Butt out: Trump should let Russian leader know how U.S. feels about elections

President Donald Trump will be meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin today, and the two men certainly have plenty to talk about.

But one thing Trump needs to clearly convey to Putin is that the United States will not tolerate any Russian attempts to meddle in our elections.

Elections in Russia might be a joke, but here in the land of the free we take them quite seriously, and there has been evidence that Russia at least attempted to intervene in the 2016 presidential race.

If it is true, it is something we cannot and will not have. Whatever they say in public, in private Trump must let Putin know in no uncertain terms that any attempts at election meddling at any level will have consequences. Putin, a dictator for all his pretense at not being one, will only understand blunt talk, and Trump, for all his faults, is nothing if not a man of blunt talk. This is one occasion when he needs to put it to good use.

Published in Editorials on July 6, 2017 10:08 PM