No one urged exclusive focus on the past. That Trump has great confidence in the intelligence community is directly contradicted by the regularity with which he undercuts their conclusions. And the rest of his defense makes even less sense.

Yes, there are times when countries ought to put bygone transgressions behind them. And yes, nuclear powers have a special responsibility to build a peaceful future. Indeed, the U.S. ought to build that sort of future with Russia.

But Russian interference in the 2016 election is not an issue that Trump can simply consign to the past, and not only because the press, the public, his partisan adversaries, and the nature of Robert Mueller’s probe will not allow it. Recent Russian election interference is an inescapable part of America’s future; the United States will hold another high-stakes election later this year. Then, in 2020, it will hold another presidential election. And every two years after that, there will be more elections in this republic, so long as we can keep it. How secure would those elections be if we only looked forward?

Kori Schake: Trump’s actions aren’t just disgraceful. They’re dangerous.

The republic would face a crisis if powerful foreign nations were permitted to interfere in those elections with impunity, or if most citizens began to doubt the integrity of elections because the government didn’t seem to care about past interference.

That is why patriotic members of Congress, intelligence agencies, an adversarial press, a civil society that cares about protecting democracy, and techies opposed to foreign intelligence services manipulating U.S. elections will all be scrutinizing the 2018 midterms for evidence of interference by Russia or others. The competitive nature of U.S. elections further guarantees that partisans on the losing side will cry foul if there is persuasive evidence of foreign interference.

Complicating matters further, false or exaggerated claims of foreign interference could also undermine American democracy by causing the public to wrongly turn on its institutions. A president fit for the office he holds would take every practical measure to reassure the public that Republicans and Democrats alike know interference to a degree that significantly affects or undermines an election’s results is possible—and that they’re united in trying to stop it.

Our actual president undermines that faith daily and thereby weakens the country. If he believes that he can render controversy over 2016 moot by simply urging that our two countries must “build a brighter future,” he is a fool. As a beneficiary of Russian interference, he can achieve that sort of reconciliation least of anyone.

Danielle Pletka: The endless anti-Trump outrage is counterproductive.

That Russian interference remains a feature of American relations with that country is inevitable. Managing the issue without undermining our future elections or risking a needless, ruinous conflict with a great power requires deftly confronting the matter directly, in a manner that decreases the odds of a repeat performance and does not involve credulously taking the word of a lying adversary as though it carries any credibility, or indulging fantasies that the matter will go away.

Trump shows every sign of being incapable of that vital task. Unless Republicans impeach the incompetent head of state they elected, the United States is unlikely to have a president capable of the feat until at least January 2021.