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talkpoliticsHere's a question. Should a foreign leader have the expectation their conversations with the POTUS will remain confidential?
My 2 cents: Foreign policy is not a shady backdoor deal done aside from the view of everyone else between two people. Those international meetings defining and establishing foreign policy have - pre-Trump - at nearly all times always had translators, advisors and other officials in the room, one in one meetings or phone calls are the very rare exceptions, if at all. So no, there is and should never be ANY expectation by a foreign leader that he/she can do backdoor deals with another government. That shit works only in shady governments... oh wait...
So here's the deal. Real foreign policy talks between real leaders are done with staff present and fully recorded, not in secret phone calls. It was Trump's own staffers who were alarmed enough about what he did to sound the alarm to Congress.
But we all know the Republican strategy on this:
1. Pretend it didn't happen and hope it will go away.
2. Try to make the story about the leak, not about Trump's apparent attempt using a foreign government to go after an American political candidate. And possibly extortion.
And it'll work. Again.
My 2 cents: Foreign policy is not a shady backdoor deal done aside from the view of everyone else between two people. Those international meetings defining and establishing foreign policy have - pre-Trump - at nearly all times always had translators, advisors and other officials in the room, one in one meetings or phone calls are the very rare exceptions, if at all. So no, there is and should never be ANY expectation by a foreign leader that he/she can do backdoor deals with another government. That shit works only in shady governments... oh wait...
So here's the deal. Real foreign policy talks between real leaders are done with staff present and fully recorded, not in secret phone calls. It was Trump's own staffers who were alarmed enough about what he did to sound the alarm to Congress.
But we all know the Republican strategy on this:
1. Pretend it didn't happen and hope it will go away.
2. Try to make the story about the leak, not about Trump's apparent attempt using a foreign government to go after an American political candidate. And possibly extortion.
And it'll work. Again.
(no subject)
Date: 22/9/19 19:59 (UTC)strategy, step 3
Date: 22/9/19 21:08 (UTC)3. Say publicly that yes, he talked to the president of Ukraine about supposed corrupt activity in Ukraine by Joe Biden ... and say that there was nothing wrong with doing so.
I kind of expected that. But it still scares the hell out of me.
As to whether it will work: we don't know yet.
(no subject)
Date: 23/9/19 00:16 (UTC)Biden's competition could get some good out of this story though, if they want it bad enough.