Tag: Trump did nothing as Russian paid bounty on American soldiers’ lives

Russian bounties revive Trump-GOP foreign policy divide

The Hill logoThe controversy over reports that Russia targeted U.S. troops in Afghanistan is shining a spotlight back on long-running foreign policy divisions between President Trump and GOP lawmakers.

The Trump administration provided a round of briefings and closed-door documents in the wake of a flurry of news reports that Moscow offered bounties to Taliban-linked fighters to target U.S. and coalition forces. That move by administration officials was meant to quell the bipartisan outcry on Capitol Hill, particularly after reports that Trump was previously briefed on the matter.

While several GOP senators defended Trump, the debacle revived broader concerns among Republicans about the administration’s relationship with Russia. Continue reading.

As Trump’s corruption gets worse, some Democrats want a tougher response

Washington Post logoThe big revelations of the moment — the reports that Russia may have paid bounties for the killing of U.S. troops, and the news that a U.S. attorney was ousted after investigating Trump cronies — are a reminder that Trump has found a gaping hole in our system.

If a president refuses to cooperate with congressional oversight in just about every conceivable way — and if that president has the near-total backing of a party that controls one chamber of Congress — any such scrutiny can basically be ground to a halt, with no repercussions.

But a group of House Democrats is now calling on its chamber to get a lot tougher in this regard. Continue reading.