Liberals are condemning President-elect Donald Trump and his people for supposed links to Vladimir Putin, but there was a time when Democrats were ingratiating themselves to the autocratic Russian leader and his country’s money.
Former President Bill Clinton, for example, took $500,000 in speaking fees in 2010 from a Russian finance company run by former KGB spies closely tied to Mr. Putin, a former KGB officer. At the same time, Hillary Clinton, as secretary of state, was leading the way in urging U.S.-Russia business expansion, complete with an American high-tech delegation to Moscow and U.S. investments in Russian cyberskills.
“We are committed to broadening and deepening ties between our two economies,” she said in Moscow with then-Prime Minister Putin at her side.
But what was once a hallmark of President Obama’s foreign policy — an alliance with Mr. Putin — is over.
The White House has joined liberals who charge that Mr. Trump’s people’s dealings with and overtures to Russia are the reasons Mr. Putin allegedly ordered cyberattacks against the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest, in what appears to be an unprecedented role for a presidential spokesman during a transition, has launched broad attacks from the briefing room lectern on the incoming president and his staff.
Russia was not always radioactive. It was the Obama administration that opened the gates to deeper business and personal relationships with Mr. Putin, an elected strongman who has all but eliminated any real political opposition to his power.
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