advertisements supporting the Trump Campaign, predominantly through the Facebook groups.
Posts from the IRA-controlled Twitter account @TEN_GOP were
cited or retweeted by multiple Trump Campaign officials, including Donald J. Trump Jr., Eric Trump, & Kellyanne Conway. These posts included allegations of voter fraud, as well as allegations that Secretary Clinton had mishandled classified information.
In sum, the [Mueller] investigation established that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election through
the social media campaign carried out by the IRA. IRA employees violated US law through these operations, principally by undermining through deceptive acts the work of federal agencies charged with regulating foreign influence in U.S. elections.
Although the President publicly stated during and after the election that he had no connection to
Russia, the Trump Organization, through Michael Cohen's repeated briefings, was pursuing the proposed Trump Tower Moscow project through June 2016. In addition, some witnesses said that Trump privately sought information about future WikiLeaks
releases [of Russian email hacks]. More broadly, multiple witnesses described the President's preoccupation with press coverage of the Russia investigation and his persistent concern that it raised questions about the legitimacy of his election.
That weekend, the President called McGahn and directed him to have the Special Counsel removed because of asserted conflicts of interest. McGahn did not carry
out the instruction for fear of being seen as triggering another Saturday Night Massacre and instead prepared to resign. McGahn ultimately did not quit and the President did not follow up with McGahn on his request to remove the Special Counsel.
On May 9, 2017, Trump snapped; the president unceremoniously fired Comey. He conveyed the news in a terse letter, hand-delivered to FBI headquarters. Trump's closest aides had warned him that the
move could trigger a political uproar and lead to an expansion of the Russia inquiry--and it did. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill cried foul. The FBI, already deep into its investigation of election interference, now feared that the most powerful man in the
country was trying to obstruct its work. Robert Mueller was appointed to lead an independent investigation of interference in the 2016 election and other matters that might stem from the inquiry. It was a broad mandate.
Mueller's team racked up an extraordinary record. His prosecutors charged thirty-four people, including twenty-six Russian nationals. They secured guilty pleas from
seven people, including a former national security adviser and the chairman of Trump's campaign. They reconstructed day-to-day interactions of Trump's closest aides and his adult children, exploring dozens of instances of Russian contacts with the
Trump campaign. They documented the Russian attack on American democracy in breathtaking detail, even tracing individual keystrokes of Russian military officers in Moscow.
Mueller's 24-page statement of offenses describes all of Paul Manafort's crimes. He agreed that he conspired against the US by illegally laundering
through offshore accounts the $60 million he earned in Ukraine from 2006 to 2016. He evaded $15 million in US taxes. He failed to register as a foreign lobbyist while helping his Ukraine clients press their views in Washington. The conduct outlined by
Mueller painted a devastating portrait of Donald Trump's campaign chairman. Manafort had volunteered to work for Trump for free but was drowning in debt at the time. He appeared eager to use his campaign role to angle for money from his wealthy patrons
in Ukraine and Russia, working in concert with an alleged Russian intelligence asset. His service for Trump coincided with the ramp-up of Russians intervention in the US election and a ratcheting-up of Trump's pro-Russia campaign rhetoric.
The special counsel's office would reveal that Cohen met with its investigators seven times.
The motive for his lying to Congress was to "minimize links" between the Moscow project and Trump. [Cohen was imprisoned in May 2019, after the publication of the Mueller Report].
IRA Facebook groups active during the 2016 campaign covered a
range of political issues and included purported conservative groups (with names such as "Being Patriotic," "Stop All Immigrants," "Secured Borders," and "Tea Party News"). Throughout 2016, IRA accounts published an increasing number of materials
supporting the Trump Campaign and opposing the Clinton Campaign. As early as March 2016, the IRA purchased advertisements that overtly opposed the Clinton Campaign. For example, on April 6, 2016, the IRA purchased advertisements for its account "Black
Matters," calling for a "flashmob" of U.S. persons to take a photo with #HillaryClintonForPrison2016 or #nohillary2016." IRA-purchased advertisements featuring Clinton were, with very few exceptions, negative.
A little more than a year into his investigation, Mueller made this
much clear: he knew exactly who carried out the hack, and how they did it. In Mueller's 29-page indictment of a dozen officers of the Russian military intelligence, known as the GRU, Mueller described in granular detail how the group hacked the emails,
then laundered the stolen messages through fake online personas so they could be shared to influence voters. Notably, Mueller did not include any Americans in the indictment, and he similarly spared the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks.
The indictment alleged, "At or around the same time they also targeted 76 email addresses at the domain for the Clinton campaign."
In February, Trump pulled Comey aside in the Oval Office and, referring to the FBI's investigation [and] asked him to "let this go," according to Comey's account.
Shortly after, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that he would rescue himself from any investigation of the 2016 campaign. The recusal came after The Washington Post reported that during the presidential campaign, Sessions, had twice met with
Russia's ambassador to the United States. Sessions had not disclosed the meetings when he was asked at his confirmation hearing about contacts between Russians and the Trump campaign.
The IRA's Twitter operations created individual U.S. personas, and also
operated a "hot network" of automated Twitter accounts, that enabled the IRA to amplify existing content on Twitter. The IRA continuously posted original content to the accounts while also communicating with U.S. Twitter users directly (through public
tweeting or Twitter's private messaging). The IRA used many of these accounts to attempt to influence U.S. audiences on the election. The IRA provoked reactions from users and the media. Multiple IRA-posted tweets gained popularity. U.S. media outlets
also quoted tweets from IRA-controlled accounts and attributed them to the reactions of real U.S. persons. Individualized accounts included @MissouriNewsUS (an account with 3,800 followers that posted pro-Sanders and anti-Clinton material).
But President Trump has questioned this essential alliance. He has criticized it, and he has weakened it. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of America's role in the
world. We must stand with our allies. We must support the alliance's efforts to transition resources to the increasing threat from cyber attacks around the globe--most especially from Russia. NATO needs even more fortification to fight this growing
menace, which may soon become the gravest threat facing the American people. As NATO looks ahead to its next 70 years, the United States must continue to be a leader for peace and security. And we must do so in concert with our allies.
Former FBI acting director Andrew McCabe said in an interview with 60 Minutes that Trump dismissed the intelligence agencies' finding of the threat posed by
North Korea's missiles by saying, "I don't care. I believe Putin." Trump has said in 2018 that he holds Putin responsible for election meddling,
but he has also attacked the intelligence community and undercut their findings.
The only thing I ever inherited was my mother's dream and
belief in the American Dream. Because of her, I became the first person in my family to go to and to graduate from college. I got my first job selling office equipment door-to-door, and always gave half of my paychecks to my parents.
As part of our military build-up, the US is developing a state-of-the-art Missile Defense System. Decades ago the United States entered into a treaty with Russia in which
we agreed to limit and reduce our missile capabilities. While we followed the agreement to the letter, Russia repeatedly violated its terms. That is why I announced that the United States is officially withdrawing from the
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or INF Treaty. Perhaps we can negotiate a different agreement, adding China and others, or perhaps we can't--in which case, we will outspend and out-innovate all others by far.
He said the US has
adhered to the pact for more than 30 years, "but we will not remain constrained by its terms while Russia misrepresents its actions. We cannot be the only country in the world unilaterally bound by this treaty, or any other." NATO said that if
Moscow failed to destroy all new missile systems that Washington insists violate the treaty, "Russia will bear sole responsibility for the end of the treaty." An American withdrawal had been expected for months, after years of unresolved dispute over
Russian compliance with the pact. It was the first arms control measure to ban an entire class of weapons: ground-launched cruise missiles with a range between 500 kilometers and 5,500 kilometers. Russia denies that it has been in violation.
James Lankford and I were the only members of the Senate who served on both the Homeland Security and
Intelligence Committees. As such, we were uniquely suited to come together in a nonpartisan way to develop legislation to combat these attacks. At the end of December 2017, we introduced the Secure Elections Act, to protect the U.S. from future foreign
interference in our elections. The legislation would establish clear expert guidelines for securing election systems--including, for example, the need for paper ballots. Russia might be able to hack a machine from afar, but it can't hack a piece of
paper. And it would provide $386 million in grants for cybersecurity improvements. It would also establish what's known as a bug bounty program for election infrastructure--where hackers are paid for identifying software vulnerabilities.
Nelson's comments drew national attention. He said Russians had "penetrated certain counties
in the state," emphasized he was talking about the current election cycle. He will not say how many counties, citing classified information. "We were requested by the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee to let the supervisors of election in
Florida know that the Russians are in their records," Nelson said, referring to a July letter he and fellow Florida Sen. Marco Rubio sent to Florida's 67 county election supervisors. The letter is strongly worded but does not describe known hacking.
SANDERS: It makes me think that either Trump doesn't understand what Russia has done--not only to our elections, but through cyber-attacks against all parts of our infrastructure--or perhaps he
is being blackmailed by Russia, because they may have compromising information about him. Or maybe he admires the kind of government that Putin is running in Russia. We have got to make sure that Russia does not interfere, not only in our elections, but
in other aspects of our lives. Q: How do you protect yourselves in the next race against something like that happening? SANDERS: We need a president who is going to do everything to work with statewide officials all over this country to make sure
that, when people cast a vote, that vote is going to count. Congress has allocated money to strengthen the protection of our electoral system. The president has got to be aggressive in implementing that. The integrity of American democracy is at stake.
TRUMP: Well, I think we have a lot of foes. I think the European Union is a foe, what they do to us in trade. Now, you wouldn't think of the European Union, but they're a foe.
Russia is a foe in certain respects. China is a foe economically, certainly. They're a foe. But that doesn't mean they're bad. It means that they're competitors. They want to do well, and we want to do well. And we're starting to do well. Q: A lot of
people might be surprised to hear you list the E.U. as a foe before China and Russia. TRUMP: No, I look at them all. Look, E.U. is very difficult, I want to tell you. Don't forget, both of my parents were born in E.U. sectors, OK? I mean, my mother
was Scotland. My father, Germany. And, you know, I love those countries. I respect the leaders of those countries. But, in a trade sense, they have really taken advantage of us, & many of those countries are in NATO. And they weren't paying their bills.
"Heading to Helsinki, Finland--looking forward to meeting with President Putin
tomorrow," Trump tweeted. "Unfortunately, no matter how well I do at the Summit, if I was given the great city of Moscow as retribution for all of the sins and evils committed by Russia over the years,
I would return to criticism that it wasn't good enough--that I should have gotten Saint Petersburg in addition!" "Much of our news media is indeed the enemy of the people and all the Dems know how to do
is resist and obstruct!" Trump added. "This is why there is such hatred and dissension in our country--but at some point, it will heal!"
U.S.-Russian agreements such as the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) were designed to achieve
greater stability and security when it comes to nuclear weapons, and that goal should not be abandoned lightly. With New START expiring in 2021 and the INF Treaty on the verge of being fatally undermined by Russia's noncompliance, we need to think long
and hard about walking away from them. Unless we are convinced that they are unsalvageable, agreements that by and large have worked for the two states holding more than 90% of the world's nuclear weapons should not be allowed to fall apart.
The named defendants in the lawsuit include Trump's son
Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law Jared Kushner, former campaign chief Paul Manafort and campaign official Richard Gates, and Trump ally Roger Stone. Also named is the Russian Federation, the general staff of the Russian armed force, a
Russian intelligence services hacker known as Guccifer 2.0., Wikileaks and its leader Julian Assange, and 10 unidentified people. "No one is above the law," the suit says. "In the run-up to the 2016 election, Russia mounted a brazen attack on American
Democracy. The opening salvo was an attack on the DNC, carried out on American soil." The suit alleges claims that include conspiracy, computer fraud and abuse, misappropriation of trade secrets, trespass, and other violations of the law.
First,
they sought to undermine confidence in the American democratic enterprise--to dirty us up so that our election process would no longer be an inspiration to the rest of the world. Second, the Russians wanted to hurt Hillary Clinton. Putin hated her,
blaming her personally for large street demonstrations against him in Moscow in December 2011. Putin believed Clinton had given "a signal" to demonstrators by publicly criticizing what she called "troubling practices" before and during the Parliamentary
vote in Russia that year. She said, "The Russian people, like people everywhere, deserve the right to have their voices heard and their votes counted." Putin took that as an unforgivable personal attack. Third, Putin wanted to help Donald Trump win.
Some of his colleagues are concerned. "It's not good politics in the end," said
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). "It says you don't trust the president." Tillis is working with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) on the bill,
which would allow a special counsel a 10-day window to fight a potential removal by the Trump administration and could soon see a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
HALEY: Obviously this was cumulative. Assad had been using chemical weapons multiple times. But more
so, this was about the Security Council resolutions--Russia had vetoed all of them. So we felt like we had gone through every diplomatic measure of talking that we could, and it was time for action. We hope Assad got the message [that] the international
community will not allow chemical weapons to come back into our everyday life, and the fact that he was making this more normal and that Russia was covering it up, all of that has to stop. Q: Are there any consequences for Assad's patrons,
Russia and Iran, who continue to protect him? HALEY: Absolutely. So, you will see that Russian sanctions will be coming down. They will go directly to any sort of companies that were dealing with equipment related to Assad and chemical weapons used.
For this reason, I am asking the Congress to end the dangerous defense sequester and fully fund our great military.
As part of our defense, we must modernize and rebuild our nuclear arsenal, hopefully never having to use it, but making it so strong and powerful that it will deter any acts of aggression.
Perhaps someday in the future there will be a magical moment when the countries of the world will get together to eliminate their nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, we are not there yet.
BIDEN: I think that'd be a little bit of an exaggeration. The Cold War was based on a conflict of two profoundly different ideological notions of how the
world should function. This is just basically about a kleptocracy protecting itself. That's a vast oversimplification. It's much easier if you're dealing with 28 different nations not in union with one another, not a Western economy that is coordinated.
BIDEN: We're talking about Russian interference in the United States, whether there was collusion between the Trump administration and Russia. That's obscured a much larger discussion that should be taking
place about whether or not what Russia is doing in the rest of the world right now and what Russia is doing in Europe right now. Q: There is bipartisan legislation in the Senate that would put in place sanctions that would snap in place on
Russia if in the future any determination is made that foreign election interference has happened. Do you think this is an appropriate step?
BIDEN: I think it is an appropriate step. I'm sure there are consequences that could flow that are ones we did not anticipate, but were I in the Senate, I'd be supporting that legislation.
I was the point man for our administration
on the crisis, which was exactly where I wanted to be. There were academics in the news saying Ukraine was bound to be a defeat for the West, & it would be an unwelcome albatross on my neck if I ran for president in 2016. "He's tied to Ukraine policy,"
a presidential scholar from Pennsylvania told a reporter. "So he could be vulnerable." I didn't much care. There was an important principle at stake: big countries ought not to beat up smaller ones, especially after they had given their word not to.
Ukraine had given up its nuclear weapons program years earlier--in return for a guarantee from the U.S., the United Kingdom, AND RUSSIA to respect its borders and its sovereignty. Two of the three larger countries had kept that promise.
"I did stand here six years ago and in the first major foreign policy address of our administration, I spoke about the 'reset,'" We have moved from resetting this important relationship to reasserting the
fundamental bedrock principles on which European freedom and stability rest. And I'll say it again: inviolate borders, no spheres of influence, the sovereign right to choose your own alliances. I cannot repeat that often enough. We need
to remain resolute and united in our support of Ukraine. What happens there will resonate well beyond Ukraine. It matters to all--not just in Europe, but around the world--all who may be subject to aggression."
President Obama's sympathies were all with Ukraine, but he was not going to allow this regional conflict to escalate into a hot war with Russia. Barack was a student of modern world history, and an incisive one. He was always on guard of the age-old
mistake of allowing smaller brush fires to be unwittingly fed until they had become terrifying conflagrations beyond anyone's control. He would caution me sometimes about overpromising to the new Ukrainian government. "We're not going to send in the
82nd Airborne, Joe. The president and I agreed that we could and should convince our European allies to support and extend serious economic sanctions against Russia. But economic sanctions were as far as the U.S. and its allies in Europe would go.
[When the speech was over,] even Senator Ted Cruz, who rarely agreed with anything I had to say, agreed with me about providing support to beleaguered Ukrainian fighters. As did Republican senator Lindsey Graham.
I know some people don't want to hear about these things, especially from me. But we have to get this right.
The lessons we draw from 2016 could help determine whether we can heal our democracy and protect it in the future, and whether we as citizens can begin to bridge our divides.
I want my grandchildren and all future generations to know what really happened. We have a responsibility to history--and to a concerned world--to set the record straight.
Bill and I checked with the Bushes and the Carters to see what they were thinking. Were they going to the inauguration? Yes.
That gave me the push I needed. Bill & I would go. That's how I ended up right inside the door of the Capitol on January 20, waiting to be announced. It had been such a long journey to get here. Now I just had to take a few more steps. I took Bill's arm.
I know some people don't want to hear about these things, especially from me. But we have to get this right.
The lessons we draw from 2016 could help determine whether we can heal our democracy and protect it in the future, and whether we as citizens can begin to bridge our divides.
HALEY: Because there was no change to policy. Of course, we believe in article 5. I just met with all of my NATO ambassadors yesterday. We said, a threat on one of us is a threat on all of us. NATO is going to continue to be strong.
It's going to continue to be united. Russia's going to try and divide us. But the truth is, we've never swayed from article 5. We honestly still believe it. The President didn't mention it because he wasn't changing it.
The Russia reversal and the NATO turnabout were inherently linked, of course. As Russia appears more ominous, NATO seems more necessary. But the shift in attitude
also offered one of the starkest examples yet of Trump's evolving views: "We must not be trapped by the tired thinking that so many have, but apply new solutions to face new circumstances throughout the world," Trump said at his news conference with the
NATO secretary general. Trump's campaign criticism of NATO stunned many at home and abroad, especially when he suggested conditioning America's commitment to defend its treaty allies on whether they had met their financial obligations.
The missile strike, in response to a chemical weapons attack, was intended to be a limited, one-time operation, and the president seemed determined to quickly move on. Critics, including Senator Marco Rubio, argued that Syria's
President Assad felt free to launch a chemical attack precisely because the Trump administration had given him a green light. Trump's action in Syria was welcomed by many traditional American allies who had fretted over Obama's reluctance to take a
greater leadership role in the Middle East. After the missile strike, Israeli news outlets were filled with headlines like "The Americans Are Back," and European leaders expressed relief both that he had taken action and that he had not gone too far.
