Russia. Ukraine. China. Bolton account highlights pattern of Trump welcoming foreign political help.
Russia. Ukraine. China. Bolton account highlights pattern of Trump welcoming foreign political help.
By Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger
While running for office in 2016, Donald Trump asked Russia to hunt for the emails of his Democratic rival and touted documents stolen by Russia intelligence agents that had been published by WikiLeaks.
Last year, he requested “a favor” of the president of Ukraine, asking him personally for an investigation into his likely 2020 opponent, former vice president Joe Biden, which could have benefited Trump politically.
Now, a forthcoming book by John Bolton, President Trump’s former national security adviser, asserts that Trump in 2019 also asked Chinese President Xi Jinping for electoral assistance, suggesting Xi use China’s economic power to help him, “pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win.”
Bolton’s account highlights Trump’s pattern of welcoming foreign political help and a casual comfort with what was once unthinkable in American politics — foreign intervention in U.S. elections.
His description of Trump’s request of Xi drew rebukes from Democrats and muted responses from Republicans, but no calls by lawmakers for another impeachment inquiry or additional investigations amid Washington’s political stalemate.
Experts fear that Trump’s behavior may embolden nations to try to sway U.S. voters in the 2020 campaign — particularly if foreign leaders conclude that helping lift Trump to a second term would be an effective way to curry favor with the White House.
“Foreign governments are increasingly testing us, looking to intervene in the 2020 campaign,” said Trevor Potter, a former Federal Election Commission chairman, who is working with a new bipartisan group to monitor threats to this year’s election. “It becomes all the more likely if the president is not fighting foreign influence in campaigns, but rather is inviting it.”
Trump has called Bolton “a liar” and said in a series of tweets Thursday that his book is “made up of lies & fake stories.”
U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer, who attended the June 2019 meeting with Trump and Xi, told a Senate committee Wednesday that it was “absolutely untrue” that Trump requested election help from the Chinese leader.
Alyssa Farah, a White House spokeswoman, says Trump “never asked China to interfere in the election.”
“Nobody present, other than John Bolton, says that took place,” she said.
The White House on Thursday declined to comment on whether Trump in general is opposed to foreign help for his campaign.
While Trump’s past outreach to foreign powers for political assistance triggered widespread condemnation, he has not suffered serious consequences.
His entreaties to Moscow as its operatives were seeking to disrupt the 2016 campaign — “Russia, if you’re listening,” he famously said — were scrutinized as part of the nearly two-year-long investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
READ MORE: Russia. Ukraine. China. Bolton account highlights pattern of Trump welcoming foreign political help. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ru...
By Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger
While running for office in 2016, Donald Trump asked Russia to hunt for the emails of his Democratic rival and touted documents stolen by Russia intelligence agents that had been published by WikiLeaks.
Last year, he requested “a favor” of the president of Ukraine, asking him personally for an investigation into his likely 2020 opponent, former vice president Joe Biden, which could have benefited Trump politically.
Now, a forthcoming book by John Bolton, President Trump’s former national security adviser, asserts that Trump in 2019 also asked Chinese President Xi Jinping for electoral assistance, suggesting Xi use China’s economic power to help him, “pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win.”
Bolton’s account highlights Trump’s pattern of welcoming foreign political help and a casual comfort with what was once unthinkable in American politics — foreign intervention in U.S. elections.
His description of Trump’s request of Xi drew rebukes from Democrats and muted responses from Republicans, but no calls by lawmakers for another impeachment inquiry or additional investigations amid Washington’s political stalemate.
Experts fear that Trump’s behavior may embolden nations to try to sway U.S. voters in the 2020 campaign — particularly if foreign leaders conclude that helping lift Trump to a second term would be an effective way to curry favor with the White House.
“Foreign governments are increasingly testing us, looking to intervene in the 2020 campaign,” said Trevor Potter, a former Federal Election Commission chairman, who is working with a new bipartisan group to monitor threats to this year’s election. “It becomes all the more likely if the president is not fighting foreign influence in campaigns, but rather is inviting it.”
Trump has called Bolton “a liar” and said in a series of tweets Thursday that his book is “made up of lies & fake stories.”
U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer, who attended the June 2019 meeting with Trump and Xi, told a Senate committee Wednesday that it was “absolutely untrue” that Trump requested election help from the Chinese leader.
Alyssa Farah, a White House spokeswoman, says Trump “never asked China to interfere in the election.”
“Nobody present, other than John Bolton, says that took place,” she said.
The White House on Thursday declined to comment on whether Trump in general is opposed to foreign help for his campaign.
While Trump’s past outreach to foreign powers for political assistance triggered widespread condemnation, he has not suffered serious consequences.
His entreaties to Moscow as its operatives were seeking to disrupt the 2016 campaign — “Russia, if you’re listening,” he famously said — were scrutinized as part of the nearly two-year-long investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
READ MORE: Russia. Ukraine. China. Bolton account highlights pattern of Trump welcoming foreign political help. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ru...
“Russia, if you’re listening,” as we all know, was a joke. Stop grasping at straws, they will do you no good Ron.