Donald Trump’s Appeal to Russia Shocks Foreign Policy Experts

[applegrove]

Donald Trump’s Appeal to Russia Shocks Foreign Policy Experts

by MAX FISHER at the NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/29/world/europe/russia-trump-clinton-email-hacking.html

"SNIP............

It is doubtful that Russia will alter its espionage practices based on public suggestions from Mr. Trump, which some defenders argue was meant as a joke. But Mr. Musgrave worried that such language could weaken norms, even if only slightly, against foreign involvement in American politics.

“Trump is legitimating behaviors that nobody ever thought could be legitimated,” Mr. Musgrave said, calling the incident “one of those reminders about how fragile norms are.”

Mr. Shapiro, the Brookings Institution scholar, sounded physically exhausted by Mr. Trump’s comments and suggested they were driven by something more banal than collusion with a foreign power.

“To me what it demonstrates is not that he’s necessarily in cahoots with the Russians, or that he’s intending to commit treason or sway the election by this act, but that he just has no sense of what the norms are,” Mr. Shapiro said, adding:

“He has no sense of what an extraordinary statement that was.”


.............SNIP"

[Glimmer of Hope]

1. Oh he was just being sarcastic. Never mind!

[liberal N proud]

4. The world does not need a sarcastic US President

Diplomacy is no place for sarcasm.

[TheDonnasRule]

2. This my new Putin / Trump '16 Bumper Sticker

[David__77]

6. That reminds me of an anti-Clinton thing I saw in early 90s.

I think the "C" in Clinton was a hammer and sickle. Of course neither Clinton nor Trump are communists.

[auntpurl]

3. "Mr. Shapiro, the Brookings Institution scholar, sounded physically exhausted by Mr. Trump’s comment

You and the nation, Mr Shapiro. You and us both.

[David__77]

5. I don't a few foreign policy think tankers being "shocked."

I imagine a lot of them have gotten an awful lot wrong, for a long time.

[Koinos]

7. When what he did has time to sink in a bit more, even more will be horrified.