KASICH: If our intelligence community thinks we need to get to the bottom of this, I believe that perhaps a joint House-Senate Intelligence Committee investigation ought to get to
the bottom of Russian hacking. Were they trying to influence our election? You know, what is it all about? What's the bottom line? Now, I don't favor at this point moving it outside of the Intelligence Committees.
I think that the Intelligence Committees have the capability to conduct a thorough understanding of what happened, so that we can be in a position to prevent it in the future. Many European countries are worried about Russia's hacking their elections,
disrupting their elections. So, I believe that the House and Senate can carry this out. And I think that it has to be done in a bipartisan and thorough way. If that investigation becomes partisan, then we have to look at something more independent.
PENCE: That quote was a commitment to explore the possibility of starting anew and looking for common cause with Russia and with
President Putin. Q: Doesn't that put the US on moral par with Putin's Russia? PENCE: I simply don't accept that there was any moral equivalency in the president's comments. Q: President Obama was criticized consistently by conservatives for not
praising American exceptionalism. PENCE: We recognize the extraordinary superiority of the ideals of the American people and the implementation of those ideals. Q: Do you think America is morally superior to Russia? PENCE: I believe that the
ideals that America has stood for throughout our history represent the highest ideals of humankind. Q: But America morally superior to Russia, yes or no? PENCE: I think it is without question.
PENCE: The president-elect is willing to approach this terrible relationship the United States has with Russia today with fresh eyes and to at least be open to a better relationship with Vladimir Putin and
with Russia. Look, we have some common interests that would be well served if we were able to improve our relationship with Russia. The president-elect is determined to re-engage the world, put America first, and see if we can make progress for the
security and peace of the world. Q: Does Donald Trump demand that Russia get out of eastern Ukraine? PENCE: Whether it be eastern Ukraine or Crimea, that the action by the Russians has demonstrated the absence of American leadership over the last
eight years-- Q: What does the new leadership want to do? PENCE: I think America is going to be more respected in the world the very moment that Donald Trump takes the oath of office as the 45th president of the United States.
Currently, the US has just under 5,000 warheads in its active arsenal, and more than
1,550 deployed strategic warheads, a number that fluctuates. In an October assessment by the State Department, Russia has about 400 more nuclear warheads than the US does. But the US has about 170 more delivery systems than Russia.
Under the New START Treaty, the main strategic arms treaty in place, both the U.S. and Russia must deploy no more than 1,550 strategic weapons by February of 2018. Both countries appear to be on track to meet that limit, which will remain in force until
2021, when they could decide to extend the agreement for another five years. Since [1990], it has been U.S. policy not to build new nuclear warheads. Under President Obama, the policy has been not to pursue warheads with new military capabilities.
In a tweet that offered no details, Trump said, "The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding
nukes." During the campaign, Trump talked in one debate about the need to modernize the country's infrastructure of nuclear weaponry, saying the US is falling behind. Trump's tweet came shortly after Putin, during a defense ministry meeting,
said, "We need to strengthen the military potential of strategic nuclear forces, especially with missile complexes that can reliably penetrate any existing and prospective missile defense systems."
TRUMP: I don't know Putin. He said nice things about me. If we got along well, that would be good. He has no respect for our president. He has no respect for [Hillary Clinton].
CLINTON: Well, that's because he'd rather have a puppet as president of the United States. TRUMP: No puppet. You're the puppet! CLINTON: It's pretty clear you won't admit that the Russians have engaged in cyberattacks against the
United States of America, [but] we have 17 intelligence agencies, civilian and military, who have all concluded that these cyberattacks come from the highest levels of the Kremlin and they are designed to influence our election. TRUMP: She has no
idea whether it's Russia, China, or anybody else. Q: Do you condemn any interference by Russia in the American election? TRUMP: By Russia or anybody else. Let me tell you, Putin has outsmarted her and Obama at every single step of the way.
TRUMP: I don't know Putin, but he has no respect for our president and no respect for [Hillary Clinton]. CLINTON: Well, that's because he'd rather have a puppet as president of the
United States. It's pretty clear that the Russians have engaged in cyberattacks against the US, that you encouraged espionage against our people, that you are willing to spout the Putin line, break up NATO, do whatever he wants to do, and that you
continue to get help from him, because he has a very clear favorite in this race. So I think that this is such an unprecedented situation. We've never had a foreign government trying to interfere in our election. We have 17 intelligence agencies
who have all concluded that these cyberattacks, come from the highest levels of the Kremlin and they are designed to influence our election. I find that deeply disturbing. TRUMP: She has no idea whether it's Russia, China, or anybody else.
TRUMP: Three months ago, I read that they're
going to attack Mosul. Whatever happened to the element of surprise? We announce we're going after Mosul. These people have all left. CLINTON: The goal here is to take back Mosul. It's going to be a hard fight. I've got no illusions about that.
And then continue to press into Syria to begin to take back and move on Raqqa, which is the ISIS headquarters. I am hopeful that the hard work that American military advisers have done will pay off and that we will see a successful military operation.
TRUMP: Assad turned out to be a lot tougher than she thought. Everyone thought he was gone two years ago. He aligned with Russia. We don't know who the rebels are. But if they overthrow Assad, as bad as Assad is, you may very well
end up with worse than Assad. CLINTON: I think a no-fly zone could save lives and could hasten the end of the conflict. I'm aware of the concerns that you have expressed. This would not be done on the first day. This would take a lot of negotiation.
And it would also take making it clear to the Russians and the Syrians that our purpose here was to provide safe zones on the ground. We've had millions of people leave Syria and those millions of people inside Syria who have been dislocated.
TRUMP: Assad turned out to be a lot tougher than she thought. Everyone thought he was gone two years ago. He aligned with Russia. He now also aligned with
Iran, who we made very powerful. We don't know who the rebels are. But if they overthrow Assad, as bad as Assad is, and he's a bad guy, but you may very well end up with worse than Assad. CLINTON: I think a no-fly zone could save lives and could
hasten the end of the conflict. I'm aware of the concerns that you have expressed. This would not be done on the first day. This would take a lot of negotiation. And it would also take making it clear to the Russians and the Syrians that our purpose
here was to provide safe zones on the ground. TRUMP: We are so outplayed on missiles, on cease-fires. But our country is so outplayed by Putin and Assad, and by the way--and by Iran. Nobody can believe how stupid our leadership is.
Bill Weld: Clinton's "no fly zone" for Syria risks war. Our policy would have been more restrained
than hers. Half of the population of rebel-held Aleppo have said they will leave if there is a path. I am afraid that Assad is going to take the territory. My priority now would be to prevent further slaughter of innocents in Aleppo.
A: First of all, I will not let anyone into our country that I think poses a risk to us. But there are a lot of refugees, women & children--think of that picture we all saw of that
4-year-old boy with the blood on his forehead because he'd been bombed by the Russian and Syrian air forces. We need to do our part. We by no means are carrying anywhere near the load that Europe and others are. But we will have vetting that is as tough
as it needs to be from our intelligence experts and others. It is important for us not to say, as Trump has said, "we're going to ban people based on a religion." We are a country founded on religious freedom and liberty. How do we do what he has
advocated without causing great distress within our own country? What he said was extremely unwise and even dangerous. You can look at the propaganda on a lot of the terrorists sites, and what Trump says about Muslims is used to recruit fighters.
A: Russia hasn't paid any attention to ISIS. They're interested in keeping Assad in power. When I was secretary of state, I advocated--and I advocate today--a no-fly zone and safe zones. We need
some leverage with the Russians, because they are not going to come to the negotiating table for a diplomatic resolution unless there is some leverage over them. I want to emphasize that what is at stake here is the ambitions and the aggressiveness of
Russia. Russia has decided that it's all in, in Syria. They've also decided who they want to see become president of the US, too, and it's not me. I've stood up to Russia. I've taken on Putin and others, and I would do that as president. Wherever we can
cooperate with Russia, that's fine. And I did as secretary of state. That's how we got a treaty reducing nuclear weapons. It's how we got the sanctions on Iran that put a lid on the Iranian nuclear program without firing a single shot.
TRUMP: He and I haven't spoken, and I disagree. Q: You disagree with your running mate? TRUMP:
I think you have to knock out ISIS. Right now, Syria is fighting ISIS We have people that want to fight both at the same time. [OnTheIssues note: Russia & the Assad regime are bombing both ISIS & the Syrian rebels; the US is bombing ISIS but supports
the Syrian rebels]. TRUMP: But Syria is no longer Syria. Syria is Russia and it's Iran, who [Hillary] made strong and Kerry and Obama made into a very powerful nation. I believe we have to worry about ISIS before we can get too much more involved.
I just have to tell you that the provocations by Russia need to be met with American strength. It begins by rebuilding our military. And the Russians & the
Chinese have been making enormous investments in the military. We have the smallest Navy since 1916. We have the lowest number of troops since the end of the Second World War. We've got to work with Congress, and Donald Trump will, to rebuild our
military & project American strength in the world. We've just got to have American strength on the world stage. When Donald Trump becomes president, the Russians and other countries in the world will know they're dealing with a strong American president.
I just have to tell you that the provocations by Russia need to be met with American strength. It begins by rebuilding our military. And the Russians & the
Chinese have been making enormous investments in the military. We have the smallest Navy since 1916. We have the lowest number of troops since the end of the Second World War. We've got to work with Congress, and Donald Trump will, to rebuild our
military & project American strength in the world. We've just got to have American strength on the world stage. When Donald Trump becomes president, the Russians and other countries in the world will know they're dealing with a strong American president.
A: We should be better than anybody else, and perhaps we're not. I don't think anybody knows it was Russia that broke into the DNC. She's saying "Russia, Russia, Russia," but I don't. Maybe it was. I mean, it could
be Russia, but it could also be China. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, OK? We came up with the Internet, and Clinton and myself would agree very much, when you look at what
ISIS is doing with the Internet, they're beating us at our own game. So we have to get very, very tough on cyber and cyber warfare. It is a huge problem. The security aspect of cyber is very, very tough. And maybe it's hardly doable.
But I will say, we are not doing the job we should be doing. But that's true throughout our whole governmental society. We have so many things that we have to do better and certainly cyber is one of them.
A: I think cyber security & cyber warfare will be one of the biggest challenges facing the next president, because clearly we're facing at this point two different kinds of adversaries. There are the independent
hacking groups that do it mostly for commercial reasons to try to steal information that they can use to make money. But increasingly, we are seeing cyber attacks coming from states. The most recent and troubling of these has been Russia.
He said he doesn't mind the political backlash he could face. "I welcome the fact that people will criticize me for putting my country ahead of my party,"
Kasich said. Kasich and Obama could be facing an uphill battle: Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton oppose the 12-nation Pacific Rim deal, which Obama has pitched as a way to counterbalance China's rise in the region.
A: I've built a great company. I've been all over the world. I've dealt with foreign countries. I've done tremendously well dealing with China and with many of the
countries that are just ripping this country. I think the main thing is I have great judgment. Q: What steps would you take to bring Putin back to negotiating table? A: I would have a good relationship with Putin. Take a look at what happened with
their fighter jets circling one of our aircraft in a very dangerous manner. Somebody said less than 10 feet away. This is hostility. Russia wants to defeat ISIS as badly as we do. If we had a relationship with Russia, wouldn't it be wonderful if we
could knock the hell out of ISIS? Q: Putin called you a brilliant leader. A: When he calls me brilliant, I'll take the compliment. The fact is, look, it's not going to get him anywhere. I'm a negotiator. We're going to take back our country.
The now-famous DNC emails that we later learned
were stolen by hackers working for a Russian intelligence agency had been released at the start of the convention. The content of these emails, which were not a shock to me, showed that the leadership of the
DNC had tilted the playing field during the primary in favor of Hillary Clinton's campaign. As a result, the chair of the DNC,
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, was forced to resign. Many of my delegate, who were not great fans of Hillary Clinton or the democratic establishment to begin with, were further enraged.
TRUMP: I don't because it not working and the countries aren't agreeing to it and the rebels aren't agreeing and Syria is not agreeing. It's a meaningless ceasefire. I would love it, but all parties have
to be part of it. CRUZ: We're hopeful that the violence will cease, but there's reason to be highly skeptical. Russia has enhanced its position because of Obama's weakness in the Middle East, weakness in Syria.
TRUMP: What we want to do, when we want to do it, and how hard do we want to hit? We are going to have to hit hard to knock out ISIS. We're going to have to learn who our allies are.
We have allies, we have no idea who they are in Syria. Do we want to stay that route, or do we want to go and make something with Russia?
KASICH: First of all -- yes.
We have to make it clear to Russia what we expect. We don't have to declare an enemy or threaten, but we need to make clear what we expect. Number one is we will arm the folks in Ukraine who are fighting for their freedom.
Secondly, an attack on NATO is an attack on us. TRUMP: We're going to have to learn who our allies are [against ISIS]. We have allies, we have no idea who they are in Syria. Do we want to stay that route, or do we want to go and make
something with Russia? BUSH: The very basic fact is that Vladimir Putin is not going to be an ally of the United States. The whole world knows this. It's a simple basic fact.
Q [to Trump]: You said that you could get along very well with Vladimir Putin. You did say let Russia take care of ISIS. TRUMP: Jeb is so wrong. You fight
ISIS first. You have to knock 'em out. You decide what to do after, you can't fight two wars at one time. If you listen to him, that's why we've been in the Middle East for 15 years, and we haven't won anything. We've spent $5 trillion dollars in
the Middle East with thinking like that. We've spent $5 trillion dollars; we have to rebuild our country. We have to rebuild our infrastructure. you listen to that you're going to be there for another 15 years. You'll end up with world war three.
CLINTON: This is one of the areas I've disagreed with Senator Sanders on, who has called for Iranian troops trying to end civil war in Syria, which I think would be a grave mistake.
Putting Iranian troops right on the border of the Golan right next to Israel would be a nonstarter for me. Trying to get Iran and Saudi Arabia to work together, as he has suggested in the past, is equally a nonstarter.
CLINTON: What Secretary Carter is looking at is the constant pressure that Russia's putting on our European allies. I think what Secretary
Carter is seeing is that we got to get NATO back working for the common defense. We've got to do more to support our partners in NATO, and we have to send a clear message to Putin that this kind of belligerence will have to be responded to.
SANDERS: No I don't. I worry about Putin and his military adventurism in the Crimea, but
I worry more about an isolated country. Russia lives in the world. China lives in the world. North Korea is a strange country because it is so isolated, and I do feel that a nation with nuclear weapons, they have got to be dealt with.
SANDERS: I think we do have an honest disagreement: in the incredible quagmire of Syria, where it's hard to know who's fighting who and if you give arms to this guy, it may end up in ISIS' hand the next day. And we all know--the secretary is absolutely
right--Assad is a butcher of his own people, a man using chemical weapons against his own people. But I think in terms of our priorities in the region, our first priority must be the destruction of ISIS. Our second priority must be getting rid of Assad,
through some political settlement, working with Iran, working with Russia. But the immediate task is to bring all interests together who want to destroy ISIS, including Russia, including Iran, including our Muslim allies to make that the major priority.
The "next eight nations combined" add up to $532 billion annual military expenditures. Compare that to the
U.S.'s annual total of $581 billion, and Pres. Obama is accurate. (Sen. Rand Paul said in 2015 the same statement about "the next ten countries combined," and we rated his statement "loosely accurate", but Obama could have gone up to "the next nine
nations combined" adding in South Korea's $34B). Obama's point was the same as Paul's: the U.S. has by far the strongest military on earth, and we need not increase military spending to maintain our military dominance.
"You know, last year, Vice President Biden said that, with a new moon-shot, America can cure cancer. Last month, he worked with this Congress to give scientists at the National Institutes of
Health the strongest resources that they've had in over a decade. . "So tonight, I'm announcing a new national effort to get it done. And because he's gone to the mat for all of us on so many issues over the past 40 years, I'm putting Joe in
charge of mission control. For the loved ones we've all lost, for the families that we can still save, let's make America the country that cures cancer once and for all. What do you think? Let's make it happen. And medical research is critical."
SANDERS: I have a difference of opinion with Secretary Clinton
on this. I worry that Secretary Clinton is too much into regime change without knowing what the unintended consequences might be. Yes, we could get rid of Saddam Hussein, but that destabilized the entire region. Yes, we could get rid of Gadhafi, a
terrible dictator, but that created a vacuum for ISIS. Yes, we could get rid of Assad tomorrow, but that would create another political vacuum that would benefit ISIS. Getting rid of dictators is easy. But before you do that, you've got to think about
what happens the day after. We need to put together broad coalitions to [avoid having a] political vacuum filled by terrorists. In Syria the primary focus now must be on destroying ISIS and [it's a] secondary issue to get rid of Assad.
CRUZ: We need to learn from history. Obama, Clinton, and far too many Republicans--want to topple Assad. Assad is a bad man. But if we topple Assad, the result will be that
ISIS will take over Syria, and it will worsen U.S. national security interests. And I'll tell you whose view on Assad is the same as mine. It's Prime Minister Netanyahu. Prime Minister Netanyahu has said Israel doesn't have a dog in that fight because
Assad is a puppet of Iran, a Shia radical Islamic terrorist, but at the same time, Prime Minister Netanyahu doesn't want to see Syria governed by ISIS. And we need to focus on American interests, not on global aspirations...
CRUZ: We keep hearing from President Obama and Hillary Clinton and Washington Republicans that they're searching for these mythical moderate rebels. It's like a purple unicorn. They never exist. These
moderate rebels end up being jihadists. KASICH: I don't understand this thing about Assad. He has to go. Assad is aligned with Iran and Russia. The one thing we want to prevent is we want to prevent Iran being able to extend a Shia crescent all across
the Middle East. Assad has got to go. And there are moderates there. There are moderates in Syria who we should be supporting. I do not support a civil war. I don't want to be policeman of the world.
But we can't back off of this. And let me tell you, at the end, the Saudis have agreed to put together a coalition inside of Syria to stabilize that country. Assad must go. It will be a blow to Iran and Russia.
CHRISTIE: Not only would I be prepared to do it, I would do it.
