He didn’t work for Russia. He was an independent contractor.
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Truly, it’s all about the phrasing.
I suggest, “Does anyone know more than you about working for Russia?”
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A friend of mine suggested charging him with a murder and having his defense lawyer to defend him by saying, “My client simply doesn’t have the hand size or strength to have choked the victim.”
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It’s not like she didn’t warn us
(Search “Puppet”)
CLINTON: …But you are very clearly quoting from WikiLeaks. And what’s really important about WikiLeaks is that the Russian government has engaged in espionage against Americans. They have hacked American websites, American accounts of private people, of institutions. Then they have given that information to WikiLeaks for the purpose of putting it on the Internet. This has come from the highest levels of the Russian government, clearly, from Putin himself, in an effort, as 17 of our intelligence agencies have confirmed, to influence our election.
So I actually think the most important question of this evening, Chris, is, finally, will Donald Trump admit and condemn that the Russians are doing this and make it clear that he will not have the help of Putin in in this election, that he rejects Russian espionage against Americans, which he actually encouraged in the past? Those are the questions we need answered. We’ve never had anything like this happen in any of our elections before.
WALLACE: Well?
TRUMP: That was a great pivot off the fact that she wants open borders, OK? How did we get on to Putin?
WALLACE: Hold on – hold on, wait. Hold on, folks. Because we – this is going to end up getting out of control. Let’s try to keep it quiet so – for the candidates and for the American people.
TRUMP: So just to finish on the borders…
WALLACE: Yes?
TRUMP: She wants open borders. People are going to pour into our country. People are going to come in from Syria. She wants 550 percent more people than Barack Obama, and he has thousands and thousands of people. They have no idea where they come from. And you see, we are going to stop radical Islamic terrorism in this country. She won’t even mention the words, and neither will President Obama. So I just want to tell you, she wants open borders. Now we can talk about Putin. I don’t know Putin. He said nice things about me. If we got along well, that would be good. If Russia and the United States got along well and went after ISIS, that would be good.He has no respect for her. He has no respect for our president. And I’ll tell you what: We’re in very serious trouble, because we have a country with tremendous numbers of nuclear warheads – 1,800, by the way – where they expanded and we didn’t, 1,800 nuclear warheads. And she’s playing chicken. Look, Putin…
WALLACE: Wait, but…
TRUMP: … from everything I see, has no respect for this person.
CLINTON: Well, that’s because he’d rather have a puppet as president of the United States.
TRUMP: No puppet. No puppet.
CLINTON: And it’s pretty clear…
TRUMP: You’re the puppet!
CLINTON: It’s pretty clear you won’t admit…
TRUMP: No, you’re the puppet.
CLINTON: … that the Russians have engaged in cyberattacks against the United States of America, that you encouraged espionage against our people, that you are willing to spout the Putin line, sign up for his wish list, break up NATO, do whatever he wants to do, and that you continue to get help from him, because he has a very clear favorite in this race.
So I think that this is such an unprecedented situation. We’ve never had a foreign government trying to interfere in our election. We have 17 – 17 intelligence agencies, civilian and military, who have all concluded that these espionage attacks, these cyberattacks, come from the highest levels of the Kremlin and they are designed to influence our election. I find that deeply disturbing.
WALLACE: Secretary Clinton…
CLINTON: And I think it’s time you take a stand…
TRUMP: She has no idea whether it’s Russia, China, or anybody else.
CLINTON: I am not quoting myself.
TRUMP: She has no idea.
CLINTON: I am quoting 17…
TRUMP: Hillary, you have no idea.
CLINTON: … 17 intelligence – do you doubt 17 military and civilian…
TRUMP: And our country has no idea.
CLINTON: … agencies.
TRUMP: Yeah, I doubt it. I doubt it.
CLINTON: Well, he’d rather believe Vladimir Putin than the military and civilian intelligence professionals who are sworn to protect us. I find that just absolutely…
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: She doesn’t like Putin because Putin has outsmarted her at every step of the way.
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But her emails!
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Russia hasn’t been communist for over a quarter century, and all this soviet kitsch on Trump is just liberals xenophobicly punching left, rather than engaging with Trump’s awful all American policies.
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Putin is a lot of things but “more progressive than the American Left” isn’t one of them.
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Could you recommend some appropriately modern, Oligarchic-Russian accessories with which to adorn him?
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Melania? 
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Shirtless and on a horse or go home.
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Sorry about my lack of clarity. I mean dressing Trump up in Soviet regalia is just resurrecting Cold War hysterics about the left, rather than making any real point about Trump’s ties to a right wing nationalist such as Putin.
Expensive watches and owning property all over the world?
I think it’s an intentionally kitschy illustration of just how far the Republican party has drifted from its own stated positions. During the Cold War the American Conservative movement cast the Soviet Union as evil incarnate, a boogeyman the likes of which the world had never seen.
Today that same party, including many of the same party leaders, happily embraces a President who is blatantly and transparently doing the bidding of a former KGB officer who embodies all the worst elements of the Soviet era.
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Except Russia isn’t the Soviet Union anymore, so Cold War anti communists liking the right wing capitalist that replaced the USSR is entirely consistent with their stated positions. Also it’s ridiculous to suggest Trump is doing the bidding of Putin. Trump is doing the bidding the same people who command the loyalties of nearly every previous president, Wall Street.
Putin is an old-school KGB spook who very much wants to run his country in a manner similar to the way things were done in the Soviet Union. Soviet style symbolism is apropos for the situation, especially considering this is clearly being presented as “humorous caricature” rather than “realistic depiction of what Trump would look like if he dressed as a Russian person.”
The world’s top intelligence agencies disagree.
The real question isn’t if Trump is doing Putin’s bidding, it’s a question of whether he’s doing so due to incompetence or malice.
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He’s doing exactly what Putin wants, every day. Can you point to anything Trump has done that tangibly goes against Putin’s interest?
I can rattle off 6 major things in 30 seconds that he’s done to help Putin:
-Destabilizing NATO
-Alienating the entire EU
-Suporting Brexit
-Pulling US troops out of Syria
-Trade war with China
-Legitimizing North Korea
Whether it’s as a formal Russian asset or just a clueless dupe doing quid-pro-quo favors for a perceived personal ally (equally illegal), Trump is doing the bidding of Putin.
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I think this is missing the possibility that Trump is just a small-minded nationalist authoritarian, so his goals align nearly perfectly with Putin’s. Personally that’s what I would have guess a while ago. These days it just feels like the Russian connections are too many and too strong to deny that it’s likely there is direct influence. That thing where he confiscated translator notes is crazy - might as well just put up a big sign that says, “Nothing to see here” with an arrow pointing at them.
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If there hadn’t been any interaction between Trump&Co and Putin, LLC, then I’d buy that. But almost every person involved with the Trump Campaign has had prolonged exposure to Russians or Russian-allied Ukrainians. We can rule out that they are coincidentally, but independently, working toward the same global goals.
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Lmao, that half your suggestions are that it’s progressive for America to wage endless wars against the Middle East or North Korea. Plus China is an ally of Russia, why would Putin encourage the US to harm them? Trump is the culmination of everything that sucks ass about America. No Russians needed.
