(no doubt in mind): Clinton is #1 (3) ... 4 more years @ OBAMA cheers

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dw.com: Russia, FBI chief part of election defeat: Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton has laid bare who she holds responsible for her electoral defeat against President Donald Trump. "I was on the way to winning" until WikiLeaks and the FBI undermined her campaign, she said.

 Hillary Clinton gestures during a speech (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has blamed part of her electoral defeat last November on misogyny, Russian interference and FBI director James Comey in her most extensive remarks since the divisive 2016 presidential election.

Speaking at an annual luncheon for the Women for Women International charity in New York on Tuesday, Clinton said she took "absolute personal responsibility" for a series of campaign mistakes that contributed to her loss.

Despite garnering 2.8 million votes more than her rival, she lost the US presidential election to Donald Trump, who won more votes in the Electoral College.

Less than two weeks before the election, Comey sent a letter to US lawmakers saying the FBI was reopening a probe into a personal email server used by Clinton during her tenure as the US top diplomat from 2009 to 2013.

However, two days before the election on November 8, he presented another letter saying the bureau had not changed its conclusions offered in July, in which Comey announced there was no basis for prosecution.

"I was on the way to winning until a combination of Jim Comey's letter on October 28 and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me, but got scared off," Clinton said.

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INILAHCOM, Portland, Maine - Sebuah aksi protes turun ke jalan mendukung kebijaksanaan Presiden Donald Trump terjadi di Portland, Maine.

The Huffington Post mengabarkan Senin (6/2/2017), aksi protes yang digelar akhir pekan lalu itu, mengundang perhatian banyak pihak, terutama di media sosial. Bukan karena aksi unjuk rasa itu menghebohkan, "tapi aksi itu hanya dilakukan oleh delapan orang," bunyi laporan stasiun televisi CBS lokal yang meliput aksi di Monument Square, Portland, tersebut.

William Hall dari Kota Gray, Kecamatan Cumberland, Maine, mengorganisasi aksi dukungan Trump yang mencekal pengungsi dan warga dari tujuh negara Islam. Kepada wartawan, Hall dan ke-7 demonstran menjelaskan bahwa aksi itu mereka lakukan untuk menyaini aksi yang menentang perintah eksekutif Presiden Trump.

Menurut Hall dan para demonstran mengaku tidak seluruhnya setuju dengan tindakan Trump. "Namun pencekalan atas warga dari 7 negara adalah tindakan yang tepat dilakukan dewasa ini," kata Hall. "Kita perlu pengecekan lebih ketat terhadap kaum imigran yang masuk ke AS," katanya lebih lanjut. "Bukankah kita punya perbatasan. Dan membuka perbatasan, sama halnya punya rumah tanpa pagar. Sederhana saja," kata Hall.

Protes delapan orang itu jadi bulan-bulanan di media sosial. Seperti Adrienne Kisson yang menulis: "Beberapa orang di hari ulang tahunku dan saya tidak suka," tulisnya di Twitter. Sedangkan pemilik akun el-dolor menulis: Kota metropolitan Portland yang berpenduduk 500 ribu orang, kok cuma 8 yang nongol membela bosmu. Bahkan ada yang kocak, seperti ditulis JustZack: "Bohong. Bukan delapan orang tapi delapan ribu di sana. Trump tahu, Spicer tahu, dan media yang bohong. Sedih deh". Yang kelewatan ditulis Andy: ''Inilah aksi protes terbesar yang mendukung Presiden. Titik. Di seluruh dunia maupun secara pribadi''.

- See more at: http://dunia.inilah.com/read/detail/2358126/aksi-dukung-trump-dihadiri-delapan-orang#sthash.ywPIige6.dpuf

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WASHINGTON DC, KOMPAS.com

 — Beberapa hari menjelang pelantikan Donald Trump sebagai presiden AS, Jumat (20/1/2017), puluhan anggota Kongres dipastikan tak hadir dalam acara tesebut.

Anggota Kongres dari Partai Demokrat yang menyatakan memboikot pelantikan Donald Trump telah mencapai 26 orang.

Banyak di antara mereka beralasan karena Trump baru-baru ini mengkritik ikon HAM Amerika Serikat dan sekaligus anggota Kongres, John Lewis.

