Democratic “strategist” Adrienne Elrod made no objection when two of her Fox News cohosts insisted that Donald Trump has been tough on Russia.
In a discussion about Trump’s upcoming meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Elrod noted that Republican senators who just visited Russia have been tougher on that country than Donald Trump has. “It’s a shame,” Elrod said, that Trump will not tell Russia to stop meddling in our elections the way the senators had.
That propelled newly-permanent cohost Melissa Francis into Trump-protection overdrive. “See, there’s that focus on words,” she said dismissively. “It’s about what is he standing up and saying versus –“
Guest David Asman broke in: “The results.”
“What is the outcome and what is he doing,” Francis continued, as if she and Asman had prepared this talking point in advance. “I think the difference is that when President Trump sits across the table from a leader – and the reason why it was important for him, himself, to go to Kim Jong-Un, and him, himself, to go to Putin is that you look in his eyes and you know he’s not joking.”
Or you know he has no clue. Experts who are not Trump toadies agree that Trump caved to Kim. Also, Trump has blamed everyone but Russia for the 2016 election meddling. He has done nothing to try to prevent it from happening again this year.
Yet Elrod made no challenge to Francis’ pile of baloney.
Cohost Lisa Boothe piled on. "Let’s also talk about the actions. I mean, it’s just pure fiction that President Trump hasn’t been tough at Russia. You look at the expulsion of diplomats, you look at the shuttering of the Seattle consulate, you look at the exporting of lethal weapons to Ukraine, you look at energy exports to countries like Poland – "
"Outcomes not words," Francis chimed in.
Booth continued by saying that Trump “has arguably been very tough on Russia in his actions.”
Still no peep from Elrod. Even though Trump has called for readmitting Russia to the G7 and blamed Obama for Crimea’s annexation. In a recent tweet, Trump suggested that he believed Putin’s denials on Russian hacking and that Hillary Clinton, James Comey and the FBI are bigger enemies.
It was conservative Morgan Ortagus who provided some pushback. “I would say there are plenty of Republicans in the Senate who would be critical,” she said, and they will “continue to hold this administration’s feet to the fire on Russia.” She added, “Publicly, I think he needs to be tougher.”
But rather than go too tough on Trump (and maybe jeopardize her Fox TV hits), Ortagus quickly pivoted to blaming “weak president” Obama for allowing Russia into Syria. “So President Trump inherited a mess from President Obama,” she added.
Then, conveniently overlooking the alarming fact that Trump plans to talk to Putin without aides present, Ortagus said the summit presents “an amazing opportunity for [Trump] to show that he can be tough on [Putin] one-on-one but, at the same time, he is gonna have to deal with some really tough issues that he inherited.”
Watch Democrat Elrod allow herself to be out-talked and out-messaged below, from the July 5, 2018 Outnumbered.