Yes, we would shoot down the planes of Russian pilots. PAUL: Well, I think if you're in favor of World War III, you have your candidate. My goodness, what we want in a leader is someone with judgment, not someone who is so reckless as to stand on the
stage and say, "Yes, I'm going to shoot down Russian planes." Russia already flies in that airspace. It may not be something we're in love with the fact that they're there, but they were invited by Iraq and by Syria to fly in that airspace. And so if
we announce we're going to have a no-fly zone, it is a recipe for disaster. It's a recipe for World War III. We need to confront Russia from a position of strength, but we don't need to confront Russia from a point of recklessness that would lead to war.
KASICH: I don't mind if we give some humanitarian aid to the Jordanians or the Saudis if need be, but I've been for
this no-fly zone so that we can have a sanctuary for people to be safe. And it was the Kurds and perhaps the Jordanians who could defend it. But the Russians have now deployed S-400 air defense system that threatens our ability to move around.
The only thing you can do with that air defense system is to take it out. And of course that's very serious. Q: You would take out a Russian air defense system? KASICH: No, I think that we should proceed with moving forward on a no-fly zone.
And I think we should proceed by putting boots on the ground and a coalition with Europeans and with our friends in the Middle East like we had in the first Gulf War to destroy ISIS once and for all.
"We need to beam messages around the world" about the freedoms Americans enjoy,
Kasich said. "It means freedom, it means opportunity, it means respect for women, it means freedom to gather, it means so many things." The US already has a government-funded broadcast system in Voice of America,
which broadcasts American news and programming abroad. The radio, television and digital audience reaches up to 188 million people per week.
TRUMP: As far as Syria, if Putin wants to go and knock
the hell out of ISIS, I am all for it, 100%, and I can't understand how anybody would be against it. Q: They're not doing that. TRUMP: They blew up a Russian airplane. He cannot be in love with these people.
He's going in, and we can go in, and everybody should go in. As far as the Ukraine is concerned, we have a group of people, and a group of countries, including Germany--why are we always doing the work? I'm all for protecting Ukraine--but, we have
countries that are surrounding the Ukraine that aren't doing anything. They say, "Keep going, keep going, you dummies, keep going. Protect us." And we have to get smart. We can't continue to be the policeman of the world.
The "next ten countries combined" add up to $598 billion annual military expenditures. Compare that to the U.S.'s annual total of $581 billion, and Sen. Paul is pretty much correct. He spoke a bit loosely,
saying "we spend MORE than the next ten countries combined," when he should have said "we spend A COMPARABLE AMOUNT to the next ten countries combined." But we rate his statement as ACCURATE.
PAUL: I think it's particularly naive, particularly foolish to think that we're not going to talk to Russia. Ronald Reagan was strong, but Ronald Reagan didn't send troops into the
Middle East. The question goes to be, "who do we want to be our commander-in-chief?" Do you want a commander-in-chief who says something that we never did throughout the entire Cold War, to discontinue having conversations with the Russians? I am not
happy about them flying there. But I'm not naive enough to say, "well, Iraq has them flying over their airspace, we're just going to announce that we're shooting them down." That is naive to the point of being something you might hear in junior high.
TRUMP: If Putin wants to go and knock the hell out of ISIS, I am all for it, 100%. We can't continue to be the policeman of the world. BUSH: Donald's absolutely wrong
on this. We have to be involved. We should have a no fly zone in Syria. FIORINA: Gov. Bush is correct. We must have a no fly zone in Syria because Russia cannot tell the USA where and when to fly our planes. PAUL: You're asking for a no fly zone in
an area in which Russia already flies. Russia flies in that zone at the invitation of Iraq. I'm not saying it's a good thing, but you better know at least what we're getting into. So, when you think it's going to be a good idea to have a no fly zone over
Iraq, realize that means you are saying we are going to shoot down Russian planes. If you're ready for that, be ready to send your sons and daughters to another war in Iraq. You can be strong without being involved in every civil war around the world.
Pataki said, "Clinton put an unsecure server, in her home. We have no doubt that that was hacked, and that state secrets are out there to the Iranians, the Russians, the Chinese and others." It is true that Clinton had a personal
email account on a private server. It is also true that some emails contained unmarked classified information. But was Clinton's server "hacked"? And did the Iranians, Russians and Chinese obtain "state secrets"? That's all speculation. Pataki is
referring to reports of hacking attempts that may or may not have been successful. Investigations have found that some hacking attempts originated from Russia, China, South Korea and Germany--but no evidence that any were successful.
CRUZ: ISIS. Q: So table the Assad discussion right now? CRUZ: We have no business sticking our nose in that civil war.
Q: So you're a "no" on the no fly zones, none of that stuff, stick to just ISIS? Would you work with the Russians? If they are helping with ISIS, would you work with them?
CRUZ: Of course, we shouldn't be partnering with the Russians. Look, this is a great example of the utter failure of the Obama/Clinton foreign policy.
This void in power has let Putin step in there. And anyone who believes Russia is fighting against terrorism, I got a bridge to sell them.
CLINTON: We have an opportunity here--and inside the administration this is being hotly debated--to get that leverage to try to get the
Russians to have to deal with everybody in the region and begin to move toward a political, diplomatic solution in Syria. Q [to Sanders]: Putin in Syria? SANDERS: I think Mr. Putin is going to regret what he is doing. Q: He doesn't seem to be the
type of guy to regret a lot. SANDERS: I think he's already regretting what he did in Crimea and what he is doing in the Ukraine. I think he is really regretting the decline of his economy. And I think what he is trying to do now is save some face.
But I think when Russians get killed in Syria and when he gets bogged down, I think the Russian people are going to give him a message that maybe they should come home, maybe they should start working with the United States to rectify the situation now.
CLINTON: I applaud the administration because they are engaged in talks right now with the Russians to make it clear that they've got to be part of the solution to try to end that bloody conflict. And, to provide safe zones so
that people are not going to have to be flooding out of Syria at the rate they are. SANDERS: Well, let's understand that when we talk about Syria, you're talking about a quagmire in a quagmire. You're talking about groups of people trying to overthrow
Assad, other groups of people fighting ISIS. You're talking about people who are fighting ISIS using their guns to overthrow Assad, and vice versa. I will do everything that I can to make sure that the U.S. does not get involved in another quagmire like
we did in Iraq, the worst foreign policy blunder in the history of this country. We should be putting together a coalition of Arab countries who should be leading the effort. We should be supportive, but I do not support American ground troops in Syria.
TRUMP: I want our military to be beyond anything, no contest, and technologically, most importantly. But we are going to get bogged
down in Syria. If you look at what happened with the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, that's when they went bankrupt. Q: So, you think Putin's going to get suckered into-- TRUMP: They're going to get bogged down. Everybody that's touched the
Middle East, they've gotten bogged down. Now, Putin wants to go in and I like that Putin is bombing the hell out of ISIS. Putin has to get rid of ISIS because Putin doesn't want ISIS coming into Russia. Q: Why do you trust him and nobody else does?
TRUMP: I don't trust him. But the truth is, it's not a question of trust. I don't want to see the United States get bogged down. We've spent now $2 trillion in Iraq, probably a trillion in Afghanistan. We're destroying our country.
Kasich also sharply criticized President Barack Obama for what he said were years of inaction in the region that has allowed Assad to remain in power. "No more dickering, no more delaying, no more negotiations, he has to go,"
Kasich said of Assad. "The longer we look at the void that America has created in this world, the more chaos we have. The time has come for the United States to act."
Kasich said the zones would provide refuge for Syrians fleeing the 4-year-old civil war that has killed a quarter million people and displaced an estimated
4 million. He suggested regional assistance from Turkey, Jordan and the Kurds and said the administration should encourage European allies to help enforce any no-fly zones. "A no-fly zone can be very, very effective if it's enforced," he said.
The
Russians made perfectly clear this was unacceptable. Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister said "Georgia's and Ukraine's membership in the alliance is a huge strategic mistake which will have most serious consequences for pan-European security." Putin
himself said, "Georgia and Ukraine becoming part of NATO is a direct threat to Russia." You all remember that there was a war between Russia and Georgia in August 2008. That was a consequence of this--because the Georgians thought we were sending them
a signal that they could get uppity with the Russians and we would back them because they were going to become part of NATO. The Russians clobbered the Georgians, and Georgia is in deep trouble today because it thought it could become part of NATO. ÿ
TRUMP:
Well, I had heard that he wanted to meet with me. And certainly I am open to it. I don't know that it's going to take place, but I know that people have been talking.
We'll see what happens. But certainly, if he wanted to meet, I would love to do that. You know, I've been saying relationship is so important in business, that it's so important in deals, and so important in the country.
And if President Obama got along with Putin, that would be a fabulous thing. But they do not get along. Putin does not respect our president. And I'm sure that our president does not like him very much.
TRUMP: Number one, they have to respect you. He has absolutely no respect for President Obama. Zero. I would talk to him. I would get along with him.
I believe I would get along with a lot of the world leaders that this country is not getting along with. I think I will get along with Putin, and I will get along with others, and we will have a much more stable world.
Bernie is against the expansion of NATO because it provokes
unnecessary aggression from Russia. Moreover, he believes European nations should fund more of the costs of an alliance primarily intended to protect their continent. Q: What is Bernie's opinion on NATO expansion? A: He's against it, claiming it is a
waste of taxpayer dollars and not geo-politically sound. In 1997, Bernie said: "After four decades of the cold war and trillions of taxpayer dollars allocated to compete in the arms race, it is not the time to continue wasting billions helping to defend
Europe, let alone assuming any costs associated with expanding NATO eastward." Bernie opposes eastward expansion because he's not interested in revisiting the Cold War era when Russia and the US were constantly pitted against each other.
TRUMP: I'm a little concerned about NATO from this standpoint. Take Ukraine. We're leading Ukraine. Where's Germany? Where are the countries of Europe leading? I don't mind helping them. Why isn't Germany leading this charge? Why is the
United States? I mean, we're like the policemen of the world. And why are we leading the charge in Ukraine? Q: So you wouldn't allow Ukraine into NATO? TRUMP: I would not care that much. Whether it goes in or doesn't go in, I wouldn't care. Look,
I would support NATO. Q: It sounds like you're not a fan of NATO TRUMP: I'm a fan of fairness. I'm a fan of common sense. I'm certainly not a fan of us being against Russia. Why are we always at the forefront of everything?
CRUZ: Well, of course they have, and over the last six and a half years we've seen the consequences of the Obama-Clinton foreign
policy. Leading from behind is a disaster. We have abandoned and alienated our friends and allies, and our enemies are stronger. Radical Islam is on the rise; Iran's on the verge of acquiring a nuclear weapon; China is waging cyber warfare against
America. General Soleimani, the Iranian general is the head of the al Quds forces and directly responsible for the murder of over 500 American servicemen in Iraq--part of this Iranian deal was lifting the international sanctions on General Soleimani.
The day General Soleimani flew back from Moscow to Iran was the day we believed that Russia used cyber warfare against the Joint Chiefs. We need a new commander in chief that will stand up to our enemies, and that will have credibility.
Trump has said that the U.S. is mishandling current Iran negotiations and should have walked away from the table once Tehran reportedly rejected the idea
of sending enriched uranium to Russia. He would increase sanctions on Iran. Trump has been sharply critical of the Obama administration's handling of relations with Israel and has called for a closer alliance with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.
CRUZ: She said she did not believe there was any prospect for Ukraine to be successful in defending itself against Russian aggression.
I think that's mistaken. What [Obama and Merkel are] doing with regard to Ukraine and with regard to Russia makes no sense, and it isn't working. It is long past time for us to step forward and provide defensive weapons, so that the men and women of
Ukraine can defend their nation. They are our allies. We committed ourselves to standing with Ukraine to defend their territorial integrity. Q: Should the US arm the Ukraine over the objections of the Germans? CRUZ: What we're seeing is, when
America doesn't lead, Europe can't be expected to step into the breach. What is missing from this is the president of the US. I'm part of a large bipartisan congressional delegation that is united on the need for us to provide defensive arms to Ukraine.
CRUZ: What we appear to know right now is it appears to have been a
Buk Russian missile, and that kind of technology is not randomly found on the streets. That likely found its way into the hands of Russian rebels and Russian separatists in Ukraine because of Putin's direct involvement. Q: So, how would you get Putin
to stop? CRUZ: We should do a number of things. One, we need vigorous sanctions. We need sanctions that target the Russian energy sector, the Russian financial sector that put serious consequences for what Putin is doing. Two, we should immediately
reinstate the antiballistic missile batteries in Eastern Europe that President Obama canceled in 2009 in an effort to appease Russia. And three, we need to open up the export of liquid natural gas, which will help liberate Ukraine and Eastern Europe.
When I visited Moscow in 2009, I thought it important to speak out in
support of press freedoms and against the official campaign of intimidation. I met with journalists, lawyers, and other civil society leaders, including one activist who told me that he had been badly beaten by unidentified thugs. These Russians had seen
friends and colleagues harassed, intimidated, even killed, yet they went on working, writing, and speaking, refusing to be silenced. I assured them that the US would publicly and privately raise human rights concerns with the Russian government.
Putin sees geopolitics as a zero-sum game in which, if someone is winning, then someone else has to be losing. That's an outdated but still dangerous concept, one that requires the US to show both
strength and patience. To manage our relationship with the Russians, we should work with them on specific issues when possible, and rally other nations to work with us to prevent or limit their negative behavior when needed.
Putin sees geopolitics as a zero-sum game in which, if someone is winning, then someone else has to be losing. That's an outdated but still dangerous concept, one that requires the US to show both strength and patience. To manage our relationship
with the Russians, we should work with them on specific issues when possible, and rally other nations to work with us to prevent or limit their negative behavior when needed. That's a difficult but essential balance to strike.
This was months before Obama ultimately turned away from meeting with Putin, as Russia harbored NSA leaker Snowden. But by including this memo, she reminds readers that Clinton--who became the face of the Russian
reset as the top spokesperson for the Obama administration--was more hawkish on Putin than others in the administration. It's helpful to her at a time when Republicans have been lambasting her over Russian's aggression against Ukraine.
[Those making that argument] should ponder how much more serious the crisis would be--and how much more difficult it would be--to contain further
Russian aggression if Eastern and Central European nations were not now NATO allies. The NATO door should remain open, and we should be clear and tough-minded in dealing with Russia. If Putin is restrained and doesn't push beyond
Crimea into eastern Ukraine it will not be because he has lost his appetite for more power, territory and influence.
CRUZ: There's a whole range of activity. President Obama set two straw men: One, invade or two, do nothing. And there's a whole range of intermediate steps. Pres. Obama should have spoken out
clearly in support of freedom, in support of the protesters when the protesters began in the Maidan Square. I had the privilege of traveling through the Maidan Square, being led by 16-year-old high school girl who saw her compatriots shot by army snipers
And they continue to protest for freedom. America should speak out for freedom. But then after that, we should stand with our allies and not give into Russia. We should, right now, install the anti-ballistic missile batteries in Eastern Europe, in
Poland, the Czech Republic, that were scheduled to go in 2009, that Pres. Obama canceled in an effort to appease Putin. That hadn't worked. And we should be using energy as a tool to help liberate the Ukrainian people and to impose costs on Putin.
Her comments came at a marketing industry conference as pro-Russia protests in the eastern part of Ukraine were ongoing. The United States has condemned the protest as the transparent work of Russia attempting to provoke a response.
Clinton has spoken out a number of times against Putin's action in Crimea. She reiterated a point she has made before that the Russia leader is a "tough guy with thin skin." In the past, she has said Russia's pretext for invading Crimea in order to
protect ethnic Russians was similar to arguments made by Germany in World War II.
It wasn't immediately clear who Paul was attacking. He did not name names, but that may simply have been because he had too many targets. He could have been referring to several of his potential rivals for the presidency.
Paul's dovish line started to seem a bit embarrassing when men with unmarked uniforms began to
seize control of parts of Crimea. Paul then issued this timid warning for the Kremlin: "Russia should be reminded that stability and territorial integrity go hand in hand with prosperity. Economic incentives align against Russian military involvement in
Ukraine." Eight days later, he published an essay in Time under the headline, US Must Take Strong Action Against Russian Aggression. He wrote, "It is our role as a global leader to be the strongest nation in opposing Russia's latest aggression."
CRUZ (VIDEO TAPE): A critical reason for Putin's aggression has been President Obama's weakness. That Putin fears no retribution. You better believe Putin sees in Benghazi four Americans are murdered and nothing
happens. There is no retribution. You better believe that Putin sees that in Syria, Obama draws a red line and ignores the red line. Q: (ON CAMERA): So how would you stand up? What would you do? Military action? CRUZ: No. No, look, not at all.
Q: Sanctions? Would you do sanctions? CRUZ: Absolutely, yes. There are a host of things we can do. Let's rewind the clock a little bit. #1, don't demonstrate weakness for five years. We have seen historically over and over again tyrants respond to
weakness. We keep making that mistake with Putin. Putin is a KGB thug. When the protests began in Ukraine, the president should have stood unapologetically, emphatically for freedom. And when the US doesn't speak for freedom, tyrants notice.
CRUZ: I'm a big fan of Rand Paul.
I don't agree with him on foreign policy. I think U.S. leadership is critical in the world. And I agree with him that we should be very reluctant to deploy military force aboard. But I think there is a vital role, just as Ronald Reagan did. When
Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union an "evil empire," when he stood in front of the Brandenburg Gate and said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," those words changed the course of history. The United States has a responsibility to defend our values.
More important than aid is expanding economic trade expanding mutually beneficial commerce, helping open the door for energy to flow to Ukraine in the private market," Cruz said. He added Russia should be kicked out of the G-8, and that the
United States shouldn't wait on its allied for further action which should include initiating plans to move forward with the missile defense system in Europe.
Instead of providing clarity, the Obama administration offers tortured semantics. The interim
agreement over Iran's nuclear program is referred to as a display of "international unity." And now, the Russian invasion of Ukraine was euphemistically designated "an uncontested arrival." This is the language of fools. Appeasement, historically,
leads to more and more violence. Bullies and tyrants are only encouraged when the US uses words that willfully ignore the reality of the threats the US and our allies face. Ironically, this administration's effort to avoid conflict at all costs makes
conflict all the more likely. Putin knows there will be no serious reprisals for aggression from an American president who was only waiting for his re-election to give him the "flexibility" to make additional concessions at the negotiating table.
But we are not naive--neither Russia
or the US. We will not agree with Russia on everything. For example, the US will not recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states. These differences are real. But we continue to see opportunities for the US & Russia to partner in ways that
advance our mutual security interest & the interest of the international community--whether by safeguarding and reducing nuclear arsenals, or boosting our trade & investment to help each other unlock the enormous innovative potential of our societies.