Lewis adalah seorang anggota terkemuka gerakan hak-hak sipil Amerika dan dianggap sebagai pahlawan oleh banyak warga di negara itu.

Trump meluapkan kemarahan kepada Lewis pada Jumat pekan lalu setelah anggota Kongres itu mengatakan bahwa Trump bukan "presiden yang sah" sehingga ia tidak akan menghadiri pelantikannya.

Selama menjadi anggota Kongres dalam tempo 30 tahun terakhir, baru kali ini Lewis akan absen dari acara pelantikan presiden.

Anggota Kongres dari Georgia tersebut mengatakan, salah satu alasannya memboikot pelantikan Donald Trump adalah dugaan intervensi Rusia dalam pemilihan presiden Amerika Serikat yang dimenangi oleh Trump.

"Ketika Anda menghina anggota Kongres John Lewis, maka Anda menghina Amerika," kata Yvette Clarke, salah satu dari lima anggota Kongres dari New York, yang akan memboikot pelantikan Trump sebagai presiden Amerika Serikat menggantikan Barack Obama.

"Bagi saya, keputusan pribadi untuk tidak menghadiri pelantikan cukup sederhana, apakah saya mendukung Donald Trump, atau saya mendukung John Lewis? Saya mendukung John Lewis," kata Ted Lieu, anggota Kongres dari California.

Jauh sebelum John Lewis mengumumkan akan memboikot pelantikan Trump, anggota Kongres dari Illinois, Luis Gutierrez, tercatat sebagai anggota Kongres pertama yang menyatakan pemboikotan pada Desember 2016.

Pekan lalu seorang wakil dari Massachusetts, Katherine Clark, menyatakan juga tak akan menghadiri pelantikan presiden.

"Keluarga-keluarga di distrik saya takut jika antiperempuan, anti-imigran, anti-Muslim, dan janji-janji yang memecah belah yang mengisi kampanye Trump akan menjadi kebijakan-kebijakan yang akan berpengaruh pada kesehatan dan keselamatan setiap warga Amerika," kata Clark.

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TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Amerika Serikat di ambang perang saudara. Inilah peringatan yang disampaikan mantan Sekretaris di Kementerian Pertahanan Jerman, Willy Wimmer.


Wimmer, yang juga sekutu dekat Kanselir Jerman, Angela Merkel, menjelaskan, perang saudara di AS akan terjadi, mengingat para elite di Washington tengah berjuang keras untuk melengserkan Trump dari kursi Presiden AS. 

Menurut Wimmer, kelompok elite ini tengah meluncurkan kampanye kotor menentang Trump hanya beberapa hari sebelum pelantikannya sebagai Presiden AS. 
Selain itu, orang-orang Demokrat dan anti-Trump di Partai Republik semakin membangun jaringan untuk menolak Trump dengan mengaitkan hubungan dekat Trump dengan Rusia. 

”Saat Anda menyaksikan situasi di Washington, menurut saya mereka tak ingin, mereka yang gagal dalam pemilihan umum, menerima presiden baru yang namanya Trump. Apa yang sedang terjadi sekarang di Washington sepertinya awal menuju perang saudara,” kata Wimmer, seperti dikutip dari Express.co.uk, 12 Januari 2017.

Politikus dari Partai CDU, partai penyokong Merkel, itu menyebut Senator John McCain sebagai pemimpin dari penolakan terhadap Trump terkait dengan kebijakan luar negerinya, khususnya Rusia.

Adapun menurut Wimmer, semua orang di negara-negara Eropa justru ingin menjalin hubungan baik dengan Rusia saat ini. 

”Tidak ada permusuhan antara Rusia dan Eropa. Permusuhan diolah dengan cara yang sangat artifisial dan cara ini sama dengan mengolah permusuhan terhadap Trump yang seperti kita lihat saat ini,” kata Wimmer. 

”Ketegangan yang terjadi antara Trump, badan intelijen, dan Rusia merupakan hari-hari yang sangat dramatis yang pernah terjadi dalam kehidupan kita,” ujarnya. 

Sebelumnya, badan intelijen AS mengungkap sejumlah bukti tentang keterlibatan Rusia dalam pemilihan Presiden AS pada November tahun lalu untuk memenangkan Trump. Namun Rusia membantahnya.

