Now they don’t even need to buy Facebook ads
Jul 20, 2018, 7:34 AM | Updated: 9:14 am
People are struggling to make sense of the decision to invite Vladimir Putin to the White House.
RELATED: Russia doesn’t own him, the voters do
So I went back to 1987, when President Reagan, barely six months after standing in Berlin and declaring “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” welcomed Mr. Gorbachev to the South Lawn.
He described him as an adversary and called him out on human rights. But he also said:
“The American people believe that a stranger is a friend they have yet to meet. Indeed, I know that many of our citizens have written to you and Mrs. Gorbachev and have even sent to you the keys to their homes.”
They went to sign a treaty limiting nuclear weapons. Two years later, the Berlin Wall came down. Two years after that the Soviet Union fell apart. So I’d say we won that round.
Of course, Putin is no Gorbachev. He’s trying to put the Soviet Union back together. And so the invitation surprised everyone, including Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats.
It is pretty funny. Vladimir Putin, the man accused of manipulating the 2016 election, being invited to the world’s biggest stage right before the 2018 election.
Now he doesn’t even have to buy Facebook ads.
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