A: Our policy is prevention, not containment. And we have, through hard work with the international community, imposed the toughest
set of sanctions on any country. We know it's having an effect. We have to continue to keep them isolated, and keep Russia and China on board. [But] we've said from the very beginning, we're open to diplomacy. We are doing so in the so-called
P5-plus-1 format. Q: What about military action against them? A: Well, we've always said all options are on the table. The president has been very clear about that. [With regards to the] terrorism aspect of Iran's behavior, when I came into office,
there were too many countries that were turning a blind eye to it. We have worked very hard to get the international community to say these guys need to be stopped on the terrorism front. They cannot be permitted to go forward.
Not surprisingly, Putin was ecstatic: "The latest decision by President Obama has positive implications," said Putin. "I very much hope that this very right
and brave decision will be followed by others." The Obama administration made the decision to throw our friends Poland and the Czech
Republic under the bus and leave them naked to missile attacks "despite having no public guarantees" that Moscow would help crack down on Iran's missile programs.
While we no longer considered each other enemies, you couldn't always tell that from the rhetoric flying back and forth. Ironically, this came at a time when American and Russian security interests, as well as economic interests, were more closely
aligned than ever. That's why Pres. Obama made it a priority to reset our relationship with Russia--and asked me to launch it just three weeks into the new administration at the Munich Security Conference. I said then that "the United States and
Russia can disagree and still work together where our interests coincide. And they coincide in many places." We focused the reset on concrete outcomes that serve both countries' interests--"win-wins," as President Obama calls them.
Certainly, some of these strong women found their models in the stories of the Old and New Testaments, but it's clear to me that all of them were answering to a higher power.
Also near-universal are the standard references to Hamas: a terrorist organization, dedicated to the destruction of Israel (or maybe all Jews). Hamas has called for a 2-state
settlement in the terms of international consensus: publicly and repeatedly. Israel and the US object that the Hamas proposals do not go far enough.
Perhaps so, but they surely go much farther toward the international consensus than the firm and unwavering US-Israeli rejectionist stance, reiterated obliquely by Obama in his State Department talk.
"Russia reveals itself to be highly critical of NATO expansion toward the east, and in particular toward the former
Soviet republics that it considers to be its natural sphere of influence." "Last year at its April summit in Bucharest, the alliance promised an eventual path to the admission of the Ukraine and Georgia supported by Obama's predecessor
George W. Bush," the cable reminds us. Can there be any doubt that NATO is a warlike and aggressive organization, one that threatens not only Russia but also other countries elsewhere in the world?
We haven’t been doing enough of that. We tend to be reactive.
That’s what we’ve been doing over the last eight years. That’s part of what happened in Afghanistan, where we rushed into Iraq and Sen. McCain and President Bush suggested that it wasn’t that important to catch bin
Laden right now and that we could muddle through, and that has cost us dearly. We’ve got to be much more strategic if we’re going to be able to deal with all of the challenges that we face out there. Regarding Russia: Energy is going
to be key in dealing with Russia. If we can reduce our energy consumption, that reduces the amount of petro dollars that they have to make mischief around the world. That will strengthen us and weaken them when it comes to issues like Georgia.
McCAIN: We obviously would not wait for the United Nations Security Council. Both Russia and
China would probably pose significant obstacles. OBAMA: We cannot allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon. It would be a game-changer in the region. Not only would it threaten Israel, our strongest ally in the region and one of our strongest allies in the
world, but it would also create a possibility of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists. And so it’s unacceptable. And I will do everything that’s required to prevent it. And we will never take military options off the table. And it is
important that we don’t provide veto power to the UN or anyone else in acting in our interests. It is important, though, for us to use all the tools at our disposal to prevent the scenario where we’ve got to make those kinds of choices.
A: Our entire Russian approach has to be evaluated, because an aggressive Russia is a threat to the stability of the region. Their actions in Georgia were unacceptable. It is critical for the next
president to follow through on our six-point cease-fire. It is important that we explain to the Russians that you cannot be a 21st-century superpower and act like a 20th-century dictatorship. We also have to affirm the fledgling democracies in that
region--the Estonians, the Lithuanians, the Poles, the Czechs. They are members of NATO. To countries like Georgia & Ukraine, we have to say they are free to join NATO if they meet the requirements. We also can’t return to a Cold War posture
with respect to Russia. It’s important that we recognize there are going to be some areas of common interest. One is nuclear proliferation. This is an area where I’ve led in the Senate, working to deal with the proliferation of loose nuclear weapons.
"We'll start by seeking a global ban on the production of fissile material for weapons." Obama stated we would set a goal to expand the US-Russian ban on intermediate-range missiles so the agreement is global
Obama argued, "We'll be in a better position to lead the world in enforcing the rules of the road if we firmly abide by those rules." This is truly the crux of Obama's argument: because we do not demonstrate moral leadership, other nations have no
choice but to proliferate nuclear weapons. At the base of the argument, Obama is saying a world with nuclear weapons is our fault. "It's time to stop giving countries like Iran and North Korea an excuse," he said. "It's time for America to lead."
A: It would be a mistake. Look, if we’re going to do something about nuclear proliferation--just to take one issue--we’ve got to have Russia involved. The amount of loose nuclear
material that’s floating around in the former Soviet Union, the amount of technical know-how that is in countries that used to be behind the Iron Curtain--without Russia’s cooperation, our efforts on that front will be greatly weakened.
A: In a situation like Darfur,
I think that the world has a self-interest in ensuring that genocide is not taking place on our watch. Not only because of the moral and ethical implications, but also because chaos in Sudan ends up spilling over into Chad.
It ends up spilling over into other parts of Africa, can end up being repositories of terrorist activity. Those are all things that we’ve got to pay attention to. And if we have enough nations that are willing--particularly
African nations, and not just Western nations--that are willing to intercede in an effective, coherent way, then I think that we need to act.
On 2 February 1961 the pair slipped away to Maui and were married. The wedding--Obama, "black as pitch," Ann, "white as milk"--would have been illegal in 22 states.
Ann dropped out of college. On 4 August Barack Hussein Obama Jr. was born at the Kapi-olani Medical Center in Honolulu.
A: Clarity. Prevention, not preemption. An absolute repudiation of this president’s doctrine, which has only three legs in the stool: 1) don’t
talk to anybody; 2) preemption; & 3) regime change. I would reject all three. We need a doctrine of prevention. The role of a great power is to prevent crises. And we don’t have to imagine any of the crises. You have Pakistan, Russia, China, Darfur.
A: The biggest threat to the US is, right now, North Korea. Iran not as big a threat, but a long-term threat.
And quite frankly, the tendency of Putin to move in a totalitarian direction, which would unhinge all that’s going on positively in Europe.
I was astonished to discover wasteful spending in the Pentagon budget; I was even more astonished that hardly anyone was speaking out against it. The mantra in Washington at
that time was to trim the fat from our social welfare and entitlement programs. But to take the welfare out of the Pentagon? Well, to do so as a cheap hawk Republican, who walked the political tightrope of being strong on defense and tight with a dollar.
One of my congressional colleagues even called me a traitor to our country, that's how out there my position seemed to be among the hawks in the Republican Party, but my feeling was that we needed to ferret out this waste no matter where we found it.
Although a public poll said that 75% of the American people were opposed to giving Russia more money, and we were already in a hard
fight for the economic plan, I felt we had no choice but to press ahead. American had spent trillions of dollars in defense to win the Cold War; we couldn't risk reversal over less that $2 billion and a bad poll.
To the surprise of my staff, the congressional leaders, including the Republicans, agreed with me. At a meeting I convened to push the plan, Senator Joe Biden, the chairman of the
Foreign Relations Committee, strongly endorsed the aid package. Newt Gingrich was passionately in favor of helping Russia, saying it was a "great defining moment" for American and we had to do the right thing.
Two dealmakers have served as president-one was Franklin Roosevelt, who got us through WWII, and the other was Richard Nixon, who forced the Russians to the bargaining table to achieve the first meaningful reductions in nuclear arms.
A dealmaker can keep many balls in the air, weigh the competing interests of other nations, and above all, constantly put America’s best interests first. The dealmaker knows when to be tough and when to back off. He knows when to bluff and he knows
when to threaten, understanding that you threaten only when prepared to carry out the threat. The dealmaker is cunning, secretive, focused, and never settles for less than he wants. It’s been a long time since America had a president like that.
Few respect weakness.
Ultimately we have to deal with hostile nations in the only language they know: unshrinking conviction and the military power to back it up if need be. There and in that order are America’s two greatest assets in foreign affairs.
HARRIS: There was a counter strike on our troops in Iraq, and they suffered serious brain injuries, and do you know what Donald Trump dismissed them as? Headaches. This is a pattern where he referred to our men who are serving as
suckers and losers. Public reporting said Russia had bounties on the heads of American soldiers. Donald Trump had talked at least six times to Vladimir Putin and never brought up the subject.
Trump does not care about troops' injuries or deaths
If we would've listened to [Biden and the Democrats], the country would have been left wide open, millions of people would have died, not 200,000. And one person is too much. It's China's fault.
It should have never happened. They stopped it from going in, but it was China's fault.
And, by the way, when you talk about numbers, you don't know how many people died in China.
You don't know how many people died in Russia. You don't know how many people died in India. They don't exactly give you a straight count, just so you understand.
COVID: We don't know how many died in China, Russia, India
Putin expressed support for holding esports tournaments in schools to help Russian gamers perform better at an international level. Among the first nations to officially recognize esports as a sports discipline in 2016, Russia looks to make esports
culture a larger part of the school curriculum. Reports suggested that Putin legitimizing esports in schools will "contribute to the destruction of clich‚s in the minds of many parents that computer games are a pure evil," according to Realnoe Vremya.
Supports holding esports tournaments in schools
Q: The FBI Director said that Russia has been "very active in its efforts to influence the election & denigrate" you.
Russia is an opponent, not an enemy
Q: Do you believe Russia is an enemy?
China is a competitor, not an opponent
Q: How will you handle Russia's interfering in the election and compromising the voting system of the United States?
Push plan to make voting machinery & process secure
Unlike the Obama administration, the Trump administration had actually taken a hard line against Russia, which the media hardly ever reported because it didn't fit their Trump-Russia collusion narrative. Since taking office, President Trump had imposed
crippling sanctions on Russia; closed Russian diplomatic properties in the United States and expelled Russian spies pretending to be diplomats; approved the sale of lethal arms to Ukraine to defend against Russian aggression; persuaded
NATO allies to increase their military spending to deter Russia; isolated and sanctioned Russia's worst proxies: Iran and Venezuela; made
America the number one producer of oil and gas, lowering the cost of energy and hurting the Russian economy; and rebuilt our military so that neither Russia nor any other foreign adversary could challenge the United States.
Hard line against Russia: sanctions & diplomatic expulsions
Trump claimed in his Aug 28 convention speech that "America has tested more than every country in Europe put together." The U.S. has tested many millions of people, but that statement isn't true:
FactCheck: No, America has tested less than Europe combined
One of Trump's more recent foreign policy scandals was the suggestion that Russia had been paying bounties to Taliban fighters in Afghanistan for dead U.S. troops, which is believed to be linked to several American deaths in Afghanistan. "Under
President Biden, America will not turn a blind eye to Russian bounties on the heads of American soldiers," the former vice president said. "Nor will I put up with foreign interference in our most sacred democratic exercise: voting."
Don't turn a blind eye to Russian bounties on US soldiers
On abortion: "We agree, for example, on the importance of the United States playing a responsible, principled leadership role in the world," she said of her son. "We agree on the importance of having strong alliances. We agree we have to be cleareyed
and strong in dealing with adversaries like Russia and the threat that China may pose. We disagree on things like choice. I'm pro-choice. He's pro-life. That's the kind of difference that we ought to be able to respect."
Disagrees with son: she's pro-choice, he's pro-life
Rice has blamed the violent protests that rocked major American cities on "foreign actors," and even suggested that Russia could be involved in stirring them up. "I'm not reading the intelligence today, or these days -- but based on my experience,
this is right out of the Russian playbook," Rice said. "But we cannot allow the extremists, the foreign actors, to distract from the real problems we have in this country that are longstanding, centuries old, and need to be addressed responsibly."
Russia may have helped stir up violent protests
Russia enacted a law cutting from three years down to one year a period required for foreign nationals working on certain occupations to apply for a Russian passport. The list of the occupations opening the fast lane to
Russian citizenship includes 135 positions (up from 74 before), such as medical and veterinary professions, school teaching, journalism and even, for some reason, entomology.
Reduced time for Russian passports for some occupations
Many evangelicals feel uneasy about the increasing marginalization of religion in the West. Some of them find appeal in Putin's brazen rejection of secularism. Russian powers-that-be proclaim boldly that Russia is the Christian nation.
Russian Orthodox priests are routinely invited to participate in various public functions. With Putin's blessing, foundations of Orthodox culture are taught in public schools.
Foundations of Orthodox culture are taught in public schools
Russian people are treated equally regardless of race, gender, or belief, President Vladimir Putin emphasized. "Russia has never had, nor does it have, nor will it ever have anything connected to restricting anyone's rights based on sexual orientation,
race or religious beliefs," Putin told an online meeting with the members of the working group that had drafted constitutional amendments.
Russians treated equally regardless of race, gender, belief
Putin has called on Russian officials to denounce fake propaganda of "civilized" use of "soft" drugs. The Russian leader pointed out that Russia's anti-drug information campaign should be expanded in the media, on social networks and in schools and
universities. "We need to tell the honest and tough truth about the problem that anyone can face. We need to refute the lie, including the lie about the so-called safe and civilized use of so-called soft and other drugs," Putin said.
Refute the lie of safe and civilized use of soft drugs
Nations watch what we do, and they emulate to our behavior, even now. America's authority to question Russian president Vladimir Putin's treatment of dissidents weakened when
President Trump refused to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for the murder of an American resident and journalist.
International calls to accept refugees from Yemen, Syria, and elsewhere go unanswered when the Trump administration offers individual states the right to refuse resettlement.
To the extent that they are emulating the behavior of America and the erosion of democracy is not a permanent good.
States' refugee resettlement refusal is emulated globally
Putin established a military-patriotic youth movement in 2015 and created a patriotic directorate in the Russian Armed Forces in 2018.
Security officials began sending delinquent juveniles to military-patriotic re-education camps last year, and the military announced plans to hold annual education camps for high-schoolers at a military-themed park near Moscow.
Annual education camps for high-schoolers at military park
Putin submitted legislation adding patriotism and war history to Russia's education law. Putin's amendments seek to add "a sense of patriotism and citizenship, respect for the memory of the defenders of the Fatherland and the achievements of the
Fatherland's heroes" to the law's current definition of upbringing. Earlier, Putin reiterated his long-held stance identifying patriotism as Russia's national idea.
Patriotism is Russia's national idea
Tweet from @realDonaldTrump: "@washingtonpost Headline reads, 'A BOOST IN TESTS, BUT LACK OF TAKERS.' We have done a great job on Ventilators, Testing, and everything else. Were left little by Obama. Over 11 million tests, and going up fast. More than
all countries in the world, combined."
Falsely claims US did more tests rest of world combined
OnTheIssues FactCheck: According to WorldOMeters.info, tests as of May 18:
Just those three countries combined total more tests
than the USA, so "more than all countries in the world combined" is false. Worldwide, the current total is 61M tests. Trump's figures would indicate the USA has performed over 50% of the world's tests; in fact USA is under 20%.
World leaders held an online summit aimed at galvanizing global efforts to develop a coronavirus vaccine. At the end of the three-hour meeting, billions of dollars had been pledged to fund the efforts. Notably absent
from the meeting were any officials from the Trump administration in the U.S., the country with the highest confirmed death toll from the new disease by far. Russia also declined to join the meeting.
Administration didn't participate in global vaccine summit
Russia re-entered the world's top five defense spending nations in 2019 after briefly falling to sixth place the previous year, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)'s latest annual report.
Russia now ranks fourth in the world for defense spending, with $65.1 billion in expenditures in 2019 compared to $61.4 billion the previous year.
Russia returns to top 5 defense spending countries
President Trump warned he could veto the newly House-passed Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act bill until the origins of the Russia probe, which he called an "attempted coup," are investigated. "Many
Republican Senators want me to Veto the FISA Bill until we find out what led to, and happened with, the illegal attempted 'coup' of the duly elected President of the United States, and others!" Trump tweeted.
May veto FISA bill; unless "attempted coup" against him
Look, 21st Century warfare is cyber warfare. What we're having is an attack by a hostile foreign power on our democracy right now. The question you have to ask is, where is the commander-in-chief?
Russian election interference is cyberwarfare
Q: The city of Idlib in Syria is facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. The Syrian regime and Russia are targeting schools, bakeries, and hospitals. What would President Warren do to stop the mass murder in Idlib, Syria?
No military intervention in Syria because no military answer
Q: The city of Idlib in Syria is facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. The Syrian regime and Russia are targeting schools, bakeries, and hospitals. What would you do as president to push back regime and Russian forces and stop the killing
of innocent civilians?
I stand with the people of Idlib against Syrian dictator
The pension reform is deeply unpopular. It has provoked widespread opposition, including street protests in 2018 and 2019. In an effort to assuage social anger and drum up support for constitutional reforms he is seeking,
President Vladimir Putin recently announced the indexing of pensions to inflation. This small increase in the size of Russian pensions will be placed, alongside other constitutional changes, on an April 2020 "consultative" ballot.
Pension reform unpopular despite indexing for inflation
NATO is going to crumble if we don't beat Trump. NATO is in real trouble. We need NATO for more reasons than just physical security. We need NATO to make sure that we do not allow Russia to continue to have its influence in Eastern Europe in ways that
it had before. It wasn't just to stop the Soviet Union from coming into the United States, coming into Europe. It was to make sure that we did not have a kleptocracy taking over that part of the world, to unite Europe in our behalf.
NATO will crumble if Trump wins a second term
Q: Russian President Vladimir Putin has interfered with Georgian, Ukrainian, French, German, U.K., and U.S. elections. He has occupied territories of Georgia and Ukraine. What will you do to end all of these attacks, which some have said are acts of war?
Putin wants to weaken NATO and democracy
Q: In the final year of the Obama-Biden administration, was there more you could have done to prevent Russian interference?
