For me President Trump’s remarks in Helsinki fall under the category of I agree with what he said about our relationship with Russia:
Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity
but I wish he hadn’t said it in that particular context. I don’t think that Americans, particularly American presidents, should say nasty things about the U. S. government to foreigners, particularly when they’re overseas.
That the U. S. policy WRT Russia has been stupid for the last 25 years is so obvious and so easy to substantiate that I find it hard that anyone could deny it. But people do and that makes it a matter of opinion and, well, opinions can differ.
Just don’t say it when you’re meeting with the Russian president in Helsinki.
Update
I have amended the post above to clarify my intention. I thought it was clear from context that I was referring to Trump’s criticism of our policy WRT Russia of the last 25 years rather than the FBI. I don’t think that the president should air our dirty laundry overseas, either, or grind political hatchets but those are other subjects.
“f I agree with what he said”
“”You have groups that are wondering why the FBI never took the server — haven’t they taken the server. Why was the FBI told to leave the office of the Democratic National Committee? I’ve been wondering that, I’ve been asking that for months and months and I’ve been tweeting it out and calling it out on social media. Where is the server? I want to know where is the server and what is the server saying?
“With that being said, all I can do is ask the question. My people came to me, Dan Coats came to me and some others, they said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin; he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be. But I really do want to see the server.”
Moments later, Trump added, “What happened to the servers of the Pakistani gentleman that worked on the DNC? Where are those servers? They’re missing; where are they?”
Steve
I meant I agreed that our policy WRT Russia has been stupid. I thought that was clear from the context. Apparently not. I’ll update the post to clarify. As I also said whatever his criticisms of the FBI, that wasn’t the forum in which to air them.
You do understand that it is possible to agree with one statement without agreeing with everything the man says?
I inferred that while you didn’t say you agreed, you actually did but just thought it inappropriate to say that kind of stuff overseas. Always a risk when people infer stuff rather than just read what people actually say.
Steve
I think you are correct. Amid total hysteria that’s the observation I would pluck out and criticize him on.
Just curious, what would happen if the FBI took away every server that was ever attacked by a foreign entity? Have friends who do security for a big bank and it sounds like attacks are not uncommon. According to them, Russian, Chinese and Iran attacks are the worst since they are generally state sponsored or financed. My sense is that we would end up impounding so many servers we would be crippled. Heck, just attacking someone would be enough to harm them, you wouldn’t need to be successful.
Steve