Trump, his nominees disagree on Russia: Ex-US Senate adviser
A former US Senate policy adviser and diplomat says there are some disagreements between US President-elect Donald Trump and some of the people he is appointing to the top jobs in his incoming administration.
James Jatras, who is also a specialist in international relations and legislative politics in Washington, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Friday while commenting on Trump's Pentagon pick James Mattis’s recent harsh rhetoric against Russia.
During his confirmation hearing before the Senate on Thursday, Mattis said Washington must be ready to confront Moscow, urging caution about working with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I am all for engagement [with Russia], but we also have to recognize reality and what Russia is up to,” he said. “He [Putin] has chosen to be both a strategic competitor and adversary in key areas. I have very modest expectations about areas of cooperation with Mr. Putin.”
Jatras said, “Unlike Donald trump whose election was ratified by the American people and does not have to be approved by the US Senate, his cabinet nominees do have to be approved by the Senate.”
“And as it is well-known there are many harsh critics of Donald Trump’s desire to improve relations with Moscow,” he added.
“It’s not surprising that his nominees are taking a harder line on Russia during their confirmation testimony than Trump himself is doing,” he stated.
“Is that mean they are trying to deceive the senators? I don’t think so. I think they are nuances of meanings between what he says and what they are saying that could be interpreted in different ways,” the analyst noted.
“And perhaps unfortunately there are even some disagreements between Trump and some of the people he’s appointing to the top jobs in his administration,” he said.
“The fact is there are very, very few people with the requisite credentials for those jobs who actually do agree with Trump on this,” the political commentator lamented.
“But the question is, does he have the political will to move forward with this warming of relations and will the people he is nominating find the way to do that assuming they are approved which I think they will be?” Jatras asked.
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