By Karen Tumulty:
“The Democrats had to come up with a story as to why they lost the election, and so badly (306), so they made up a story — RUSSIA. Fake news!” Trump tweeted Thursday, noting in parentheses the number of electoral votes he won in November.
The president brought up his electoral vote total again later in the day at a combative news conference, where he claimed — falsely — that his was “the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan.” In fact, of the presidents since Reagan, only George W. Bush won fewer electoral votes than Trump did last year. Trump also made 12 references to Hillary Clinton during the 1 hour and 17 minute news conference.
Trump shows little interest in a growing pile of evidence that Russia attempted to influence the outcome of the election. And he doesn’t seem curious about whether those who worked for him had improper contact with Russian agents.
Instead, he is accusing the intelligence community of disclosing information without authorization, and blaming the news media for harping on it.
His priorities worry those who see in Russia’s behavior as a real threat to U.S. security — not only last year, but also going forward.
“The focus can’t be on leaks. The focus can’t be on Hillary [Clinton]. The focus has to be on what happened,” said Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, who served in senior positions under the past three Republican presidents. “He’s got to use this to clean house, and to essentially reboot his administration.”
The chaos, Haass added, “is both a cause and a symptom of a governing crisis.”
The Full Story (February 16, 2017)
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