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Veterans group VoteVets has released a new attack announcement criticizing President Donald Trump for reports that it received information that Russia was offering rewards to US military personnel in Afghanistan and failed to act.
The group, whose Twitter description says “blocked by Donald Trump,” has likened the president to Benedict Arnold, who infamously deserted the United States Continental Army on the British side in the Revolutionary War.
VoteVets posted the video on Twitter on July 3, a day before United States Independence Day, an annual celebration of the country’s Declaration of Independence.
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“For the 244 years since we declared independence, a name has remained the very definition of the word traitor to the United States Army,” said the video’s narrator.
“Benedict Arnold sold our troops during our fight for freedom. He tried to sell West Point to the enemy, before defecting to the other side. “
The narrator adds: “No one has betrayed the uniformed like Donald Trump.”
The narrator of the VoteVets video adds: “He associates with a foreign enemy, he puts rewards on the heads of the American troops. Take Putin’s word for the best American military intelligence. “
Earlier this week it was reported that the White House withheld evidence of Russian rewards on US soldiers from Republican representatives.
A report from The New York Times On Tuesday, he alleged that US officials had intercepted electronic data showing large financial transfers from Russia’s military intelligence agency to an account linked to the Taliban that corroborated the initial reward intelligence.
Despite the Pentagon’s denial that Trump knew about the rewards, what he himself has called a “hoax”, Los Angeles Times Legal affairs columnist Harry Litman said: “Two officials confirm that Trump was informed. At another time, we would be talking about impeachment.
The narrator adds: “For Donald Trump, Russian rewards on American troops are just another hoax. This July 4, Benedict Arnold can step aside … because Benedict Donald is America’s number one traitor. “
The announcement is the second this week to criticize the president’s role in rewards, after Republican super PAC The Lincoln Project released one on Wednesday.
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