Back channel communication between Trump and Putin on Ukraine attacks

Remember when President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner 

talked with the Russian ambassador in December 2016 about establishing a back channel for communications. The talk between Kushner and the Russian envoy about communications was focused on the U.S. response to the crisis in Syria and other policy-related matters.

The former director of the National Security Agency and the CIA, Gen. Michael Hayden, called Kushner’s request for a communications back channel “off the map." 

“What manner of ignorance, chaos, hubris, suspicion, contempt, would you have to have to think that doing this with the Russian ambassador was a good or appropriate idea?” Hayden said. 

“This is off the map,” Hayden said. “I know of no other experience like this in our history, certainly within my life experience.” 

That was then, but now, Trump is back in the news again having a back channel communication with Putin and then praising Vladimir Putin as “very savvy” shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine which shocked many Americans and put the Republican Party in an uncomfortable position. 

But what was more telling is how many conservatives mimicked Trump's assessment. This is lunacy. Donald Trump taking Putin's side is a reminder of "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing." The difference this time is that the back channel communication between Putin and Trump was centered around Trump selling the Ukrainian assault by Russia to the right wing in America. So why is a former president of the United States rooting for Russia to be uncontained? 

The coalition of evil is at work here, even worst is the role played by propaganda pushers on Fox News such as Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and Laura Ingraham who like glitchy robots straight out of Stepford, are literally repeating Putin's disinformation of Ukraine word-for-word, their stale rants so identical they eerily line up perfectly when played simultaneously. 

Putin’s savaging of Ukraine, which many of his right-wing supporters had said he would never do, has recast the Russian president more clearly as a global menace and boogeyman with ambitions of empire who is threatening nuclear war and European instability.

For many of his longtime admirers — from France to Germany and the United States to Brazil — it is something of an awkward spot. The stain of Putin’s new reputation threatens to taint his fellow travelers, too.

Mr Trump has a history of praising authoritarian leaders, including Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, and Kim Jong Un of North Korea, but he has long seemed particularly fond of Mr Putin — whose government’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election was intended to boost Mr Trump’s electoral chances.

As Trump takes center stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday, his unbridled and open admiration for a man increasingly seen as an international pariah is problematic for the GOP as it heads into midterm elections and wants to present a united front. It exposes Trump’s enduring grip on a party that still can’t reconcile its populist leanings with its more traditional hawkish stance on foreign policy. 

Some at the right-wing jamboree in Orlando, Florida, enthusiastically support his unorthodox view of Putin while blaming the invasion on President Joe Biden for being “weak.” Others simply won’t express an opinion on what Trump says about the Russian leader. 

The conservative establishment has largely pursued the expected course of action in calling for strong sanctions and support for Ukraine. The divergence of views leaves the party in a bind as to how it will attack Biden in the biggest test of his presidency.

Asked what his message is to Trump and others praising Putin in light of the assault on Ukraine, Biden told political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen, “I put as much stock in Trump saying that Putin’s a genius as I do when he called himself a stable genius,” according to a video posted on Twitter.

Among the more surprising statements was that by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a usually reliable Trump ally, who clearly saw the potential backlash for praising Putin. He called the invasion of Ukraine “reckless and evil,” and said Putin should be “held accountable.” He was also restrained in his criticism of Biden’s approach.