We had to wait until after election to tell about it
In Dec. 2016, CNN broke a news story: "White House announces retaliation against Russia." The Obama administration had decided to punish Russia for interfering in the 2016 election, shuttering two Russian compounds in the US and ejecting 35 diplomats
accused of spying.
2016: sanctions against Russia for election interference
Russia is courting India to sign a free trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union, or EAEU, a move some experts argue could be a "perfect fit" for both countries.
Nikolay Kudashev, the Russian ambassador to India, told reporters that Moscow hoped New Delhi and the EAEU would sign a free trade pact within the next year.
Russia is courting India to sign a free trade agreement
Claim 1: Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election
Pushed false theory that Ukraine framed Russia over meddling
FactCheck on Claim 1: Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election
OpEd: Trump's attack on Ukraine politically driven falsehood
Bloomberg accuses Trump of "coddling" President Vladimir Putin and failing to stand up to him over Russia's interference in U.S. elections. He argues for stronger measures to counter Russia.
Trump coddles Russia; they intruded in 2016 election
Bloomberg argues for stronger measures to counter Russia while also calling for fresh negotiations with Moscow on arms control.
Don't recognize Crimea annexation; do extend START treaty
Patrick has issued no policy proposals regarding U.S. policy toward Russia, though he criticizes Trump for his willingness to solicit foreign interference in U.S. elections.
Crime for Trump to ask Ukraine to investigate Biden
Walsh says he would steadfastly support the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which Trump has repeatedly criticized. Walsh claims that Trump "bear hugs" the leaders of adversarial states such as Russia and North Korea while he "stiff-arms our
allies."
Steadfastly support NATO
Steyer focuses on reversing what he calls Trump's isolationist stance. He pledges to "rebuild" military alliances such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Rebuild traditional multilateral alliances like NATO
Steyer calls China a competitor, but says that "like it or not" the United States has to maintain a political and economic relationship with Beijing.
No trade war, but stand up to China on intellectual property
As Putin prepared to return for a third term, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, described the ex-KGB officer's rule as a "miracle of God." The patriarch's comments were a stark illustration, critics said, of the erosion of the separation of
church and state, as stipulated by Russia's post-Soviet constitution. Over the following years, Putin, who professes a deep Orthodox belief, would shift to ultra-conservatism, positioning himself as a defender of traditional Christian values.
Positioned as a defender of traditional Christian values
Q: What argument can you make to persuade more Americans that impeachment is the right thing?
Press misrepresents how Trump got elected
Trump directed his lawyer, Michael Cohen, to make illegal hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the election to keep her from talking about her alleged extramarital affair with Trump. Trump secretly tried to score a
development project in Moscow that could have earned him hundreds of millions of dollars, and his company asked Vladimir Putin's office for assistance in sealing the deal. (Trump falsely told American voters that he had no business interests in Russia.)
Paid hush money to porn star, lied about Moscow deal
The FBI has great and honorable people, but the leadership was inept and corrupt. I would think that you would personally be appalled by these revelations, because in your press conference the day you announced impeachment, you tied the impeachment
effort directly to the completely discredited Russia Hoax, declaring twice that "all roads lead to Putin," when you know that is an abject lie. I have been far tougher on Russia than President Obama ever even thought to be.
Russia Hoax: I have been far tougher on Russia than Obama
Q: How would you deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin?
International consensus and coalitions on data
Q: If you win the 2020 election, what would you say in your first call with Russian President Vladimir Putin?
Foreign meddling in our elections is an act of aggression
Rep. Devin Nunes dismissed the aid provided to Ukraine by the Obama administration as "blankets." Nunes' comment came as he took aim at "the politicized bureaucracy," the "executive branch employees [who] are charged with implementing policy set by our
president." "Despite their dissatisfaction with President Trump's Ukraine policy," Nunes said, "the president approved the supply of weapons to Ukraine, unlike the previous administration, which provided blankets as defense against invading Russians."
Provided only non-lethal aid to Ukraine against Russia
This president is turning the moral leadership of this country into a dumpster fire. We cannot allow the Russians to continue to grow and influence by abandoning the world stage. We cannot allow Russia to not only interfere in the democracies of the
Ukraine, and Latvia, and Lithuania, but even not calling them out for their efforts to interfere in this democracy are unacceptable. Russia and Putin understand strength, and this President, time and time again, is showing moral weakness.
Trump's withdrawal from world stage is sign of weakness
Q: The American Intelligence community says that Russia is trying to capitalize on the power vacuums around the world [left by America's exit from Syria and from alliances]. What would you do as President to check Vladimir Putin's power on the world
stage?
Russia wants to break up NATO; work with Turkey to keep it
Q: Your response to Putin and Russia?
Russia didn't just meddle in our election; they invaded it
Q: A report by the Senate Democrats says the next president could fight back by publicly revealing what the US knows about Putin's corruption, and work with allies to freeze his bank accounts. Would you take either of those actions?
Renew alliances like Kurds; they make America stronger
I'm waiting to find out how making that call to the head of Ukraine and trying to get him involved in interfering in our election makes America great again. I'd like to hear how leaving the Kurds for slaughter, where Russia then steps in to protect
them, makes America great again. I would like to hear from him about how coddling up to Vladimir Putin makes America great again. It doesn't make America great again, it makes Russia great again. That is what this President has done.
Trump's actions make Russia great again, not America
Q: Your response to Putin and Russia?
Russian hacking of our elections is a hostile act
Putin said his country was working to create a free trade area involving Israel and Egypt.
Working on free trade area involving Israel and Egypt
Q: What additional steps should the U.S. take to remove Nicolas Maduro from power in Venezuela?
Multi-party talks to resolve Venezuelan situation
Q: What steps would you take to counter Russian aggression against Ukraine?
Unlimited military aid to Ukraine against Russian incursion
Q: You've said the turning point in your support for President Trump came after he met with [Russian leader] Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. He was widely criticized for siding with a foreign leader over his own intelligence agencies.
Put America's interests first: no photo ops with Putin
Just before New Years 2017, as it became clear that Russia had pulled off a stunning disinformation campaign on the 2016 election, Obama finally delivered the forceful response his supporters had been yearning for.
Obama expelled dozens of Russian diplomats from the US--many suspected of being spies--and shuttering some Russian compounds, including one not so far from Washington on Maryland's Eastern Shore.
Expelled Russian diplomats for 2016 election disinformation
On April 10, 2015 , Pence flew with a delegation of Indiana business leaders, political donors, and politicos to Berlin. The formal announcement from the governor's office was that this trip was about trade and nothing else. Meanwhile,
Pence's team pitched the Berlin trip as something else. The national press corps bit.
Robust missile defense in Europe against Russian aggression
The Obama administration, and then secretary of state Hilary Clinton, had always been reluctant to call Russia an enemy, the result of diplo-politics that Russia could still be welcomed into the broader world of Western democracies.
Russian hackers paid internet trolls to attend Trump rallies
The Washington Post revealed a tape of Donald Trump bragging about abusing women--a hot mic moment from a 2005 episode of Access Hollywood with show host Billy Bush. Trump said, "When you're a star, you can do anything. Grab 'em by the pussy, you can
do anything you want." Did Pence support a WOMANIZER FOR PRESIDENT? Someone who, by his own words, had molested women.
October Surprise: campaign emails from Russia via WikiLeaks
One of the almost intangible strengths of America is that we can hold ourselves out as a democracy, imperfect though we may be. So they decide to attack what is the strongest pillar of a democracy, which is free and open elections. And you know what
caught heat? The issue of race. So Russia exposed America's Achilles heel. Now it is also a national security issue. And we need to deal with it.
Russian election interference exploited racial divide
Russian aggression in Ukraine is a blatant violation of international law, and we have the obligation to work with our allies to act. Helping Ukraine will also help us prepare for Russian aggression. The Russian interference in Ukrainian elections
was a precursor to their interference in US elections. By helping neighboring states to Russia defend themselves, we're also learning how to defend ourselves.
Helping Ukraine defend itself against Russia helps US
I will not only sign the Paris global climate accords. The greatest threat to humanity is global climate change. We need a robust solution. When John F. Kennedy said I want to put a man on the moon in the next 10 years, not because it's easy, but
because it's hard, he knew it was going to be a measure of our ability to galvanize worldwide competition. He wanted to have a space race with Russia. Why not have a green energy race with China? Why not have clean air and clean water for all Americans?
Why not have clean air and clean water for all Americans?
We lost the state of Michigan because everybody from Republicans to Russians were targeting the suppression of African American voters. We need to say that. If the African American vote in this state had been like it was four years earlier,
we would have won. We need to have a campaign that is ready for what's coming. An all-out assault, especially on the highest performing voter group in our coalition, which is black women. I will be a person that tries to fight against voter suppression.
Must lead the fight against voter suppression
The territorial aggression of Russia must not be allowed to continue. This is a prime example of why US leadership of a rules-based global order is so important that also recognizes the value and need of allies for their equal contributions in different
ways. We need new leadership here at home in order to re-establish that the United States is committed to democracy's values, and that we will not turn our backs on democratic countries under threat from autocrats like Vladimir Putin.
Work with allies to oppose Russian aggression in Ukraine
We must keep tough, targeted, and effective economic and financial sanctions on Russia as long as it continues to assault Ukrainian territory and citizens and continues to illegally occupy Ukrainian territory. Countering Russian aggression also means
supporting Ukraine's independence and ability to make and implement sovereign foreign policy decisions by supporting Ukraine's political, economic, and defense capabilities.
Sanctions on Russia; support for Ukraine
I want to restore U.S. leadership within a rules-based liberal world order that holds nations accountable for their behavior. We must regain our leadership of the values-based world order from which we have retreated. Our absence has permitted China,
Russia and emerging autocrats to act with impunity, with no concerns about consequences. We need to renew our commitment to multilateral action and the international institutions we built to establish and enforce global human rights standards.
Absence from leadership has let autocrats act with impunity
The United States needs to hold Russia accountable for its ongoing aggression against Ukraine. We should do so by increasing sanctions to impose costs on the Russian government and by continuing to provide lethal aid to Ukraine. The actions we take must
also be part of a broader strategy to counter Moscow's malign behavior. That means strengthening NATO's military capabilities and modernizing it to counter cyberattacks with the same resolve we've used to stop tanks from rolling into Europ
Provide lethal aid to Ukraine; strengthen NATO
[Obama's Iran nuclear] deal was good enough to be supported by all of our European allies, along with Russia and China, and Iran itself. Iran was abiding by its terms. If the deal had been given the chance to hold for the full decade, it would have
created a reservoir of goodwill between Iran and the world that would be the basis for the next agreement. Our leaving not only destroyed a carefully crafted international agreement, it sapped our credibility in negotiations with other countries.
Leaving Iran deal saps credibility in future negotiations
Mueller showed a rare flash of indignation regarding WikiLeaks. Mueller called Mr. Trump's encouragement of WikiLeaks "problematic." WikiLeaks published emails stolen by Russian agents during the 2016 campaign, first from the Democratic National
Committee, then from Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta. Mr. Trump cheered the group on repeatedly, praised its actions and urged voters to read the purloined communications.
2016: cheered on WikiLeaks releasing Hillary's stolen emails
On immigration, however, Putin is, in practice, more liberal than most European leaders. He has consistently resisted calls to impose visa requirements on Central Asian countries, an important source of migrant labor. Given Russia's shrinking
working-age population and shortage of manual workers, Putin isn't about to stem that flow, even though Central Asians are Muslims--the kind of immigrants Merkel's opponents, including Trump, distrust and fear the most.
Resisted calls for visa requirements for migrant workers
Q: What will be your first act as president?
Break up with Russia and make up with NATO
The biggest threat to our national security right now is Russia, not China. On China, I think the president has been right to push back but has done it in completely the wrong way.
We should mobilize the entire rest of the world, who all have a shared interest in pushing back on China's mercantilist trade policies, and I think we can do that.
Russian election interference is biggest geopolitical threat
Q: What is the greatest geopolitical threat facing the United States?
Russia has been hacking our democracy for years
Q: What is the greatest national security threat to the United States?
Trump embracing Korean & Russian dictators is a threat
Trump has made us less safe than we were when he became president. So what I would do is stand with our allies, and not give unlimited leverage to China and Russia, which is what he has done.
Require that Trump consult Congress before war with Iran
Reverse America's retreat from the global community
Priorities:
Q: If foreigners, if Russia, if China, if someone else offers you information on opponents, should they accept it or should they call the FBI?
Would take info on opponents from foreigners, might call FBI
STEPHANOPOULOS: Your campaign this time around, if foreigners, if Russia, if China, if someone else offers you information on opponents, should they accept it or should they call the FBI?
Foreign-provided opposition info? Read it; maybe call FBI
Nuclear strategists point out that we are at a greater risk of nuclear war now than ever before in history. And this is what I seek to change; to build relationships that are built on cooperation rather than conflict, deescalate these tensions, work
out the differences that we have. We've got to be able to work with countries like Russia and China to be able to accomplish that objective to keep the American people safe.
We need to engage in diplomacy & deescalate tensions
ENDLESS WAR: We will never have a secure peace as long as capitalism's competitive economic structure generates international conflicts and wars. Nuclear-armed capitalist states--including the US, Russia, and China--compete for resources,
markets, cheap labor, and geopolitical military positioning. If we don't replace capitalism's nationalistic competition with socialism's international cooperation, sooner or later these conflicts will end in nuclear annihilation.
Endless war follows from capitalist competition
[Some defenders of President Trump] say obstruction of justice requires an underlying crime. In fact, obstruction of justice does not require the prosecution of an underlying crime, and there is a logical reason for that.
Prosecutors might not charge a crime precisely *because* obstruction of justice denied them timely access to evidence that could lead to a prosecution. If an underlying crime were required, then prosecutors could charge obstruction of justice only
if it were unsuccessful in completely obstructing the investigation. This would make no sense.
Trump obstructed justice despite no Russia collusion
Congress's business here is not doing a criminal investigation. This is about understanding how profoundly serious the Russian's interference in our elections were in 2016, an interference that the President of the United States refuses to acknowledge.
I know the President and his attorney general and allies would like to just wish the report away, I think that Congress has an important oversight role to perform here, including the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Congress must investigate Russian election tampering
The tone we want to set is to highlight that America was attacked by the Russians in 2016. The basic function of a government is to protect its people from a foreign attack.
The bigger picture here, if we are not able to protect our people from a foreign attack do we really actually have a government that can defend us.
Russian attack on 2016 elections must be taken seriously
What the Mueller Report says:The Aug. 2, 2016 meeting included the start of what would be a series of discussions between Manafort & Kilimnik about a so-called peace plan for Ukraine, which Manafort admitted to prosecutors was "a backdoor
means for Russia to control eastern Ukraine."
OpEd: Russia helped Trump so they'd control eastern Ukraine
We're going to see Attorney General Barr this next week, in front of the Judiciary Committee, on which I serve. And I'm going to be asking him what is he doing about Russia? Because to me, that's the key thing. We have an election coming up in 2020.
It doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or a Republican. You want to have a fair election.
Government must address integrity of elections
President Donald Trump said he would turn to the Supreme Court if the House of Representatives moves to impeach him, though it is unclear what role the nation's highest court could play if the president were to seek its help in such a situation. Trump
claimed in a tweet that special counsel Robert Mueller's report was written by a team biased against him with "unlimited money" for an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Still, he said, the report "didn't lay a glove on me."
If Congress tries to impeach, I'll go to the Supreme Court
The Internet Research Agency (IRA), based in St. Petersburg, Russia, received funding from Russian oligarchs with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, to carry out a social media campaign designed to provoke and amplify political and social discord
in the United States.
Mueller Report: Russia bought pro-Trump social media ads
The [Mueller] investigation identified two different forms of connections between the Russia-based Internet Research Agency (IRA) and members of the Trump Campaign. (The investigation identified no similar connections between the IRA and the Clinton
Campaign.) First, on multiple occasions, members and surrogates of the Trump Campaign promoted--typically by linking or retweeting--pro-Trump or anti-Clinton social media content published by the IRA. Additionally, in a few instances, IRA employees
represented themselves as U.S. persons to communicate with members of the Trump Campaign in an effort to seek assistance and coordination on IRA-organized political rallies inside the US.
Russia made up voter fraud story & Trump campaign re-posted
Starting in June 2016, [the Russia-based Internet Research Agency] IRA contacted different persons affiliated with the Trump Campaign, while claiming to be US political activists working on behalf of a conservative grassroots organization. The IRA
requested signs and other materials to use at IRA-organized rallies, as well as requests to promote the rallies. While certain campaign volunteers agreed to provide the requested support (for example, agreeing to set aside a number of signs), the
investigation has not identified evidence that any Trump Campaign official understood the requests were coming from foreign nationals.
Campaign supplied Russians, without knowing it was Russia
The President had a motive to put the FBI's Russia investigation behind him. The evidence does not establish that the termination of Comey was designed to cover up a conspiracy between the Trump Campaign and Russia. But the evidence does indicate that a
thorough FBI investigation would uncover facts about the campaign and the President personally that the President could have understood to be crimes.
Trump: no connection to Russia; Mueller: yes, hotel business
On May 17, 2017, Acting Attorney General Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller as Special Counsel to conduct the Russia investigation and matters that arose from the investigation. The President stated that the Special Counsel's appointment was the end of
his presidency and that Attorney General Sessions had failed to protect him and should resign. Sessions submitted his resignation, which the President ultimately did not accept. The President told senior advisors that the Special Counsel had conflicts
of interest, but they responded that those claims were "ridiculous" and posed no obstacle
Attempted to fire Special Counsel, but staff refused
In his first months in office, Trump had seethed over FBI director James Comey's refusal to tell the world that the president was not being scrutinized personally as part of the bureau's investigation of whether the Trump campaign had coordinated with
Russia to interfere with the 2016 presidential race.
Mueller appointed to investigate Trump after Comey firing
Mueller's work was at times stymied by the lies witnesses told and the communications that they had deleted or failed to maintain. And they said Trump himself, in resisting a sit-down interview, had provided "inadequate" written answers that stated more
than thirty times that he "does not recall" information investigators asked about.
Mueller results: 7 guilty pleas and 34 indictments
Paul Manafort was charged in federal court on October 30, 2017, then convicted on eight felony counts.
Campaign manager convicted: conspiracy with Ukraine & Russia
Michael Cohen, the president's personal lawyer, had been willing to deceive the public--and then commit a crime--to keep secret the timing of his dealings with the Kremlin.
