Washington tries to pin down Trump on Russia

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The White House scrambled to shore up President Trump’s tough-on-Russia bona fides in the week since his widely panned appearance with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, as additional questions about what Trump thought about electoral interference by Moscow piled up.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders favorably contrasted Trump’s anti-meddling track record with that of former President Barack Obama. “From the beginning of his administration, President Trump has actually taken action to defend our election system from meddling and interference,” she said last week.

“In May of 2017, President Trump signed an executive order to strengthen and review the cybersecurity of our nation and its critical infrastructure,” Sanders told reporters. “The Department of Homeland Security has taken the lead in working with all 50 states, local governments, and private companies to improve election security. … Thirty-four states, fifty-two county and local governments, and five election companies received cybersecurity scans regularly from DHS.”

The White House also repeatedly pointed to sanctions on Russia, the expulsion of diplomats, arms for Ukraine and military action in Syria. “President Trump’s Administration has consistently confronted Russian activities that threaten our institutions, our interests, or our allies,” one statement read.

After each clean-up attempt, a new controversy sprouted over whether the president really accepted the intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia tried to sway public opinion in the 2016 presidential election. “I let [Putin] know we can’t have this, we’re not going to have it, and that’s the way it’s going to be,” Trump insisted to CBS News.

[More: Trump says he misspoke, accepts US intelligence on Russian meddling]

Outside allies of the president grew annoyed about both the media onslaught and the White House’s defensiveness about outreach to Russia. Former chief strategist Steve Bannon told a British publication “we have to end the Cold War with Russia” in order to focus on the threat from China. Others raised the prospect of nuclear confrontation with Moscow — all Trump was saying is give peace a chance.

“The overall takeaway from this should be that the president is making an authentic effort toward reducing conflict with our global adversaries, whether it’s North Korea, whether it’s Russia, whether it’s China with trade manipulation, currency manipulation and IP theft,” said former Trump Commerce Department official Chris Garcia. “Everything is on the table for this president.”

Some Trump backers circulated an interview that NYU Russia studies professor emeritus Stephen F. Cohen did with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson. “Do you, these people who are hunting Trump, do you prefer trying to impeach Trump to trying to avert war with nuclear Russia?” Cohen asked.

Meanwhile, Democrats chanted “USA! USA!” while chastising Trump’s Russia remarks on the House floor. Democratic lawmakers increasingly eschewed talk of Russian “meddling” or “interference” in favor of calling them “Russian attacks.”

A fundraising email from the left-wing group MoveOn.Org targeted “Putin Republicans,” demanding lawmakers support the Trump-Russia investigation and block “lifetime appointments” like Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. “That’s what we’re calling Republicans who won’t hold Donald Trump accountable for his craven, reckless, betrayal of American democracy in Helsinki,” the message stated.

Liberals pointed to the week after Helsinki as an example of collusion in plain sight, leading to speculation about what it might mean for the direction of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. “Mueller is trying to build a narrative that the president is so corrupt and so disgusting, that the people he’s surrounded himself with are like he’s Mafioso,” said former Trump political adviser Sam Nunberg. “[Former FBI Director James] Comey’s written that in his book.”

It’s a dramatically different political picture than prevailed for much of the Cold War, but Trump loyalists compared it to Nixon going to China. “At this point, I think he understands that he is making it very clear that without dialogue you have the potential for conflict,” Garcia said. “His ultimate goal, his ultimate desire as a president, is to strike a deal that creates world peace.”

Republicans on Capitol Hill are jittery, Democrats are on the offensive, administration officials keep affirming their belief in Russian interference and the White House tries to defuse each new firestorm, there remains grassroots support for letting Trump be Trump.

“As Donald Trump, the private citizen, he loved to be known as the ultimate deal-maker, the genius-wizard that no one else can touch when it comes to making deals,” said Garcia. “I think now in public life, as President Trump, the same holds true. He wants to be the guy who got done what no other president before him could get done.”

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