{"id":11576315,"date":"2025-07-24T15:00:03","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T19:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/?p=11576315"},"modified":"2025-07-24T16:39:42","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T20:39:42","slug":"armstrong-williams-the-russian-interference-ploy-to-undermine-trump-staff-commentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/2025\/07\/24\/armstrong-williams-the-russian-interference-ploy-to-undermine-trump-staff-commentary\/","title":{"rendered":"Armstrong Williams: The ‘Russian interference’ ploy to undermine Trump | STAFF COMMENTARY"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fringe radical left has an ulterior motive for its preoccupation with the Epstein files and its attempts to defend former President Barack Obama\u2019s alleged treasonous conspiracy to undermine the first Trump administration through claims of Russian election interference: President Donald Trump\u2019s miraculous achievements. Among other things, President Trump is on track to be crowned with the Nobel Peace Prize. He has been nominated for the award by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and multiple other officials and organizations.<\/p>\n

But what about the Epstein files? Much ado about nothing. President Joe Biden had control over them. Who believes he would have refrained from leaking incriminating evidence against Trump if there were any? Mr. Biden openly despised his political rival. What we are witnessing is confirmation bias of the type that insisted WMDs in Iraq was a \u201cslam dunk.\u201d<\/p>\n

As regards Russian interference in the 2016 election, credible evidence points to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton as the intended beneficiary, based on declassified intelligence released<\/a> by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard indicating the Russians sat on damaging information about Clinton in 2016. The Russians likely believed she would be subject to blackmail because of multiple skeletons in her closet, for example, channeling handsome foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation in exchange for United States assistance, or compromising national security by reckless use of an unsecured private email.<\/p>\n

The Russians understood that Hillary Clinton as president would pursue self-ruinous wars like Vietnam. As secretary of state, Ms. Clinton was a super-hawk over fool\u2019s errands in Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and Taiwan. Remember her infamous, Caesar-like chortle over the overthrow and death of Libya\u2019s Muammar Gaddafi: \u201cWe came, we saw, he died.\u201d Clinton made Libya a wilderness and called it peace.<\/p>\n

Democrats have concocted the theory that Russia favored Trump in 2016 to deflect attention from Ms. Clinton\u2019s dreadful performance against a then-political neophyte. The facts are not in dispute: Trump defeated Clinton fair and square in 2016 with no vote tampering and with no assistance from Russia.<\/p>\n

Democrats are singing their own political death warrants by running down rabbit holes like the Epstein files.<\/p>\n

Armstrong Williams (www.armstrongwilliams.com; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also part owner of The Baltimore Sun.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The point of claims of Russian interference in the 2016 election was to undermine the Trump administration, writes Armstrong Williams. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":157,"featured_media":11535118,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-07-24T19:00:09Z","apple_news_api_id":"484d17c5-278c-4cd0-b884-83f77dcf3eab","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-07-24T20:39:45Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ASE0XxSeMTNC4hIP3fc8-qw","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"middle","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"subheadline":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[83,96,99],"tags":[24874,24457],"feature":[],"location":[],"type-of-work":[],"coauthors":[24791],"class_list":["post-11576315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-headlines","category-opinion","category-opinion-columnists","tag-armstrong-williams","tag-social"],"post_status":"","edit_last":0,"edit_lock":0,"highlights":"","original_byline":"","original_canonical":"","original_category":"","original_email":"","original_id":0,"original_pubdate":"","original_source":"","primary_section":"99","primary_tag":24874,"print_workflow_body":{"deck_headline":"","print_title":"Armstrong Williams: The 'Russian interference' ploy to undermine Trump","print_subheadline":"","print_priority":"","print_placement":"cover","print_planned_ready":"","print_pub_date":1753401600,"print_slug":"TBS-L-ARMSTRONG-0725","print_content":"

The fringe radical left has an ulterior motive for its preoccupation with the Epstein files and its attempts to defend former President Barack Obama\u2019s treasonous conspiracy to undermine the first Trump administration through claims of Russian election interference: President Donald Trump\u2019s miraculous achievements. Among other things, President Trump is on track to be crowned with the Nobel Peace Prize. He has been nominated for the award by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and multiple other officials and organizations.<\/p>\n

But what about the Epstein files? Much ado about nothing. President Joe Biden had control over them. Who believes he would have refrained from leaking incriminating evidence against Trump if there were any? Mr. Biden openly despised his political rival. What we are witnessing is confirmation bias of the type that insisted WMDs in Iraq was a \u201cslam dunk.\u201d<\/p>\n

As regards Russian interference in the 2016 election, credible evidence points to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton as the intended beneficiary, based on declassified intelligence released<\/a> by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard indicating the Russians sat on damaging information about Clinton in 2016. The Russians likely believed she would be subject to blackmail because of multiple skeletons in her closet, for example, channeling handsome foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation in exchange for United States assistance, or compromising national security by reckless use of an unsecured private email.<\/p>\n

The Russians understood that Hillary Clinton as president would pursue self-ruinous wars like Vietnam. As secretary of state, Ms. Clinton was a super-hawk over fool\u2019s errands in Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and Taiwan. Remember her infamous, Caesar-like chortle over the overthrow and death of Libya\u2019s Muammar Gaddafi: \u201cWe came, we saw, he died.\u201d Clinton made Libya a wilderness and called it peace.<\/p>\n

Democrats have concocted the theory that Russia favored Trump in 2016 to deflect attention from Ms. Clinton\u2019s dreadful performance against a then-political neophyte. The facts are not in dispute: Trump defeated Clinton fair and square in 2016 with no vote tampering and with no assistance from Russia.<\/p>\n

Democrats are singing their own political death warrants by running down rabbit holes like the Epstein files.<\/p>\n

Armstrong Williams (www.armstrongwilliams.com; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also part owner of The Baltimore Sun.<\/em><\/p>\n","print_budget_line":"","print_excerpt":"The point of claims of Russian interference in the 2016 election was to undermine the Trump administration, writes Armstrong Williams.","print_notes":"","photo_limits":"Photo limits are: 1 featured image, 5 featured gallery images, 5 embedded gallery images and 5 in-article embedded images. Articles that exceed these limits will not export. 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