The big story over the weekend was, obviously, the indictment on Friday of 13 Russians and three Russian groups on charges of conspiring
“to defraud the United States by impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful functions of the government through fraud and deceit for the purpose of interfering with the U.S. political and electoral processes, including the presidential election of 2016.”
The indictment was part of special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s investigation in Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. In addition, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who supervises Mr. Mueller, said the indictment contained no claim that any U.S. citizen knowingly participated in the alleged crimes or that the alleged activities changed the results of the 2016 election.
Which brings me to the point of this post. While National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster was in Munich for the annual global security conference on Saturday, he said that the evidence of Russia’s attempted interference in the 2016 election was “incontrovertible.” When one of the Russians at the conference suggested Russian and American cybersecurity experts meet, General McMaster responded:
“I’m surprised there are any Russian cyber experts available, based on how active they have been in undermining our democracies across the West.”
Still, Saturday night President Trump thought it was appropriate to tweet this response to General McMaster (in addition to all the other tweets he sent out over the weekend):
“General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems. Remember the Dirty Dossier, Uranium, Speeches, Emails and the Podesta Company!”
When I read about that tweet, I almost wanted to cry. For the President to demean and belittle General McMaster in this way is unconscionable. It is amazing to me that General McMaster is willing to stay in the job when he is treated like this.
But I am thankful that General McMaster, and others, such as Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, are willing to serve in spite of this kind of thing. And I only hope that, if and when any of them leave, their replacements will be as good as they are.
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