Cohen admitted that he told Congress work on the Moscow project ended in January 2016--in fact, it lasted until June 2016, after Trump had sealed up the Republican nomination for president.
Cohen also conceded he had direct contact with a Kremlin official to request help with the project.
Trump's lawyer convicted of lying to Congress about Russia
The Internet Research Agency (IRA), based in St. Petersburg, Russia, carried out a social media campaign designed to provoke and amplify political and social discord in the United States.
Mueller Report: Russia bought anti-Hillary social media ads
At the core of the Russia investigation was always the 2016 hacking and publishing of emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. In January 2017, US officials attributed the attack to Russia and
said the operation was personally directed by President Vladimir Putin. It was left to Robert S. Mueller III to sort out the specifics and determine if any Americans shared blame.
Focus of Putin & Russia in 2016 was hacking Hillary's email
Mueller's 29-page indictment of a dozen officers of the Russian military intelligence, the GRU, described how the group hacked the emails. Mueller also revealed a detail that--even if it was mere coincidence--seemed remarkable. On July 27, 2016,
Trump gave a press conference declaring his hope that missing Hillary Clinton emails would be found and made public, saying, "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the thirty thousand emails that are missing."
Russia seemed to spring into action. According to Mueller's indictment, "on or about" that same day, those involved in the hacking tried "to spearfish for the first time email accounts at a domain hosted by a third-party provider and used by
Clinton's personal office."
Trump challenged Russia to hack Hillary's email; Russia did
On November 8, 2016, Trump was elected. On December 29, President Barrack Obama imposed new sanctions to punish the Kremlin for targeting the race. The next month, the US intelligence community formally concluded that Putin had ordered a covert
operation to sow dissent in the American electorate, harm Clinton, and elect Trump.
Dec. 2016: Russia influenced election to benefit Trump
The Internet Research Agency (IRA), based in St. Petersburg, Russia, carried out a social media campaign designed to provoke and amplify political and social discord in the US.
Mueller Report: Russia bought pro-Bernie social media ads
Contrary to the way this president behaves, I would actually listen to the U.S. intelligence agencies. The U.S. intelligence agencies have an uncommon uniformity on this issue. They're very clear that there has been Russian interference. I will make it
clear to the American people, number one, that I agree with our intelligence agencies that this is happening and, number two, that we're on it. In terms of the voting machines, we must have paper ballots. We absolutely must have paper ballots.
Must address election security & Russian interference
America is a capitalist society. But it's got to be democratic capitalism. When you have capitalism capturing democracy, where powerful corporations are able to arrange the rules for their benefit, that's not real capitalism.
If you want to see what happens when you have capitalism without democracy, you can see it very clearly in Russia. It turns into crony capitalism. And that turns into oligarchy.
Capitalism is good, but it must be subject to rules
NATO is the strongest and most successful military and political alliance in the history of the world. It helped contain and defeat the Soviet Union. It came to the defense of the United States in the wake of the September 11th, 2001, attacks.
And it has led the international effort to secure and stabilize Afghanistan.
Strengthen NATO alliance to fight Russian cyber-attacks
I think the major reason that we need to see the [Mueller] report right now, in addition to getting all of the details, is to know what we should do to protect our elections and to protect our democracy going into 2020.We know that Russia tried to
hack into our elections, they tried-- they did hack into campaigns -- that they spread propaganda. I want to pass my bill with Senator Lankford, a bipartisan bill, to get back up paper ballots. I want to make sure we have audits of our elections.
Paper ballots allow audits, ensure election integrity
National security is not just about preventing Russia from invading us with tanks into Western Europe. Russia is trying to hack our elections. China is attacking us through the Internet every single day and stealing our business ideas and
our military -- that's where a lot of American jobs are going. Rather than build this fifth century ridiculous border wall on the southern border, let's talk about a cyber wall that will stop Russia and China from interfering in our business.
Focus on cybersecurity to deal with real threats to US
No regime change in Iran; no war in Yemen
Delaney slammed the Trump administration when he was asked about Russian interference in the 2016 election. "I believe them over Putin, so I will start with that," Delaney said when asked about Russian intervention in the 2016 election.
Don't believe Putin about Russian 2016 election interference
End Syrian conflict; pull out U.S. troops
Klobuchar introduced the Honest Ads Act with former Arizona Sen. John McCain and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., in response to Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
The bill requires advertisement buys and publishers to publicly disclose information about the ad in order to ensure transparency and accountability.
Honest Ads Act: no more foreign meddling in elections
Let me share with you my own personal story. My great grandfather Max arrived in the United States from Eastern Europe in 1892 with $10 in his pocket. He did not speak a word of English and made his living as a tailor. My other great grandfather
Morris was of Russian descent and came to America in the early 1890s. I was raised in a poor, working class family in Brooklyn, NY. We lived in public housing, better known in Canarsie as the "projects."
My father, a World War II veteran, did not finish high school, and spent his adult life as a laborer who had a series of unfortunate jobs, odd jobs that unfortunately didn't pay very well.
Great-grandparents immigrated from Easter Europe in 1890s
We have begun to fully rebuild the military--with $700 billion last year and $716 billion this year. We are also getting other nations to pay their fair share. For years, the US was being treated very unfairly by NATO--but now we have secured a
$100 billion increase in defense spending from NATO allies.
Withdraw from INF and develop Missile Defense System
President Trump said that Russia has violated the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty "with impunity, covertly developing and fielding a prohibited missile system that poses a direct threat to our allies and troops abroad."
Russia violates the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty
Given Russia's unprecedented effort to undermine confidence in our election system. There's no question that the Kremlin is emboldened--to try again.
Secure Elections Act: prevent foreign interference
Putin recently held a summit with various cultural leaders in Russia, and part of the discussion revolved around drug use. Music producer Igor Matvienko said that drug use is one of the three pillars of rap, along with sex and protest. Putin agreed with
Matvienko, and while he didn't go so far as to propose banning rap music all together, he did say he thinks it should be tightly regulated. "I am most worried about drugs," said Putin. ?"This is the way towards the degradation of a nation."
Drugs are the way towards the degradation of a nation
Syrian president Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons on his own people, an act Haley condemned as "a violation of all standards of morality." The Russian ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, began a meeting of the Security Council by criticizing the
United States for making threats. "What is strange is that Russia is ignoring the real threat to international peace and security that has brought us all here, and it is ignoring its own unilateral responsibility for all of it," she said.
Condemned Russia for criticizing US over Syria response
Russia's "gay propaganda" law is a classic example of political homophobia. When Putin signed the law in June 2013, he pandered to a conservative domestic support base. The legislation, formally titled the law "aimed at protecting children from
information promoting the denial of traditional family values," bans the "promotion of nontraditional sexual relations to minors"--a reference universally understood to mean a ban on providing children access to information about LGBT people's lives.
Signed "gay propaganda" law denying minors information
Russian leader Vladimir Putin has softened planned pension changes following angry protests and a slump in his approval rating. He said the retirement age for women would be increased from 55 to 60 instead of to 63. But a five-year increase for men,
to 65, would stay. In a rare TV address, Mr Putin said the country's working-age population was shrinking, making change essential. Unions have warned that many will not live long enough to claim a pension.
Raised retirement ages to 60 for women, 65 for men
Sen. Bill Nelson's claim that Russians have "penetrated" some Florida election systems drew increasing backlash. Nelson stood by his earlier claim: "For months, [Sen. Marco Rubio] and I have been warning Florida's elections officials about the
threat they face. I hope the appropriate federal officials find a way to immediately provide them all the information they can to protect our elections."
Russians penetrating our elections, but details classified
Q: Trump has invited Vladimir Putin to the White House.
Russian cyber-attacks threaten integrity of US elections
Q: Who is your biggest competitor, your biggest foe globally right now?
European Union is a foe in trade, & in lack of NATO payments
President Trump on Sunday again launched a blistering Twitter attack on the media, a day before his highly anticipated meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Our news media is the enemy of the people
Without greater confidence about their future place in the global economy, Americans will have little reason to support international cooperation and engagement. If the US continues to go it alone, however, that will only open up further opportunities
for nations that do not have our best interests at heart, such as China and Russia, to shape our future for us. That's why it was such a mistake for the Trump administration to turn its back on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would have eliminated
18,000 foreign tariffs currently imposed on products that Americans make and seek to sell overseas. Those tariffs hold back job creation, and eliminating them could unleash new growth across the US. We shouldn't have threatened to jettison NAFTA either.
Instead, we should work with our neighbors and partners to modernize these agreements. On trade, as on many other issues, the goal should be to find win-win solutions, not to make threats and try to divide and conquer.
Support TPP to eliminate 18,000 foreign tariffs on US goods
As a child of the Cold War, I remember well the schoolroom "duck and cover" exercises, an ever-present reminder of the risk of nuclear war. No threat holds greater consequences for all of humanity than that of the accidental or deliberate use of
nuclear weapons. Containing that risk has to remain our top priority.
Prioritize nuclear agreements like START and INF
The Democratic Party sued President Donald Trump's presidential campaign, the Russian government and the Wikileaks group, claiming a broad conspiracy to help Trump win the 2016 election.
Sued by Democratic Party for 2016 Russia collusion
During the summer of 2016, we were working like crazy to understand what the Russians were up to. Evidence within the intelligence Community strongly suggested that the Russian government was trying to interfere with the election in three ways.
2011: Criticized Putin for not counting Russia's votes
Republican Senator Thom Tillis is a lead sponsor of a bill to protect special counsel Robert Mueller from interference. The effort has not yet caught fire with most in his party. Many Republicans tell Tillis that the president will never sign it, so
his is a fruitless endeavor. Democrats, however, believe it amounts to a stern warning to the president even if the bill never becomes law.
10-day process to fire Russia probe special prosecutor
Q: Since last year, there have been at least 30 chemical weapons attacks in Syria. Why did this particular attack last week warrant military action?
Military action & sanctions against Syrian chemical weapons
In December 2020, President Vladimir Putin signed a package of laws tightening regulations on non-governmental organizations, public gatherings and media censorship. It is one of the elements marking a new quality in the Kremlin's domestic policy:
Russian authoritarianism has de facto abandoned the pretense of democratic procedures in favor of increased control and repression.
Increased regulations of non-government organizations
Around the world, we face rogue regimes, terrorist groups, and rivals like China and Russia that challenge our interests, our economy, and our values. In confronting these dangers, we know that weakness is the surest path to conflict, and
unmatched power is the surest means of our defense.
Unmatched power is key to defense, including more nukes
Q: Is it accurate or useful to describe where we are with Russia as a second or new cold war?
Easier for Russia to deal with disunified West
Q: What about relations with Russia?
Supports laws sanctioning Russia for election interference
Russian President Vladimir Putin finally came out as pro-choice. "In the modern world, the decision is up to the woman herself,"
Russia's president said in his annual marathon press conference. Any attempt to suppress it, he added, would only push the practice underground, causing immense damage to women's health.
In the modern world the decision is up to the woman herself
In 2015, Putin-backed separatists made an assault on Ukrainian soldiers. Putin was doing everything he could to destabilize the Ukrainian economy and force a collapse of the newly elected government in Kyiv.
Russia vs. Ukraine: Big country beating up a smaller one
[I presented my views on the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the Senate floor], that it is not the objective to collapse or weaken the Russian economy. But President Putin has to make a simple, stark choice: get out of Ukraine or face continued isolation
and growing economic costs at home.
Inviolate borders for Ukraine; no spheres of influence
At the beginning of February 2015, Putin-backed separatists were making an assault on Ukrainian soldiers. And Putin was doing everything he could to destabilize the Ukrainian economy and force a collapse of the newly elected government in Kyiv.
Support Ukraine and sanction Russia but no military action
[I presented my views on the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the Senate floor], that it is not the objective to collapse or weaken the Russian economy. But President Putin has to make a simple, stark choice: get out of Ukraine or face continued isolation
duty to provide weapons to Ukraine. The Ukrainians had shown real courage, and though they were unlikely to stop any determined Russian military aggression, I believed they deserved to be able to try and defend themselves.
Provide support to Ukrainian fighters against Russia
At a time when climate change is causing devastating problems here in America and around the world, foreign policy is about whether we work with the international community--with China, Russia, India and countries around the world--
to transform our energy systems away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.
Sensible foreign policy understands that climate change is a real threat to every country on earth, that it is not a hoax, and that no country alone can effectively combat it.
It is an issue for the entire international community, and an issue that the United States should be leading in, not ignoring or denying.
Climate change is issue for entire international community
But that's not the end of the story. We can't understand what happened in 2016 without confronting the audacious information warfare waged from the Kremlin, the unprecedented intervention in our election by the director of the FBI, a political press
that told voters that my emails were the most important story, and deep currents of anger and resentment flowing through our culture.
Heal our democracy from 2016 Russian information warfare
Over the next few weeks [after the 2016 election], I dropped any pretense of good cheer. I was so upset and worried for the country. I knew the proper and respectable thing to do was to keep quiet and take it all with grace, but inside I was fuming.
The commentator Peter Daou, who worked on my 2008 campaign, captured my feelings when he tweeted, "If Trump had won by 3 million votes, lost electoral college by 80K, and Russia had hacked RNC, Republicans would have shut down America." Nonetheless,
I didn't go public with my feelings. I let them out in private. When I heard that Donald Trump settled a fraud suit against his Trump University for $25 million,
I yelled at the television. When I read the news that he filled his team with Wall Street bankers after relentlessly accusing me of being their stooge, I nearly threw the remote control.
What would GOP do if Russia hacked an electoral vote loss?
It's tradition for Bill and me, as a former President and First Lady, to attend the swearing-in of the new President. I had struggled for weeks with whether or not to go. John Lewis wasn't going. The civil rights hero and Congressman said that the
President Elect was not legitimate because of the mounting evidence of Russian interference in the election. Other members of Congress were joining him in boycotting a President Elect they saw as divisive. A lot of my supporters and close friends urged
me to stay home, too. My friends understood how painful it would be to sit on the platform and watch Donald Trump sworn in.
Attended Trump inauguration as former First Lady
We can't understand what happened in 2016 without confronting the audacious information warfare waged from the Kremlin, the unprecedented intervention in our election by the director of the
FBI, a political press told voters that my emails were the most important story, and deep currents of anger and resentment flowing through our culture.
Heal our democracy from 2016 Russian information warfare
The commentator Peter Daou, who worked on my 2008 campaign, captured my feelings when he tweeted, "If Trump had won by 3 million votes, lost electoral college by 80K, and
Russia had hacked RNC, Republicans would have shut down America." When I heard that Donald Trump settled a fraud suit against his Trump University for $25 million, I yelled at the television.
When I read the news that he filled his team with Wall Street bankers after relentlessly accusing me of being their stooge, I nearly threw my remote at the wall.
And when I heard he installed Steve Bannon, a leading promoter of the "Alt-Right", which many have described as including white nationalists, as his chief strategist in the White House, it felt like a new low in a long line of lows.
What would GOP do if Russia hacked an electoral vote loss?
It sounds strange. The Vice President running against his President for president. But this would never be the case. Instead, should Trump be unable to run for president in 2020 (viz Russia investigation), then Pence would be the obvious frontrunner for
the party. He has started his own PAC named "Great America Committee" and this is likely the beginning of his gathering of funds for a presidential bid in the future. Although it is highly unlikely that Pence would run in 2020, he is still a possibility
due to the investigations surrounding Trump and his administration. Should the GOP want to change course if Trump is not yielding the results they wish or if Trump begins to jeopardize candidates down the ballot (again), Pence could be the person they
turn to. The ultimate question for Pence is: can Trump stay out of trouble and provide the GOP a good chance of maintaining their unified government?
Founded PAC Great America Committee" separate from Trump
Q: On NATO: One of the biggest concerns in Europe right now is that President Trump was not willing to publicly reiterate the U.S. commitment to article 5, the principle that an attack on one nation in NATO is an attack on all. Russian President
Vladimir Putin suggested this weekend that these squabbles at NATO are helpful to Russia. I understand that the President wants every country to pay its fair share, of course. But why was the President not willing to underscore the US' commitment to our
allies in NATO?
Recommit that attack on one NATO nation is an attack on all
Trump's about-face in supporting NATO was only part of a day of flip flops: the president determined that China is not a currency manipulator after all, and embraced the Ex-Im Bank that he once called unnecessary. Most striking, he pivoted on Russia,
lashing it for supporting rogue nations after years of praising Pres. Vladimir Putin.
NATO: apply new solutions to face new circumstances
As a private citizen and candidate, Trump argued that Syria's civil war was not America's problem. But as president, Trump launched a missile strike on Russia's ally Assad, after the Kremlin intervened in last year's election on his behalf.
One-time missile strike in response to Syria chemical attack
Q: What should be done about Russian interference in the U.S. election?
Investigate Russian election hacking from within Congress
Q: When asked about Russia being "killers," President Trump responded, "What, you think our country is so innocent?"
America represent the highest ideals of humankind
Q: What does Donald Trump feel about Russia?
Re-engage the world but put America first
Trump tweeted, "The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes."
Don't pursue nuclear warheads with new military capabilities
President-elect Donald Trump called for the US to expand its nuclear arsenal, after Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country's nuclear potential needs fortifying, raising the specter of a new arms race that would reverse decades of efforts to
reduce the number and size of the two countries' nuclear weapons.
Expand US nuclear capability; we're falling behind
Q: What about allegations of Russian involvement in this election?
Condemn Russian & any country's involvement in our elections
Q: What about allegations of Russian involvement in this election?
Unprecedented Russian interference in presidential election
CLINTON: I will not support putting American soldiers into Iraq as an occupying force. I don't think that is in our interest, and I don't think that would be smart to do. That would be a big red flag waving for ISIS to reconstitute itself. I'm going to
push for a no-fly zone and safe havens within Syria to gain leverage on both the Syrian government and the Russians so we can have the kind of serious negotiation necessary to bring the conflict to an end.
No US troops as occupying force in Iraq
CLINTON: We need to go after the leadership [of ISIS]. There are an estimated several thousand fighters in Mosul. They've been prepared to defend. It's going to be tough fighting. But I think we can take back Mosul, and then we can move on into Syria
and take back Raqqa.
Benefits of no-fly zone against ISIS outweigh risks
CLINTON: I think we can take back Mosul, and then we can move on into Syria and take back Raqqa.
If we overthrow Assad, we could end up with worse than Assad
Hillary Clinton: There is an effort by the Russian Air Force to destroy Aleppo to eliminate the Syrian rebels. I advocate a no-fly zones & safe zones.
