In political terms, Russia’s interference was the crime of the century, an unprecedented and largely successful destabilizing attack on American democracy. It was a case that took almost no time to solve, traced to the Kremlin through cyber-forensics and intelligence on Putin’s involvement. And yet, because of the divergent ways Obama and Trump have handled the matter, Moscow appears unlikely to face proportionate consequences.

Source Link washingtonpost.com
This is a stunner. President Putin ordered his hackers to defeat if possible, at least damage Hilary Clinton and help elect Donald Trump. A year of work by Russian hackers with ties to their intel services had gotten into party computers and databases. They made profound use of the data.

At one point this was all too sensitive for even the daily brief. In the end Obama acted as he almost always did. A modest, some would say underplayed response was enacted. 35 diplo’s out and 2 compounds closed. Preparations for more drastic measures such as cyber attacks on Russian infrastructure were made. Severe economic sanctions were looked at.

The Russians are now demanding the return of the compounds and threaten to do the same in Russia to American facilities. The Trump admin is moving to restore them.

We have what IMHO is the biggest conflict of interest in American Presidential history. Even it’s most recent history. President Trump must now decide how to reward, ignore or punish President Putin for attacking our electoral system to his benefit.

Maybe my historical knowledge is lacking and some other President exceeded this level of conflict. I’m stumped.

What will we do about this (dare I say it?) Constitutional crisis?