Belakangan, muncul dokumen setebal 35 halaman berisi bukti-bukti yang mengklaim Trump tak layak jadi presiden. Namun hasil penelusuran media menunjukkan pembuat dokumen adalah mantan intelijen Inggris, MI16, yang bekerja atas permintaan sekelompok politikus AS.

EXPRESS | GUARDIAN | MARIA RITA

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Dahleen Glanton
@dahleeng

Crowd shouting "Four More Years!"Obama answers: "I can't do that!"

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Washington DC - Presiden Amerika Serikat (AS) Barack Obama memerintahkan pengusiran atas 35 diplomat Rusia dan memberi sanksi pada otoritas intelijen Rusia. Pemerintah AS meyakini mereka terlibat dalam upaya peretasan pada kelompok politik AS dalam pemilihan presiden (Pilpres) AS.

Dilansir Reuters, Jumat (30/12/2016), Obama meminta Departemen Luar Negeri untuk mengumumkan 35 orang itu sebagai 'persona non grata' atau dalam politik internasional disebut sebagai orang yang tidak diinginkan. Selain itu, Obama meminta 2 lembaga Rusia di New York dan Maryland untuk ditutup lantaran diduga digunakan orang-orang Rusia untuk 'tujuan yang berkaitan dengan intelijen'.

Seorang pejabat senior AS menyampaikan pada Reuters bahwa tindakan itu akan memengaruhi kedutaan Rusia di Washington dan konsulat di San Francisco. 

Pejabat itu juga mengatakan para warga negara (WN) Rusia itu memiliki waktu 72 jam untuk meninggalkan negeri Paman Sam. Dia juga menyebut 2 lembaga Rusia itu digunakan untuk mengumpulkan informasi intelijen dan semua pejabat Rusia akan ditolak apabila ingin menggunakannya.

"Langkah ini dilakukan untuk merespons perlakuan berbahaya Rusia pada diplomat AS dan langkah para diplomat itu dinilai tidak konsisten dengan praktik diplomasi," ucap pejabat itu.

Sebelumnya, Obama secara resmi menyampaikan serangkaian sanksi untuk Rusia yang dianggap ikut campur dalam pemilihan presiden AS. Obama juga memperingatkan Rusia akan adanya aksi lanjutan.

Selain itu, Obama menyebut akan ada laporan tentang upaya Rusia yang ikut campur dalam pemilihan presiden AS yang akan disampaikannya pada Kongres dalam beberapa hari ke depan.

Sebelumnya diberitakan, Rusia melancarkan serangan cyber selama masa pilpres lalu, yang akhirnya dimenangkan oleh Donald Trump. Rusia sendiri dituduh oleh berbagai agensi AS seperti FBI, CIA dan lainnya sebagai dalang di balik berbagai serangan cyber terhadap AS. Seperti membocorkan berbagai informasi untuk membantu kemenangan Donald Trump pada pilpres AS lalu, tuduhan yang berulang kali ditepis oleh Rusia.

Obama sendiri sebelumnya sudah pernah menyebut kalau pihaknya akan bereaksi atas interferensi Rusia dalam pilpres AS ini. Sementara presiden AS terpilih Donald Trump menolak mengomentari hasil penilaian komunitas intelijen AS tersebut.

Pihak Rusia sendiri melalui juru bicara Kementerian Luar Negerinya, Maria Zakharova, menjanjikan akan mengambil tindakan tersendiri apabila AS benar-benar menjatuhkan sanksi ekonomi terhadap negerinya itu. 
(dhn/dhn)

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By Joseph Menn reuters: The U.S. agency charged with ensuring that voting machines meet security standards was itself penetrated by a hacker after the elections in November, according to a security firm working with law enforcement on the matter.

The security firm, Recorded Future, was monitoring underground electronic markets where hackers buy and sell wares and discovered someone offering logon credentials for access to computers at the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, company executives said.

Posing as a potential buyer, the researchers engaged in a conversation with the hacker, said Levi Gundert, vice president of intelligence at the company, and Andrei Barysevich, director of advanced collection.

