The most intriguing questions that remain from the 2016 presidential election: How much influence did Russia exert on behalf of Donald Trump, and why did the Russians do so?
Donald Trump has suggested he wants to better relationship with Russia and its terrorist leader, Vladimir Putin, but has denied that he actually knows Putin. Then again, Trump has also said on more than one occasion that he’s met Putin and likes him. So which one is it?
Adding to an already muddied picture we now have a video from 2103 in which the alleged American president told MSNBC:
“I do have a relationship and I can tell you that he’s very interested in what we’re doing here today. He’s probably very interested in what you and I are saying today, and I’m sure he’s going to be seeing it in some form.”
That interview was shot in Moscow, which was hosting the 2013 Miss Universe pageant.
In 2016, the MSNBC interview was brought up to Trump during an interview with ABC News, and Trump commented:
“What do you call a relationship? I mean he treats me with great respect.
“Well, I don’t know what it means by having a relationship. I mean he was saying very good things about me, but I don’t have a relationship with him. I didn’t meet him. I haven’t spent time with him. I didn’t have dinner with him. I didn’t go hiking with him.”
He has a relationship with him but he didn’t have dinner with him, so what did he do? Did he give Putin a back rub and then turn him over for a happy ending? Or did he blow kisses at Putin from across the room? Some clarity would be nice, but it doesn’t seem to be possible as much as Trump lies.
In 2014, Trump said that he “spoke indirectly and directly with President Putin.” And a year later in 2015 he said in a radio interview that he met Putin “a long time ago” and “got along with him great.”
Then we go to 2016 and Trump bragged that he “got to know [Putin] very well because we were both on ’60 Minutes.’”
Yet on Tuesday, Trump tweeted out this:
I don't know Putin, have no deals in Russia, and the haters are going crazy – yet Obama can make a deal with Iran, #1 in terror, no problem!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 7, 2017
Which one is it? He does know Putin or he doesn’t? We can hope that a Congressional investigation will help reveal what the actual truth is. If indeed Donald Trump does know and admire Putin, or even if he doesn’t but wants to get to know him better, what that says about Trump speaks volumes as to what kind of a scum the so-called leader of the free world truly is.
Here’s the 2013 interview with MSNBC:
Full, uninterrupted interview from 2013 where Trump details his relationship with Vladimir Putin. View in light of recent revelations. pic.twitter.com/W1eZT6SOQU
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) January 11, 2017
This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org