Priority is not "no fly zone" but to stop killing in Aleppo
Q: Why take the risk of having Syrian refugees come into the country?
Should admit carefully vetted war refugees on moral grounds
Q: What would you do about Syria's humanitarian crisis?
Cooperate with Russia when possible & stand up when needed
Q: What would you do about Syria and the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo? And I want to remind you what your running mate said. He said provocations by Russia need to be met with American strength and that if Russia continues to be involved in air strikes
along with the Syrian government forces of Assad, the US should be prepared to use military force to strike the military targets of the Assad regime.
FactCheck: Pence says pressure Assad; Trump focuses on ISIS
There's an old proverb that says the Russian bear never dies, it just hibernates. The weak foreign policy of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has awakened an aggression in Russia that first appeared a few years ago with their move in Georgia,
now their move into Crimea, now their move into the wider Middle East. All we do is fold our arms and say we're not having talks anymore. We need American strength. We need to marshal the resources of our allies in the region.
America is stronger than Russia. Our economy is 16 times larger than the Russian economy. America's political system is superior to the crony, corrupt capitalist system in Russia. When Donald Trump and I observe that the small and bullying leader of
Russia has been stronger on the world stage than this administration, that's stating painful facts. That's not an endorsement of Vladimir Putin. That's an indictment of the weak and feckless leadership.
Fight Russia with strength and allies
Hillary Clinton's top priority when she became secretary of state was the Russian reset. After the Russian reset, the Russians invaded Ukraine and took over Crimea. And the small and bullying leader of Russia is now dictating terms to the US [in Syria].
Look, we have got to begin to lean into this with strong, broad-shouldered American leadership.
Rebuild military and project American strength in the world
Hillary Clinton's top priority when she became secretary of state was the Russian reset. After the Russian reset, the Russians invaded Ukraine and took over Crimea. And the small and bullying leader of Russia is now dictating terms to the US [in Syria].
Look, we have got to begin to lean into this with strong, broad-shouldered American leadership.
Rebuild military and project American strength in the world
Q: How do we fight a cyber attack?
We invented Internet but ISIS is beating us at our own game
Q: How do we fight a cyber attack?
Cyberwarfare will be greatest challenge for next president
Ohio Gov. John Kasich says he feels it's his "responsibility and duty as a leader"--no matter the political cost--to help President Barack Obama shepherd the Trans-Pacific Partnership through Congress. "I have never been an ideological supporter of
free trade. The ideologues use to come to me and be frustrated with me," he said. "But when you look at these agreements in a real sense--this one is much different than even NAFTA," Kasich added. "This is China. This is Russia.
These are fledgling countries in Asia and we want to pivot to Asia? We have to do this."
Supports Trans-Pacific Partnership but not trade ideology
Q: What prepares you to make the decisions that a commander-in-chief has to make?
Russia wants to defeat ISIS as badly as we do; work together
Trump noted that Russia's leader, Vladimir Putin, had been quoted saying that Trump was brilliant. Trump smirked at American media accounts suggesting it maybe wasn't a great thing for a presidential candidate to be praised by the autocratic leader
of one of the country's most difficult rivals. "Oh, isn't it terrible that Putin said nice things?" Trump mocked. "That's not terrible, that's good...Wouldn't it be nice if we could get along with people?"
Reporters were forever twisting his words, making it sound as if Trump supported Putin, he said. "By the way, I hate some of these 'reporters'. But I'd never kill them. I hate them". The cheers reached a new pinnacle, and
Trump, his voice rising with the crowd's lusty shouts, added, "Some of them are such lying, disgusting people, it's true, it's true. But I would never kill them."
It's good that Putin says nice things about me
On July 26, 2016, in a prime-time speech at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, I endorsed Hillary Clinton and urged my supporters and the American people to elect her as president.
DNC tilted primary in favor of Hillary Clinton
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton's policies have weakened America's place in the world. Terrorist attacks at home and abroad, grim and heartbreaking scenes from France just a few weeks ago, and the attempted coup in Turkey all attest to a world spinning
apart. History teaches that weakness arouses evil. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's foreign-policy of leading from behind, moving red lines, feigning resets with Russia, and the rise of ISIS are a testament to the truth of history.
Other countries respect strength, not weakness
Q: Do you support the ceasefire in Syria?
Russia too strong for Syria cease-fire to hold
Q: What three questions do you ask your national security experts?
Figure out who our allies are
Q: Russia is being credited with bombing U.S.-backed rebels on behalf of Assad in Syria. They've moved into eastern Ukraine. You've said you want to punch them in the nose. What are you going to do?
How to deal with Russia on Ukraine: Punch 'em in the nose
Gov. Jeb BUSH: Donald Trump wants to accommodate Russia. Russia is not taking out ISIS. They're attacking our team, the team that we've been training and the team that we've been supporting. It is absolutely ludicrous to suggest that Russia could be a
positive partner in this. I would restore the military; the sequester needs to be reversed.
We've spent $5T in the Mideast and gotten nothing
Russia's aggressive actions in the Crimea and Ukraine have brought about a situation where President Obama and NATO--correctly, I believe--are saying we're going to beef up our troop level in that part of the world to tell
Putin that his aggressiveness is not going to go unmatched. We have to work with NATO to protect Eastern Europe against any kind of Russian aggression.
Beef up NATO against Russian aggression
SANDERS: The agreement on a cease-fire is something that has to be implemented more quickly than the schedule the Russians agreed to. The Russians wanted time.
Are they buying time to continue their bombardment on behalf of the Assad regime to further decimate what's left of the opposition, which would be a grave disservice to any kind of eventual cease-fire?
Do not negotiate with Iran about Syria
Having run a hard race against Senator Obama, he turned to me to be secretary of State. And when it comes to the biggest counterterrorism issues that we faced in this administration, namely whether or not to go after bin Laden,
I was at that table, I was exercising my judgment to advise the president on what to do, on Iran, on Russia on China, on a whole raft of issues. You've got to be ready on day one.
Obama trusted my judgment; I'll be ready on Day One
Q: Secretary of Defence Ash Carter said Russia is the most important national security threat. Do you agree?
Need more European contribution to defending against Russia
Q: Secretary of Defence Ash Carter said Russia is the most important national security threat. Do you agree?
I worry about Putin in Crimea but worry more about N. Korea
How do we reignite that spirit of innovation to meet our biggest challenges? Sixty years ago, when the Russians beat us into space, we didn't deny Sputnik was up there. We didn't argue about the science, or shrink our research and development budget.
We built a space program almost overnight. And 12 years later, we were walking on the moon. Now, that spirit of discovery is in our DNA. America is every immigrant and entrepreneur racing to shape a better world.
America is defined by innovative spirit: it's in our DNA
Secy. CLINTON: Assad has waged one of the bloodiest, most terrible attacks on his own people--250,000-plus dead, millions fleeing. One criticism I've had of Sen. Sanders is his suggestion that Iranian troops be used to try to end the war in Syria.
Work with Russia & Iran to get rid of Assad in Syria
President Obama said, "We spend more on our military than the next eight nations combined." Is that literally true? We found the answer on Wikipedia, for the top 9 countries in military expenditures (in billions per year):
We spend more on military than next 8 nations combined
President Obama: "Sixty years ago, when the Russians beat us into space, we didn't deny Sputnik was up there. We didn't argue about the science, or shrink our research and development budget. We built a space program almost overnight, and twelve years
later, we were walking on the moon.
Increased funding for NIH to highest level in a decade
CLINTON: [In Syria, we should work with Russia to] turn their military attention away from going after the adversaries of Assad, & put the Assad future on the political & diplomatic track.
Think about what happens AFTER we get rid of dictators
One of the reasons why I have advocated for a no-fly zone is to protect people on the ground from Assad's forces and from ISIS. I am advocating the no-fly zone both because I think it would help us on the ground to protect Syrians;
I'm also advocating it because I think it gives us some leverage in our conversations with Russia. The no-fly zone, I would hope, would be also shared by Russia.
We won't have to shoot down Russians in Syrian no-fly zone
There must be an international coalition, including Russia, a well-coordinated effort. This is a war for the soul of Islam. The troops on the ground should not be American troops. They should be Muslim troops.
I believe that countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar have got to step up to the plate, have got to contribute the money that we need, and the troops that we need, to destroy ISIS with American support.
Tell Qatar and Saudi Arabia that they must fight ISIS
Sen. Lindsey GRAHAM: To my good friend Ted Cruz, please ask him the following question, you say you would keep Assad in power, I will tell you that is the worst possible thing that could come out of an American leaders mouth. It would be disastrous.
Ted, getting in bed with Iran and Russia to save Assad is inconceivable.
Assad is bad, but toppling him gives Syria to ISIS
Q: Should the US work with moderate Syrian rebels?
Find moderate rebels in Syria; work with them against Assad
Q: Gov. Christie, if the US imposed a no-fly zone over Syria and a Russian plane invaded that no-fly zone, would you be prepared to shoot down that Russian plane and risk war with Russia?
No-fly zone in Syria means WWIII against Russians
Q: Ben Carson is saying what we need to do is give more money to Jordan and other places to help Syrian refugees. Is that the answer?
No-fly zone 1st priority, but ok with more aid for refugees
As part of a broad national security plan to defeat ISIS, Republican Presidential candidate John Kasich proposed creating a new government agency to push Judeo-Christian values around the world. The new agency, which he hasn't yet named, would promote a
Jewish- and Christian-based belief system to four regions of the world: China, Iran, Russia and the Middle East.
Broadcast Judeo-Christian values abroad, to help defeat ISIS
Q: Russia has invaded Ukraine, and has put troops in Syria. You have said you will have a good relationship with Mr. Putin. So, what does President Trump do in response to Russia's aggression?
Let Russia bash ISIS; let Germany defend Ukraine
It's not only Russia [that we're having trouble with]. We have problems with North Korea where they actually have nuclear weapons. You know, nobody talks about it, we talk about Iran, and that's one of the worst deals ever made. One of the worst
contracts ever signed, ever, in anything, and it's a disgrace. But, we have somebody over there, a madman, who already has nuclear weapons we don't talk about that.
We worry about Iranian nukes but why not North Korean nukes?
Senator Rand Paul said, "We need a safe country, but, you know, we spend more on our military than the next ten countries combined. I want a strong national defense, but I don't want us to be bankrupt." Is that literally true? We found the answer on
Wikipedia, for the top 11 countries in military expenditures (in billions per year):
FactCheck: Yes, military spending as much as next 10 nations
Q: You have already said that it would be a mistake in not talking to Vladimir Putin, or to rule it out. You've argued that it's never a good idea to close down communication. Do you think the same applies to administration efforts right now to include
the Iranians in talks on Syria and Russian involvement there?
We spoke to Russians throughout the Cold War; keep doing so
Q: Should the US enforce a no-fly zone in Syria, with Russia's air campaign there?
A no-fly zone in Iraq means shooting war with Russia
Gov. George Pataki claimed that the private server Hillary Clinton used as secretary of state was "hacked" and that enemies obtained "state secrets." While the FBI is conducting a security review of Clinton's server, there is no evidence so far of a
security breach.
FactCheck: No evidence Hillary's email server was hacked
Q: In Syria is the priority getting Assad out of power or ISIS?
Fighting ISIS is more important than fighting Assad
Q [to Clinton]: What about Putin's actions involving Russia in Syria [bombing ISIS to defend President Assad]?
Putin regrets invading Crimea & the Ukraine
Q: What to do in Syria?
Syria is a quagmire within a quagmire; don't get involved
We are already flying in Syria just as we are flying in Iraq. What I believe and why I have advocated that the no-fly zone--which of course would be in a coalition--
be put on the table is because I'm trying to figure out what leverage we have to get Russia to the table. You know, diplomacy is not about getting to the perfect solution. It's about how you balance the risks.
We're already involved in Syria; deal with Russia there
Q: You came across to me as if you welcomed Putin's involvement in Syria. You said you saw very little downside. Why?
Good that Russia is involved in Syria
Kasich called out Russia, which this week began airstrikes in Syria. Moscow maintains the strikes are targeting Islamic State fighters but U.S. officials have disputed that claim, saying the areas hit were strongholds of rebels seeking to oust President
Bashar Assad. "We're not interested in military cooperation in Syria with Russia," Kasich said. "Their only interest is in propping up their puppet, Assad. They used the pretext of ISIS to go in and bomb rebels who are trying to remove Assad."
No more dickering & delays: Syria's Assad has got to go
John Kasich said the United States should establish no-fly zones and sanctuaries along Syria's border with Jordan and Turkey, and warn aggressors, specifically Russian President Vladimir Putin, that they violate those buffers at their own risk.
Kasich said the US must send a message that military retaliation is a guarantee, not an idle threat, if conditions are not met. "You enter that no-fly zone, you enter at your own peril," Kasich said. "No more red lines, no more looking the other way.
If any hostile aircraft should enter that, there will be a great consequence to them."
No-fly zone in Syria & sanctuaries, enforced by U.S.
At the end of the Bucharest Summit in April 2008, a declaration is issued which says "NATO welcomes Ukraine's and Georgia's Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership in NATO. We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO."
2008: Ukraine as part of NATO is a direct threat to Russia
Q: This week we're going to see a lot of world leaders come to Manhattan. Might you have a meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin?
Diplomacy & respect crucial to our relationship with Russia
Q: What would you do right now if you were president, to get the Russians out of Syria?
Putin has no respect for America; I will get along with him
We continued to talk with the Russians throughout the Cold War. Should we continue to talk with Iran? Yes. Should we cut up the [Iranian nuclear inspection] agreement immediately? That's absurd. Wouldn't you want to know if they complied? Now, I'm going
to vote against the agreement because I don't think there's significant leverage, but it doesn't mean that I would immediately not look at the agreement, and cut it up without looking to see if whether or not Iran has complied.
Talk with Iran like we talked to Russians during Cold War
Although Bernie is generally anti-war, he begrudgingly supported NATO's bombing of Serbia in 1999. He voiced concerns, but did not vigorously oppose NATO's 2011 military intervention in Libya.
Begrudgingly supports NATO, but no eastward expansion
Q: You wrote, "Pulling back from Europe would save this country millions of dollars annually. The cost of stationing NATO troops in Europe is enormous. And these are clearly funds that can be put to better use." Would you want to end the NATO alliance
completely?
Support NATO, but it's not us against Russia
Q: In your view, have Russia and China committed cyber war, and if you were president, what would you do about it?
Of course China & Russia have conducted cyberwarfare on US
What does Donald Trump believe? Iran and Israel: Walk away from nuclear talks. Increase sanctions.
More sanctions on Iran; more support of Israel
Q: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she does not think it is time to arm the Ukrainians yet. Why is she wrong?
Provide defensive weapons for Ukraine against Russia
We're upholding the principle that bigger nations can't bully the small--by opposing Russian aggression, supporting Ukraine's democracy, and reassuring our NATO allies. Last year, as we were doing the hard work of imposing sanctions along with our
allies, some suggested that Mr. Putin's aggression was a masterful display of strategy and strength. Well, today, it is America that stands strong and united with our allies, while Russia is isolated, with its economy in tatters.
Russia is in tatters because of our steady resolve
Q: President Obama condemned the shoot down of the Malaysian Airliner over Ukraine, but he has not announced any new action against the Russians. How would President Cruz handle Putin?
Vigorous sanctions against Putin; help eastern Ukraine
Clinton said she urged Obama to take a tougher line with Russian President Vladimir Putin shortly before she left office in 2012: "With all this in mind, I suggested we set a new course. The reset had allowed us to pick off the low-hanging fruit in terms
of bilateral cooperation. And there was no need to blow up our collaboration on Iran or Afghanistan. But we should hit the pause button on new efforts. Don't appear too eager to work together. Don't flatter Putin with high-level attention." (Page 244)
2012: Take a harder line with Russia's Putin
Among the most egregious developments in the new Russia were the attacks on the press. Newspapers, TV stations, and bloggers faced intense pressure to toe the Kremlin line. Since 2000, Russia has been the 4th most dangerous place in the world to be a
journalist--not as bad as Iraq but worse than Somalia or Pakistan. Between 2000 and 2009 nearly 20 journalists were killed in Russia, and in only one case was the killer convicted.
Push Russia on press freedom; they've killed 20 journalists
Putin's worldview is shaped by Russia's long-standing interest in controlling the nations on its borders, and his personal determination that his country never again appear weak or at the mercy of the West, as he believes it was after the collapse of the
Soviet Union. To achieve these goals, he seeks to reduce the influence of the US in areas that he considers part of Russia's sphere. All of that helps explain why Putin first pressured Ukraine to walk away from closer ties with the European Union in late
2013, and why Putin invaded and annexed Crimea.
Putin's annexing Crimea plays outdated zero-sum game
Putin seeks to reduce the influence of the US in areas that he considers part of Russia's sphere. That helps explain why Putin first pressured Ukrainian President Yanukovych to walk away from closer ties with the European Union in late 2013, and why,
after Yanukovych's government disintegrated, Putin invaded and annexed Crimea. If Putin is restrained and doesn't push beyond Crimea into eastern Ukraine, it will not be because he has lost his appetite for more power, territory, and influence.
Putin's annexing Crimea plays outdated zero-sum game
Putin's worldview is shaped by Russia's long-standing interest in controlling the nations on its borders, and his personal determination that his country never again appear weak or at the mercy of the West, as he believes it was after the collapse of the
Soviet Union. He wants to reassert Russia's power by dominating its neighbors. To achieve these goals, he seeks to reduce the influence of the US in Central and Eastern Europe and other areas that he considers part of Russia's sphere.
Putin wants to reassert Russia's dominance in its own areas
Clinton writes about the memo she sent Obama in her final days at State on how to handle Russia going forward. "The reset had allowed us to pick off the low-hanging fruit in terms of bilateral cooperation. And there was no need to blow up our
collaboration on Iran or Afghanistan. But we should hit the pause button on new efforts. Don't appear too eager to work together. Don't flatter [Russian president Vladimir] Putin with high-level attention. Decline his invitation for a presidential-level
summit in Moscow in September."
Russian reset: Pushed Obama to keep Putin at a distance
In the wake of Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in early 2014, some have argued that NATO expansion either caused or exacerbated Russia's aggression. I disagree with that argument, but the most convincing voices refuting it are those
European leaders and people who express their gratitude for NATO membership.
