More important, though, it would be different in kind because it would really be a lie about national security and the norms governing our response to the imprisonment of Americans by despotic regimes. If it really is the case that we will offer $2 million for the release of our citizens, any number of questions present themselves. Where did the $2 million figure come from? Was it negotiated up by the North Koreans, or down by the president or his representatives? Is that the most we are willing to pay? Are there special circumstances that made the release of Warmbier a priority — Trump’s ongoing attempts to bring Kim Jong Un’s nuclear ambitions under control, say — or is this a standing offer to any of our enemies? Should hostile governments around the world be taking notes? These are all hugely important questions.
Then there is the issue of how it would play out at home. This would be a lie concerning a subject about which most Americans have strong views — i.e., the lives of their fellow citizens in the hands of our enemies. I cannot imagine even Mitch McConnell defending Trump’s attempt to cover up something as sordid as a ransom paid secretly in order to secure an outcome that was later passed off as the work of a heroic and skilled diplomat. It would be the opening that Republican critics of the president such as Mitt Romney and Ben Sasse and others who have long been on the fence — Lindsey Graham comes to mind — have been waiting for to declare open war.
It would be hell in an election year. Nothing would play more into, say, Joe Biden’s hand than a real example of Trump cowering in front of America’s enemies and then lying about it.
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