Eventually they discovered that the hacker had obtained the credentials of more than 100 people at the Commission after exploiting a common database vulnerability, the researchers said.

The hacker was trying to sell information about the vulnerability to a Middle Eastern government for several thousand dollars, but the researchers alerted law enforcement and said Thursday that the hole had been patched.

Created by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 and led by presidential appointees, the Election Assistance Commission certifies voting systems and develops standards for technical guidelines and best practices for election officials across the country.

A spokesman for the Commission did not immediately respond to requests for comment. An FBI spokeswoman said her agency was unlikely to comment without confirmation from the Commission.   

The researchers said that the Russian-speaking hacker had an unusual business model, in that he scanned for ways to break into all manner of businesses and other entities and then moved rapidly to sell that access, rather than stealing the data himself.

“We don’t think he actually works for any government or is super-sophisticated,” Barysevich said.

In the case of the election commission, the hacker used methods including an SQL injection, a well-known and preventable flaw, obtaining a list of usernames and obfuscated passwords, which he was then able to crack.

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Though much of the Commission’s work is public, the hacker gained access to non-public reports on flaws in voting machines.

In theory, someone could have used knowledge of such flaws to attack specific machines, said Matt Blaze, an electronic voting expert and professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

The researchers were confident that the hacker moved to sell his access soon after getting it, meaning that he was not inside the system before election day. Further, the U.S. voting process is decentralized and there were no reports of widespread fraud in November.

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huffington post: Ten Electoral College members have requested an intelligence briefing on Russia’s meddling in the U.S. presidential election, a week before the group is scheduled to formally certify the results. 

The bipartisan group made their case to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper in an open letter Monday, arguing that the information is essential to their duties as electors who are tasked to “elect a president who is constitutionally qualified and fit to serve.”

Citing Alexander Hamilton’s writing in The Federalist Papers, the electors argue Russian interference in the election must factor into their decision. In Federalist #68, Hamilton charged the Electoral College with preventing a “desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils.”

The Washington Post published details Friday of a CIA report that concluded Russia interfered with the U.S. presidential election to help Donald Trump win. The Trump camp responded by dismissing the report outright, despite calls from across the aisle for a more thorough investigation.

In a statement Monday, Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said he supports the electors’ efforts to seek more detailed information.

“The bipartisan electors’ letter raises very grave issues involving our national security,” Podesta said in the statement. “Electors have a solemn responsibility under the Constitution and we support their efforts to have their questions addressed.”

Podesta also said he supports the efforts of the Senate Intelligence Committee to declassify and make publicly available information regarding Russia’s role in the election.
the huffington post: Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with WikiLeaks in the runup to the presidential election to damage Hillary Clinton, outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) charged on Monday.

Reid, who has sharply criticized FBI Director James Comey for sitting on intelligence connecting Russian operatives and the Trump campaign, said he was unsure if Trump himself was aware of the activity. But he said people in Trump’s orbit certainly were.

“Someone in the Trump campaign organization was in on the deal. I have no doubt. Now, whether they told [Trump] or not, I don’t know. I assume they did. But there is no question about that,” Reid said in an interview with The Huffington Post. “So there is collusion there, clearly.”

“Don’t put blindfolds on,” he said. “Here is the deal: We have a situation where during the campaign, especially the last few months of the campaign, WikiLeaks was heavily involved in trying to hurt Hillary Clinton and it helped Trump. And you have Trump who said he likes Putin better than he likes Obama.”

A spokesperson for WikiLeaks rejected Reid’s charge in a statement to The Huffington Post, saying, “WikiLeaks is an independent media organization entirely funded by its readers. The statement is false. Congress should start an immediate inquiry into the interference by the CIA in US domestic politics.”

A request for comment to the Trump campaign was not returned.

Speaking from a side office on Capitol Hill just days before he leaves the Senate after almost 30 years, Reid said that if members of the Electoral College got the same briefings from intelligence agencies regarding Russia’s role in the campaign, they would think twice about supporting him on Dec. 19, when electors cast their ballots.

“What I say to somebody that is pledged to Donald Trump is, ‘Be fair. Be fair,’” Reid said. “This is a tremendous responsibility that you have to do the right thing.”

