Liberals who cheered Hillary’s tough rhetoric on Kremlin now fret Trump’s more hawkish stance
By Edmund Kozak, LifeZette:
Democratic lawmakers, who spent an entire election cheering Hillary Clinton’s tough rhetoric on Russia — and spent months thereafter decrying Russian “interference” in the U.S. election — are now suddenly worried that President Trump might drag the country into an armed conflict with the Kremlin.
Throughout the campaign, Clinton delivered a strong line against President Vladimir Putin, Russian meddling in the Ukraine and Syria, and Donald Trump’s alleged support for both. And Democrats and their media allies cheered her every step of the way.
“Trump … heaps praise on Putin and embraces pro-Russian policies. He talks casually of abandoning our NATO allies, recognizing Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and of giving the Kremlin a free hand in Eastern Europe more generally,” Clinton said in an August 2016 speech in Nevada. “American presidents from Truman to Reagan have rejected the kind of approach Trump is taking on Russia. We should, too.”
Her adoring supporters lapped it up.
“Putin fears a Clinton presidency,” declared Miami Herald world affairs columnist Frida Ghitis in an October 2016 op-ed published on CNN. “For Putin, stopping Clinton is not only an important strategic goal. It is also personal.”
So loudly was Clinton beating the war drums that even far-left Green Party candidate Jill Stein declared, in an October 2016 appearance on C-SPAN, that “it is now Hillary Clinton that wants to start an air war with Russia over Syria by calling for a no-fly zone.”
“We have 2,000 nuclear missiles on hair-trigger alert. They are saying we are closer to a nuclear war than we have ever been,” she said. “Under Hillary Clinton, we could slide into nuclear war very quickly from her declared policy in Syria.”
Now, Democrats and media pundits are lashing out at Trump for risking the same outcome.
“I think we’re getting closer and closer to open conflict with Iran and Russia, and the American public needs to know that we’re moving very fast toward what could be another war inside the Middle East,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota on Tuesday. “Something, by the way, that Donald Trump promised he wouldn’t do when he ran for office.”
A thorough search did not unveil any critical comments Sen. Murphy made about Clinton’s stated Syria policy during the campaign.
Also on Tuesday, liberal website Vox published an article warning that the “U.S. and Russia may be getting closer to a military confrontation,” while The Washington Post published an op-ed warning of “Trump’s silent surge in the Middle East — and the slippery slope to war.”
The op-ed was co-authored by none other than John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s former campaign chairman.
“Trump has also placed the United States squarely on one side of the Sunni-Shiite sectarian conflict roiling the region,” Podesta writes.
Moreover, Democrats continue to decry Russian interference in the election as an act of war.
“I actually think that their engagement was an act of war,” said Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) during House Intelligence Committee hearings into alleged Russian interference in March.
“This past election, our country was attacked. We were attacked by Russia,” said Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) at the same hearing.
This article used with permission from LifeZette.