Eastern Europe in NATO keeps Putin from moving beyond Crimea
Q: In Ukraine, what would you have done differently there?
Install Eastern European ABMs; stand up to Russia in Ukraine
I believe it is imperative that we who believe in democracy and freedom, stand against the forces that would reshape Europe by aggression. As some claim territorial gains, they forfeit moral ground. I remember too well the efforts by the US to "reset"
our relationship with Russia just a few short years ago. I said then that, "History teaches us that weakness and appeasement invite aggression" and feared that our country was rewarding an increasingly antagonistic Russia. With Russian aggression
on the rise again, it is clear that our policy of conciliatory diplomacy has failed. While new sanctions are of some value, in the interest of our alliance, I believe the US and the EU must respond with deeds more than words to strengthen our economic
and strategic defenses [including] deploying a robust missile defense in all of Europe. Stronger economic ties and stronger defenses are the right policy for our two countries and the right strategic response to Russian aggression.
Russian "reset" is appeasement and invites aggression
During her remarks in San Francisco, Clinton said Russian President Vladimir Putin would not be satisfied with Russia's annexation of Crimea. Clinton said Putin "will go as far as he can go unless he is contained. I don't believe Putin will be satisfied
with Crimea."
Contain Russia or Putin will expand beyond Crimea
Sen. Rand Paul may not be a foreign policy hawk but he is a political one. He wrote, in a recent critique of his Republican colleagues: "What we don't need right now is politicians who have never seen war talking tough for the sake of their political
careers." Paul was talking about grandstanding responses to the Ukraine crisis. It wasn't a pinprick attack about a policy disagreement: Sen. Paul is claiming his rivals--ignorant to the sacrifices of war--are too cavalier about committing
American troops to foreign conflicts in their rush to make a name for themselves. He made this point in an essay where he also charged these performance hawks with misappropriating Ronald Reagan's legacy, a special desecration in a party where the
40th president is revered.
We don't need grandstanding tough talk against Russia
What Rand Paul has been saying about Russia and Ukraine is much more confusing than it is isolationist. When Moscow's pawn fled Ukraine, Sen. Paul wasn't celebrating the triumph of the Kiev democracy movement, but said, "Some on our side are so stuck in
the Cold War era that they want to tweak Russia all the time and I don't think that is a good idea." Paul said he wanted "respectful" relations with Russia.
Don't get stuck in Cold War idea of tweaking Russia
Q: On Russia's invasion of Ukraine:
Sanctions on Putin for Ukraine: tyrants respond to weakness
Q: Ted Cruz's approach--tough sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine--stands in stark contrast with fellow tea partier Rand Paul. Just days before Putin invaded Crimea, Paul said: "I think we need to have a respectful, sometimes adversarial,
but a respectful relationship with Russia. Some on our side are so stuck in the Cold War era, they want to tweak Russia all the time, and I don't think that's a good idea." What's your reaction to that?
US has a responsibility to defend our values abroad
The Ukraine crisis hit the headlines. Politico, obtained an exclusive interview with Cruz in which he stated that the preferred plan for Ukraine was to let the market fix the situation. He argued for the immediate passing a new free trade treaty with
Ukraine and "looking at existing treaties between the United States and Russia, and considering abrogating those treaties."
Abrogate treaties with Russia over Ukraine invasion
Cruz said the GOP needed restore America's leadership in the world. He called ISIS "the face of evil" and said, "We ought to bomb them back to the Stone Age." He also had suggestions for a stronger stance against Russia: "The state of the world is
that the Russian bear is encountering the Obama kitty cat," he said. To send a strong message to Putin, missile defense systems should to be deployed in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Deploy missile defense with Czechs & Poles, to limit Putin
Vladimir Putin running rampant in Ukraine showcases how the Obama administration's abdication of global leadership is making the world a more dangerous place.
Appeasement historically leads to more violence
Suspend Russia from G8 & withdraw from arms control treaties
Putin said that Russia will raise a mineral extraction tax (MET) on metals producers in 2022. The idea to withdraw excess profits from mining firms was introduced by Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Sazanov.
It would be the third tax increase for the Russian metals and mining industry since the start of this year, when the government raised the MET export tax for metals firms.
Increased mineral extraction tax three times in a year
[All four Democratic candidates] agreed the United States shouldn't take any rash actions against Russia for harboring Edward Snowden, but said it should pressure that country against instituting restrictive laws against gays.
All four said the United States should be careful in how it deals with Syria, advocating against direct military intervention except as a last resort.
Direct military intervention in Syria only as last resort
[Recent internationally] important step enabled us to do some good things: to negotiate, ratify and implement the New START Treaty; to expand economic and trade relationships--including both Russian accession to the WTO and extension of the permanent
normal trade relations to Russia; to build a bilateral presidential commission that networks Russian and American officials and publics on the broadest cooperative agenda the US and Russia have ever tried to share.
Permanent normal trade relations to Russia
Q: Your predecessor, Henry Kissinger, said that if Iran gets a nuclear weapon, that it is a turning point in history.
Policy of prevention, not containment, on Iranian nukes
Early on, the Obama administration seemed to embrace a new concept: Its diplomacy would emphasize 4 emerging economic powers called the BRICs, or Brazil, Russia, India & China. (Later on, South Africa was sometimes added as a 5th country, conveniently
taking up the letter S.) The idea originally came from Wall Street: In 2001, a Goldman-Sachs economist invented the concept of the BRICs to describe the 4 emerging economies that he believed would play an increasingly important role in the world markets.
By 2009, the term had become an addition to the jargon of foreign policy, and the Obama team began to talk about the importance of the BRICs in their speeches. In her first major speech as secretary of state, Clinton said that the Obama administration,
while reinvigorating its traditional alliances, "will also put special emphasis on encouraging major emerging global powers--China, India, Russia & Brazil, as well as Turkey, Indonesia & South Africa--to be full partners in tackling the global agenda."
Focus on BRICs: Brazil, Russia, India, China, & South Africa
Early on, the Obama administration seemed to embrace a new concept: Its diplomacy would emphasize 4 emerging economic powers called the BRICs, or Brazil, Russia, India & China. (Later on, South Africa was sometimes added as a 5th country, conveniently
taking up the letter S.) The idea originally came from Wall Street: In 2001, a Goldman-Sachs economist invented the concept of the BRICs to describe the 4 emerging economies that he believed would play an increasingly important role in the world markets.
By 2009, the term had become an addition to the jargon of foreign policy, and the Obama team began to talk about the importance of the BRICs in their speeches. In her first major speech as secretary of state, Clinton said that the Obama administration,
while reinvigorating its traditional alliances, "will also put special emphasis on encouraging major emerging global powers--China, India, Russia & Brazil, as well as Turkey, Indonesia & South Africa--to be full partners in tackling the global agenda."
Focus on BRICs: Brazil, Russia, India, China, & South Africa
Within weeks of being sworn in as president of the United States, Obama sent a top official to Moscow to hand deliver a secret letter to Russia's then-President Dmitry Medvedev. The secret letter said that Obama "would back off deploying a new missile
defense system in Eastern Europe if Moscow would stop Iran from developing long-range weapons."
Deal with Russia: no new missile defense in Eastern Europe
When we came into office two years ago, our relationship with Russia had reached a low point. The war between Russia and Georgia played a role in that decline, but even before that conflict erupted in August 2008, a dangerous drift was under way.
US and Russia can disagree and still work together
There are examples of grace and faith and courage all around, as we live and breathe. I especially admire the example of contemporary women, who stand with certainty in an uncertain world. Aung San Suu Kyi, the young woman from Burma who took such a
forceful stand for democracy against a brutal military regime. Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian journalist wand human-rights activist who was killed for taking up the cause of the Chechen people and blowing the whistle on her own government.
Rosa Parks, who proudly claimed her seat in the front of that bus in Montgomery, Alabama, and jump-started the civil-rights movement. The women in Iran who march bravely through the streets and dare to take off their chadors. These women are everywhere,
and all around, and they bring about change on the back of their conviction.
Admires courage of Aung San Suu Kyi & Rosa Parks
Obama repeated the familiar reasons for ignoring the elected government led by Hamas: "To be a genuine party to peace," Obama declared, "the Quartet [US, EU, Russia, UN) has made it clear that Hamas must meet clear conditions: recognize
Israel's right to exist; renounce violence; and abide by past agreements."
Hamas election void until they renounce violence
Russia's burgeoning relationship with Venezuela has purpose beyond energy: anything that diminishes America pleases Putin, both because it weakens a competing power and because it gratifies his personal animus for the US. Russia's resistance to severe
sanctioning of North Korea and Iran as they have pursued their nuclear programs are a stick in the eye for the US. So, too, is Russia's insistence that the world replace the dollar as the reserve currency. Putin also bitterly opposes any development that
would strengthen the US such as missile defense, particularly in Eastern Europe, and admission of the former Soviet satellites into NATO. Pres. Obama's decision to walk way from our missile defense program in Poland and the Czech Republic was a huge
concession to Putin, as is the stalling on admission of Georgia and the Ukraine into NATO. Russia welcomes concessions, and these, like their predecessors, were not repaid in kind. Russia takes, Pres. Obama gives, and Russia demands more.
OpEd: walked away from missile defense of Eastern Europe
Obama will meet with the 26 NATO heads of states and governments, plus those of Croatia and Albania who are applying for membership. Obama welcomed Croatia and Albania to the heart of that military organization. The president stressed that 140 Albanian
and 296 Croatian soldiers have served in Afghanistan and remarked he thought "both will be steadfast contributors to the alliance":
Doors of NATO are open (but that threatens Russia)
Part of the job of the next commander-in-chief, in keeping all of you safe, is making sure that we can see some of the 21st Century challenges and anticipate them before they happen.
We’ve been reactive for 8 years; be proactive with Russia
Q: If Iran attacks Israel, would you be willing to commit US troops in defense of Israel? Or would you wait on approval from the UN Security Council?
Prevent Iran from attacking Israel, but keep military option
Q: How do you see the US relationship with Russia?
Recent Russian actions in Georgia are unacceptable
Our country is less secure and more isolated that it has been any time it has in recent history. The Bush foreign policy has dug us into a very deep hole, with very few friends to help us climb out. For the last seven years, the administration has failed
to face the biggest forces shaping this century. The emergence of Russia, China and India’s great powers, the spread of lethal weapons, the shortage of secure supplies of energy, food and water. The challenge of climate change and the resurgence of
fundamentalism in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the real central front in the war on terror. We once again see the consequences of the neglect of Russia challenging the very freedom of a new democratic country of Georgia. Barack and I will end that neglect.
We will hold Russia accountable for its action and we will help Georgia rebuild. I have been on the ground in Georgia, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and I can tell you in no uncertain terms, this administration’s policy has been an abysmal failure.
The US is less secure and more isolated in recent history
On Oct. 2, 2007, Obama declared, "A New Beginning," announcing, "America seeks a world in which there are no nuclear weapons." Obama made clear he did not intend to pursue unilateral disarmament. He promised to work with Russia "to take US & Russian
ballistic missiles off hair-trigger alert."
A New Beginning: seek world with no nuclear weapons
Q: John McCain has talked about a new G-8 which would expel Russia.
Engage Russia regarding nuclear proliferation
Q: What about Darfur? You’ve called for a UN no-fly zone, but the Chinese and the Russians will probably not go along with it, so it’d be a US or NATO no-fly zone.
Moral obligation to intervene in Darfur to avoid spillover
In 1960, Obama's mother Ann graduated from high school and the family moved to Hawaii. Ann, 18, enrolled as a freshman at the University of Hawaii. In a Russian language class, she met Barack Obama, Sr., 23, who told her he was divorced.
They gathered with friends on weekends to listen to jazz and discuss politics and world affairs. Ann was the only woman. She was, "the original feminist," according to Neil Abercrombie, now a
Democratic congressman from Hawaii who participated in the meetings.
Mother described as "the original feminist" at 1960 college
Obama will set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons, and pursue it. Obama will always maintain a strong deterrent as long as nuclear weapons exist. But he will take several steps down the long road toward eliminating nuclear weapons. He will stop th
development of new nuclear weapons; work with Russia to take ballistic missiles off hair trigger alert; seek dramatic reductions in stockpiles of nuclear weapons and material; and expand globally the US-Russian ban on intermediate-range missiles.
Pursue goal of a world without nuclear weapons
Q: When future historians write of your administration’s foreign policy, what will be noted as your doctrine?
Doctrine of crisis prevention, not preemption
Obama’s greatest legislative success was teaming with Republican Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana on a bill that expanded US cooperation to reduce stockpiles of conventional weapons and expanded the
State Department’s ability to interdict weapons and materials of mass destruction. In the spring of 2005, Obama had traveled to Russia with Lugar to inspect nuclear weapons stockpiles.
2005: Passed bill to reduce conventional weapon stockpiles
Q: What three nations, other than Iraq, represent, to you, the biggest threat to the United States?
Biggest threat to US is from North Korea, Iran, & Russia
In the 1980s on the Defense Committee, in addition to the Russians, another enemy was the status quo. I may have been strong on defense, but at the same time I was openly critical of the excess spending in every aspect of the federal budget, which cast m
as a kind of cheap hawk and served to essentially alienate me from everyone.
Cheap Hawk: Strong on defense; tight with a dollar
We would obviously have to retaliate against anybody who struck American soil, whether it was nuclear or not. It would be a much more profound issue if it were nuclear weapons. That’s why it’s so important for us to rebuild the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty that has fallen apart under this administration. We have not made a commitment to work with the Russians to reduce our own nuclear stockpiles. That has weakened our capacity to pressure other countries to give up nuclear technology.
We have not locked down the loose nuclear weapons that are out there right now. These are all things that we should be taking leadership on. Part of what we need to do in changing our foreign policy is not just end the war in
Iraq; we have to change the mindset that ignores long-term threats and engages in the sorts of actions that are not making us safe over the long term.
Rebuild the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
More than a decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Russia still has more nearly 20,000 nuclear weapons and enough nuclear material to produce 50,000 more. At the current rate of spending, it will take 13 years to secure all the potential bomb
material from the old Soviet Republic. We should increase funding to do it in four years. We must also strengthen the existing Non-Proliferation Treaty, and lead in the efforts to prevent countries with the proven capability to build WMDs from doing so.
Increase funding to decommission Russian nukes
In March 1993, I got an assistance program I could support: $1.6 billion in direct aid to help Russia stabilize.
1993: Strongly endorsed $1.6B Russia aid package
In the modern world you can’t very easily draw up a simple, general foreign policy. I was busy making deals during the last decade of the cold war. Now the game has changed. The day of the chess player is over. Foreign policy has to be put in the hands
of a dealmaker.
Post-Cold War: switch from chess player to dealmaker
I don’t understand why American policymakers are always so timid in dealing with Russia on issues that directly involve our survival. Kosovo was a perfect case in point: Russia was holding out its hand for billions of dollars in IMF loans
(to go along with billions in aid the U.S. has given) the same week it was issuing threats and warnings regarding our conduct in the Balkans. We need to tell Russia and other recipients that if they want our dime they had better do our dance,
at least in matters regarding our national security. These people need us much more than we need them. We have leverage, and we are crazy not to use it to better advantage.
Support Russia, but with strings attached
Mr. Kasich argues against an escalation of the military effort in Kosovo. Instead, he wants to move to mediation with Yugoslavia, in which third parties, particularly Russia, would help work out a peaceful resolution. He wouldn’t worry about getting rid
of Mr. Milosevic right now; it doesn’t make much sense to get into mediation with somebody you’re about to eliminate. “Reemphasizing our bad policy with a vigorous ratcheting up, including ground forces, is just a huge mistake,” Mr. Kasich says.
Russian mediation with Milosevic instead of a ground war
[Kasich foresees] a future where Albanians and Serbs co-existed in Kosovo. If American officials were wise, they would consider giving Russia a role as a third party mediator, he said, a tactic that would reduce the chances for Russian alienation from
the West. At the same time, though, Kasich did not go so far to say he’d vote against an escalation of US force in the region. It was most important, he said, that Congress at least be given the chance to vote on an escalation before it happened.
Russia should mediate; Congress should vote on escalation
Theodore Roosevelt understood when military action brought no advantage. When regional instability arose, like the war between Russia and Japan, his instinct was to be an “honest broker” and mediate peace. He was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for these
efforts. The US should remain strongly engaged internationally, because regional instability will not solve itself. But we must choose our missions carefully. Power is a finite quantity; if we wantonly expend it, for any cause, we diminish ourselves.
Engage internationally but choose missions carefully
We need to involve the Russians, and other neutral countries, like Sweden and Ukraine. And we must actively consult with countries in the region, including Italy, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. Should Milosevic balk at such overtures, we could still apply
military pressure from the air. Once a settlement is reached, an international force may be necessary to assist the return of refugees and reconstruction. We should be more flexible about the makeup of this force than we have been in the past.
Use neutral mediators; be flexible on post-war force
Those who have called for ground troops have not specified the goal. Is it to take Kosovo, fortify it & occupy it for years against the Serbian threat? Is “victory” at all costs worth a bitterly hostile Russia? No one can help but be moved by the plight
of the Kosovo refugees. The US has an obligation to get Milosevic to withdraw his forces from Kosovo. Just as surely, we need to help Albania and Macedonia economically. But military escalation is not the best way to achieve those goals.
Goals should be: help refugees & regional development
Phase out economic aid to Russia & others
Kasich indicates support of the following principles concerning economic aid to Russia and the former Soviet republics.
Candidates on Foreign Policy:
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2020 Presidential primary contenders:
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Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D-IN)
Sen.Cory Booker (D-NJ)
Secy.Julian Castro (D-TX)
Rep.Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI)
Sen.Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
Gov.John Hickenlooper (D-CO)
Sen.Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
Rep.Beto O`Rourke (D-TX)
Sen.Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
Rep.Joe Walsh (R-IL)
Sen.Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
Gov.Bill Weld (R-MA&L-NY)
CEO Andrew Yang (D-NY)
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V.P.Joe Biden (D-DE for President)
CEO Don Blankenship (Constitution Party)
Rocky De La Fuente (Alliance/Reform Party)
Howie Hawkins (Green Party)
Sen.Kamala Harris (D-CA for V.P.)
Jo Jorgensen (Libertarian Party)
V.P.Mike Pence (R-IN for re-election)
Gloria La Riva (Socialism and Liberation)
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Kanye West (Birthday Party)
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Page last updated: Mar 02, 2022