Though the likelihood of electors rejecting Trump is remote (even Reid conceded that Trump would be the next president though he also said the Electoral College system should be abolished) the revelations of Russia’s interference have added another cryptic element to the election. On Friday, The Washington Post reportedthat the CIA had concluded Russia took concrete actions to aid Trump’s campaign. Trump immediately refuted the charge and attacked the CIA for its record during the runup to the Iraq War. But President Barack Obama called for a full review before he leaves office, while Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta asked for electors to be briefed before their vote next week.

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newsweek.com: REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS BREAK WITH TRUMP ON RUSSIA

Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell warn that Russia is a threat, not a friend.

BY EMILY CADEI ON 12/12/16 AT 11:00 PM

The Russian hacking allegations appear to be fueling a Republican crackup, as party leaders in Washington broke publicly with their president-elect over intelligence reports Moscow intervened in the 2016 election to benefit Donald Trump.

House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke up Monday to condemn Russian meddling in the election, after Trump spent the weekend dismissing the CIA report that concluded Russian agents hacked the Democratic National Committee and other operatives and leaked their emails to hurt the party. The GOP leaders also endorsed congressional reviews into the hacking. This came after Trump’s transition team on Friday issued a statement dismissing calls for an investigation and urging the country to move on, and after top Trump surrogates, including incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, aggressively challenged the intelligence reports in appearances on the Sunday morning talk shows.

McConnell went so far as to issue a firm rebuke of Trump’s cozy relations with Russia and his reaction to U.S. intelligence conclusions about its behavior—though the senator never addressed the president-elect directly. In a prepared statement that he read at the start of his Capitol Hill press conference Monday, McConnell was emphatic: “I have the highest confidence in the intelligence community and especially the Central Intelligence Agency.” While Trump's transition team issued a statement mocking the agency for getting the intelligence wrong on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq last decade, McConnell affirmed that “the CIA is filled with selfless patriots, many of whom anonymously risk their lives for the American people.”Related: Trump decries CIA report that Putin's Russia tried to help him win the election

When it comes to Russia, the veteran Kentucky senator laid out a much darker view of bilateral relations than Trump, who has advocated a renewed dialogue. “Let me just speak for myself, the Russians are not our friends,” he replied when asked about Trump’s overtures to Moscow. “They invaded Crimea. Senator McCain and I and some of our Democratic friends met with a delegation from the Baltic countries just this past week. To say that they’re nervous about the Russians would be to put it mildly.” Ryan, too, criticized Russia as “an aggressor that consistently undermines American interests.” McConnell also reiterated his support for the NATO alliance; Trump questioned the utility of the pact repeatedly on the campaign trail.

Both McConnell and Ryan cautioned, however, that recent leaks from the intelligence community vis-à-vis Russian hacking may be partisan in their purpose. “Exploiting the work of our intelligence community for partisan purposes does a grave disservice to those professionals and potentially jeopardizes our national security,” Ryan said in a statement issued Monday afternoon. “As we work to protect our democracy from foreign influence, we should not cast doubt on the clear and decisive outcome of this election.”

McConnell and Ryan’s statements reinforced a growing rift with Trump and his transition officials on the issue. Already, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain and fellow GOP Senator Lindsey Graham had issued a joint statement with leading Democrats calling for a bipartisan investigation into the hacking. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr has also expressed support for a review of Russian cyberattacks.

The renewed focus on Russian antagonism could complicate the prospects for Trump’s purported secretary of state pick, Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson. Tillerson is said to have a close relationship with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, and Democrats are already making hay over Putin having awarded Tillerson Russia’s Order of Friendship, a recognition given to foreign nationals who have contributed to Russian society. As the CEO of a major oil conglomerate, Tillerson has been an active player in Russia’s energy industry. On Monday, as the scrutiny over Trump’s scrap with the intelligence community intensified, a Democratic-aligned super PAC, American Bridge, distributed to the press a video clip of Tillerson receiving the award from Putin.

