“When [White House senior advisor Jared] Kushner was asked whether he would call the FBI if he received an email offering the Trump campaign help from the Russian government, he refused to answer, saying it was a hypothetical question. Besides, he added, he never received the information he was promised the last time that offer was made. This is like asking someone who stole silverware from your house whether he would steal from you again and him responding it was a hypothetical question and, besides, the silverware he stole the first time turned out to be worthless. It's unlikely you would invite him over again. However, Donald Trump is running for re-election in 2020.”
Larry Noble, CNN

Regarding Christopher Steele, a foreign national hired by the Clinton campaign in 2016, “‘You can pay a foreign national to provide you with services, so a campaign, for instance, could have a campaign attorney who is a Canadian citizen’… If this kind of seems like a loophole, experts pointed out that it would be really hard to run a campaign otherwise. It would mean having to worry if the campaign signs you printed came from a foreign company, or if the catering firm you hired had foreign workers. If a campaign is paying someone for work or services, they’re being compensated. But where that doesn’t happen, and a campaign is accepting a contribution — or ‘thing of value’ — from a foreign government, the question then is what’s in it for them?”
Jen Kirby, Vox

“Foreign dirt wouldn’t come from Norway or other stable democratic allies like Ireland, France, and England. It would come from corrupt authoritarian regimes that want to manipulate American democracy for their own ends. In 2016, the Russian government favored Trump because he appeared open to relieving U.S. sanctions on the country. What if Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf monarchies try to repay Trump’s support as president by meddling in 2020?... What if Chinese leaders try to push the election in his opponents’ favor, in hopes of ending the trade war?… Thanks to Trump’s actions, Americans risk inheriting a democracy where elections are playgrounds for foreign powers rather than an expression of citizens’ wishes.”
Matt Ford, New Republic

“Here is what a presidential president might have said: If there is one thing the past three years have shown, the only good answer to a foreign country offering dirt on your political opponent is to decline and immediately report the offer to the FBI. Our country is still enduring the fallout from Russian interference in 2016. It has cast a pall on my presidency and led to the indictment of former senior government and campaign officials. The last thing any president should do is encourage foreign meddling in our next presidential election…

“It is important for me to be clear on this, because it is not only a question of me or my campaign potentially breaking the law. It is also a matter of principle. Our political differences matter less than our commitment to one another as citizens loyal to the same constitutional order and committed to defending it in a world in which other states, friendly or unfriendly, pursue their own national interests. As president, I will defend this principle from the same erosion of other norms we have seen as our politics have gotten sharper.”
Editorial Board, Washington Post