House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday denounced President Donald Trump's response to news reports that Russia placed a bounty on U.S. troops in Afghanistan and repeated an unsubstantiated theory that the Russian President Vladimir Putin has some kind of leverage over Trump.
On Friday, The New York Times reported Trump and the National Security Council had been briefed on an intelligence report that a clandestine Russian unit had offered rewards to Afghan militants who successfully attacked coalition and U.S. troops. On Sunday, Trump took to Twitter to deny knowing about the report and to disparage the Times' reporting.
"This is as bad as it gets, and yet the president will not confront the Russians on this score, denies being briefed," Pelosi told ABC "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos. "Just as I have said to the president, with him all roads lead to Putin. I don't know what the Russians have on the president, politically, personally, financially, or whatever it is."
Stephanopoulos asked Pelosi to elaborate on her claim that the Russians "have something on him."
Pelosi said it was the logical explanation for Trump's refusal to accept intelligence reports that implicate Russia, such as the consensus that Russia intervened in the 2016 election with the aim of aiding his candidacy.
"Now, he's saying this is fake news. Why would he say that? Why wouldn't he say, 'Let's look into it and sees what this?'" she asked. "And he's engaged in peace negotiations with the Taliban and he's kissing up to Putin in every way, saying they should be in the G-7, even though he annexed Crimea and caused death and destruction in Ukraine. So totally irresponsible. Something is wrong with this picture."
'Nobody briefed or told me': Trump denies knowing about intelligence report that Russia put bounty on U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan
Claims and conspiracies about Trump's ties to Russia proliferated during the first two years of Trump's presidency amid an investigation into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives working to interfere in the 2016 election.
Former special counsel Robert Mueller did not find evidence "that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities" though his report "identified numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump Campaign" and said the Trump campaign "expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian effort."
During his July 2019 testimony before the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, Mueller said the possibility that Russia was extorting Trump was a counterintelligence issue and beyond the scope of his report. In a report commissioned by a research firm working for Hillary Clinton's campaign, former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele alleged Russia had blackmail material on Trump. But much of Steele's report has not been corroborated and critics have dismissed his claims as a politically motivated smear intended to discredit Trump.
Trump has repeatedly denied any ties to Russia and derided the allegations against him as a "hoax" and "witch hunt."
Pelosi, who is part of the "Gang of Eight" congressional leaders who receive intelligence reports, said she had not been briefed on the intelligence about the Russian bounty. She called for an intelligence report on the matter to be submitted to Congress and vowed to determine if the president was briefed about it. Pelosi said it would raise troubling questions if Trump was not briefed about such an important issue.
"What does that say about the concern that those who briefed the president have about not going anywhere near the Russia issue with this president?" she asked.
Concerns about the administration's handling of the reported bounty were not limited to Democrats like Pelosi.
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wy., said in a tweet Sunday that if the report is accurate, "the White House must explain" why the president and vice president were not briefed on the matter, who did not about it and when, and what has been done to "hold Putin accountable."
Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton, who just published a scathing book about the president and his handling of foreign affairs, said Sunday on CNN "State of the Union" that if he thought the Russians had compromising information on Trump, "I would have revealed it because I think that would be the most disturbing thing you could imagine."
Bolton instead ascribed Trump's apparent unwillingness to confront Putin to his "affinity for strong, authoritarian leaders."
"I think his policies with respect to Russian assertiveness against the United States have been wildly inconsistent, tough on one aspect, weak on another," Bolton said. "And I think that's also part of the problem. To have a sustained strategic view of U.S.-Russia relations, you have to have a clear understanding of your objectives, you have to have policies that make sense over a long period of time. That's not the way that we do business with Russia, at least not in the Trump administration."
Bolton stressed that the news reports about the Russian bounty on U.S. troops were unconfirmed and that much remained unknown.
"If it is true – underline the word if – that they are paying surrogates to kill Americans, this is one of the most serious matters, I think, that has arisen in the Trump administration," he said.
Bolton said he was "puzzled" by Trump's tweets insisting he had not been briefed on the matter.
"The fact that the president feels compelled to tweet about the news story here shows that what his fundamental focus is, is not the security of our forces, but whether he looks like he wasn't paying attention," Bolton said. "So, he's saying: 'Well, nobody told me. Therefore, you can't blame me.'"
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Contributing: Michael Collins
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June 29, 2020 at 03:17AM
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'I don't know what the Russians have on the president': Pelosi slams Trump over reported of bounty on US troops - USA TODAY
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