McCain has already expressed concerns about Tillerson’s ties to Putin and Moscow. And fellow GOP defense hawk Marco Rubio tweeted a not-so-subtle warning Sunday : “Being a ‘friend of Vladimir’ is not an attribute I am hoping for from a #SecretaryOfState.” McConnell on Monday repeatedly refused to weigh in on Tillerson’s potential nomination—which the Trump transition team has yet to officially announce. “I don’t want to comment on a phantom nominee,” the majority leader responded. But he did urge American officials to operate on “the assumption that the Russians do not wish us well.” Added McConnell, “I hope that those who are going to be in positions of responsibility in the new administration share my view.”

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la times opinion:

Election hacks and Russia-friendly nominees pose historic choice of party or principle.

Imagine that we live in an alternative universe in which Hillary Clinton won the presidential election after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hacked her opponent. Imagine, further, that it emerged after the vote that not only had the Iranians hacked the Republican high command and released a batch of embarrassing emails, but they also had hacked Clinton and kept the results confidential.

Now imagine that Clinton, while publicly pondering the possibility of lifting all sanctions on Iran, had appointed as her national security adviser a retired general who had recently been seen dining with the ayatollah in Tehran and as her secretary of State an executive who had received an Order of Friendship from the ayatollah.

Republicans would be sputtering in outrage, and with good reason. The test for Republicans is how they will react given that it is Donald Trump rather than Hillary Clinton who is guilty of all the transgressions described above — only with Russian President Vladimir Putin rather than Khamenei.

On Friday night, The Washington Post and The New York Times reported that the CIA had concluded Russian hacks of the Democratic National Committee and individual Democrats were designed not just to disrupt the election but also to elect Trump — as witness the fact that the Kremlin also hacked the Republican National Committee but sat on the results. Yet Trump continues to deny any Russian culpability for the hacking. In a Nov. 28 interview with Time magazine, he said, repeating a line he had used during the campaign: “It could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey.”

In response to the intelligence community assessment, reached with “high confidence,” that Putin was trying to help his campaign, Team Trump defamed the intelligence community: “These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It's now time to move on and 'Make America Great Again.' " On Fox News Sunday, Trump called the assessment "ridiculous."
It’s true that U.S. intelligence agencies, along with their counterparts throughout the world, erred in concluding that the Iraqi dictator had weapons of mass destruction, but to suggest that intelligence agencies must be wrong about Russian interference in the U.S. election because they have been wrong about some things in the past is a non-sequitur. Trump hasn’t presented any evidence that the intelligence community erred in this case. Rather, he seems to take it on faith that Putin must be innocent — because if he’s guilty then Trump’s election victory will be tainted. (Oh, and Trump’s win was hardly of historic proportions; his Electoral College margin ranks 46th out of 58presidential elections.)

The scandal is only limited because so far, there is no hard evidence of actual collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians. But if such evidence were to emerge, or if we were to learn of financial links between Trump and the Russians, Kremlingate would go radioactive.

Rather than dispelling doubts about the nature of his relationship with Russia’s anti-American dictator, Trump has reinforced concerns with his appointments. Already, the president-elect has selected as his national security adviser retired lieutenant general Michael Flynn, who admitted accepting money from RT, the Kremlin’s propaganda outlet, to attend a banquet in Moscow where he sat at a table near Putin himself. (Flynn also has become notorious for his tweets, described as bordering “on the demented” by retired general Barry McCaffrey, which express anti-Muslim animus and promote fake news stories.)

Now as his secretary of State, Trump's leading choice is apparently Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil, considered one of Putin's closest American friends. The Kremlin even awarded him the Order of Friendship after ExxonMobil reached a lucrative agreement with the Kremlin-owned oil company Rosneft, run by Putin loyalist Igor Sechin, to develop Arctic oil fields. That joint venture was put on hold in 2014 after Russia invaded Ukraine and the U.S. responded with sanctions, but ExxonMobil is eager to resume operations the second sanctions are lifted. It may get its chance if its chief executive becomes America’s chief diplomat.

That is cause enough for senators of both parties to ask hard questions in the confirmation process and not let Tillerson slide by with pat answers. It may well be the case that as secretary of State, he will take a dramatically different view of Russia than he did as the CEO of an oil and gas giant, but if he were Hillary Clinton's appointee, Republicans would not give him the benefit of the doubt. Tillerson deserves no less scrutiny if he's chosen by Donald Trump.

Max Boot, a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors, is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.