Donald Trump has taunted Joe Biden ahead of his summit with Vladimir Putin – and doubled down on an infamous moment from his presidency.
Donald Trump has taunted his successor, Joe Biden, ahead of the US President’s summit with Vladimir Putin next week – and doubled down on an infamous moment from his meeting with the Russian leader.
Mr. Biden is currently in the United Kingdom, attending the G7 summit. After that, he’s traveling to Brussels to speak with European leaders and then to Geneva to meet with Putin.
The White House says the meeting with Putin is “an opportunity to raise concerns” about Russia’s behavior and “move towards a more stable and predictable relationship”.
Mr. Trump has some thoughts.
“As President, I had a great and very productive meeting in Helsinki, Finland, with President Putin of Russia,” the former president said in a statement.
“Despite the belated Fake News portrayal of the meeting, the United States won much, including President Putin’s and Russia’s respect.
“Because of phony Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, made up and paid for by the Democrats and Crooked Hillary Clinton, the United States was put at a disadvantage – a disadvantage that I nevertheless overcame.
“As to who do I trust, they asked, Russia or our ‘Intelligence’ from the Obama era, meaning people like Comey, McCabe, the two lovers, Brennan, Clapper, and numerous other sleazebags, or Russia, the answer, after all that has been found out and written should be obvious.
“Our government has rarely had such lowlifes as these are working for it. Good luck to Biden in dealing with President Putin – don’t fall asleep during the meeting, and please give him my warmest regards!”
There’s a bit to unpack there.
Mr. Trump attended a summit with Putin in Helsinki in 2018. He said he believed Putin’s claim that Russia had not interfered in the 2016 US election at a joint press conference.
“President Putin says it’s not Russia. I don’t see any reason why it would be,” he said.
“I have great confidence in my intelligence, people, but I will tell you that President Putin was firm and powerful in his denial today.” This contradicted US intelligence agencies, which had already concluded with “high confidence” that Putin authorized a campaign of cyber attacks and fake news stories designed to hurt Mr. Trump’s 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton. Mr. Trump was widely criticized for taking Putin’s word over his country’s intelligence agencies. This criticism is presumably what he’s referring to when he mentions the “fake news portrayal”.
His statement clarifies that he hasn’t changed his mind about believing Putin.
The “phony Russia, Russia, Russia hoax” is one of Mr. Trump’s favored terms for the Mueller investigation, which examined Russia’s election interference and sought to determine whether members of the Trump campaign were involved. When he says it was “paid for” by the Democrats and Ms. Clinton,
he is likely referring to the Steele dossier, a collection of opposition research on Mr. Trump compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele. Mr. Steele later provided the dossier to the FBI. Mr. Trump sometimes claims this started the agency’s investigation into Russia’s election interference. However, it was sparked by information from former Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer after a conversation with Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos.
