If the Clinton campaign were so extensively interwoven with Putin’s Russian Federation, it’s a safe bet that Trump would be demanding that Clinton release her tax returns to prove that she’s not beholden to Putin – just as he demanded that Obama release his birth certificate. I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but I just heard Trump’s airplane would be grounded immediately.
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“I recognize that flexibility and creativity might actually be good selling used cars and selling real estate, but when you want to be the head of an worldwide superpower, precision and consistency are really important”, Hayden told CNN’s Erin Burnett.
Manafort’s unusual denial came nearly two weeks after I first reported the Trump campaign’s intervention in the GOP platform on Ukraine. Appearing on NBC’s “Today” show on March 13, he said that the land grab – which Obama and top European leaders denounced as a gross violation of worldwide law – “should never have happened”. He could not have been nicer.
“Our president is not strong and he is not doing what he should be doing for the Ukraine”, Trump told he group of pro-Western businessmen, diplomats and politicians.
Clinton pointed to Trump’s comments in recent days apparently encouraging the Russian government to hack into her deleted private emails as well as the remarks about Crimea and sanctions.
TRUMP: Well, look, you know, I have my own ideas.
In an interview with the New York Times, just before the conventions, Trump said he might not honor America’s commitment to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies if invaded by Russian Federation, if they haven’t “paid their dues”.
Then, three months ago, on the front page of “The Wall Street Journal”, they said North Atlantic Treaty Organisation to develop a terror division.
“In this case they (the Americans) are trying to camouflage some of their own (pre-election) shenanigans by demonizing Russian Federation. Isn’t Europe supposed to be involved in this?” And most papers covered what I said accurately.
I know it exact – two years ago, approximately, OK, approximately?
Trump answered, “Well, I don’t know what it means by having a relationship”.
“But you know, the people of Crimea, from what I’ve heard, would rather be with Russian Federation than where they were”.
Meanwhile, in another March 2014 speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump reiterated his praise for Putin’s intervention in Ukraine, saying it was smart to do it right after the Olympics, which were held that year in Sochi.
Then on July 21, Trump’s chief policy adviser Sam Clovis defended the policy when asked about it at an event in Cleveland hosted by the International Republican Institute. Do you want to have World War III to get it back? Between now and Election Day, we will strive to go beyond the headlines to explain what’s happening and why.
The Republican nominee asserted that the people of Crimea “would rather be with Russian Federation than where they were” and said he’s “going to take a look” at the issue. The Ukrainian government says Russian Federation has done far more, sending more soldiers and weapons.
“That’s the area with the wealth”, Trump continued.
The move inflamed pro-Russia civil unrest in Ukraine’s eastern regions following pro-democracy protests in the capital Kyiv that led to the overthrow of Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukovych. Because without the money, it’s like this country. So we’re protecting these countries and they’re not paying. It’s going to really fall. It’s already falling. You go into our airports, you go look at our bridges, you look at our roadways, we’re becoming a third-world country.
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Manafort’s work in Ukraine is the subject of a story in the New York Times, written by Steven Lee Myers in Washington and Moscow correspondent Andrew Kramer.
