Post by benson on Jul 19, 2017 16:30:24 GMT
That President Donald Trump huddled with Russian President Vladimir Putin for almost an hour at a G20 dinner in Germany earlier this month is news. The meeting, which came after a more-than-two hour formal sitdown the two men had earlier in the gathering, was previously undisclosed and, given the nature of Russia's aggressive meddling in the 2016 election, is something we need to know more about.
What's as telling as Trump's willingness to chat with Putin with no US translator or any other US official around, however, is the way in which the president responded to the news of the meeting.
He did it via his preferred communication tool: Twitter. And here's what he said -- in two separate tweets sent Tuesday night.
This is a classic bit of Trump misdirection.
No media outlet reported anything about a "secret dinner." No one is making the dinner look "sinister." And, no one is suggesting that the media was unaware that the dinner was taking place.
That is not the story. The story is that the president of the United States had a somewhat lengthy sidebar conversation with the president of Russia. With no other U.S. officials present. And that we didn't know about it until Ian Bremmer reported on it Monday night.
www.cnn.com/2017/07/19/politics/trump-putin-meeting/index.html
What's as telling as Trump's willingness to chat with Putin with no US translator or any other US official around, however, is the way in which the president responded to the news of the meeting.
He did it via his preferred communication tool: Twitter. And here's what he said -- in two separate tweets sent Tuesday night.
This is a classic bit of Trump misdirection.
No media outlet reported anything about a "secret dinner." No one is making the dinner look "sinister." And, no one is suggesting that the media was unaware that the dinner was taking place.
That is not the story. The story is that the president of the United States had a somewhat lengthy sidebar conversation with the president of Russia. With no other U.S. officials present. And that we didn't know about it until Ian Bremmer reported on it Monday night.
www.cnn.com/2017/07/19/politics/trump-putin-meeting/index.html