Share

Fact-checking Donald Trump: Does GOP nominee know Vladimir Putin?

Paul Manafort, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump ‘s campaign chief, confirmed Wednesday the candidate is opting against releasing his tax returns this election cycle.

Advertisement

Donald Trump called on Russian Federation to find Hillary Clinton’s missing emails, while his vice presidential pick, Mike Pence condemned any such involvement, underscoring a policy schism between the newly-united running mates.

Trump also suggested during his news conference that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s lack of respect for the United States prompted him to once call President Barack Obama “the N word”.

But these positions, the sort of challenge to business interests perhaps expected from a Democrat, are no more traditional Republican stances than Trump himself is a traditional Republican.

During the pugilistic news conference at his Doral golf resort, which lasted more than 45 minutes, Trump also said Putin would respect him if he were elected and called current President Barack Obama, a Democrat, the most “ignorant” president ever.

The Clinton camp responded immediately and furiously.

In response, Clinton campaign senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan blasted the GOP nominee for encouraging “a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent”.

“This is a national security issue now”, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook told reporters in Philadelphia.

Adm. James Stavridis, who was once the highest-ranking officer in the Navy and was briefly mentioned as a possible vice presidential pick for Clinton, called Trump’s comments “shocking and dangerous” in an interview with the Guardian.

“In Ukraine, there has been significant manipulation of the information space, from the capture of USA diplomatic communications via signals intelligence and their publication on YouTube, to fraudulent Facebook and VKontakte accounts created for more tactical information operations”, he said.

The Democratic Party chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, resigned on Sunday after the leaked emails showed party leaders favouring Clinton over her rival, Senator Bernie Sanders, for the presidential nomination.

Trump has frequently voiced admiration for Putin, who has been in power for 17 years as president or prime minister and refuses to grant unconditional support for North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies in the Baltic should they face hostile acts.

The emails made clear that the committee repeatedly lied when it said it did not work to help Clinton defeat Sanders in the primaries.

Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.

I hope they do. “It should disqualify her from office”.

Meanwhile, Trump appears to have doubled down on his call for Russian Federation to find Clinton’s deleted emails.

The Kremlin denies interfering in the United States election.

“Russia has never interfered and does not interfere in internal affairs, especially in the electoral processes of other countries”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters yesterday.

Rep. Mike Pompeo said in an interview Wednesday that he thought Donald Trump might have been speaking in jest when he urged Russian Federation to hack Hillary Clinton’s e-mails.

But just as in Trump’s tax return, those disclosure documents don’t reveal how many Russian investors may have put money into any Trump properties, Scott said.

He also said: “I’m going to bring jobs back to this country so people can start working again, so that the $10 and the $15 and the numbers you’re talking about are going to literally be peanuts compared to what people can make”.

“A total lack of respect for President Obama”.

Trump spearheaded the so-called birther movement, which undermined America’s first black president by claiming that he was not born in the United Sates.

Advertisement

“I would treat Vladimir Putin firmly”, said the Republican nominee, adding that he would rather have a friendly Russian Federation to “knock out ISIS together”, referring to the Islamic State extremist group, which controls territory in Iraq and Syria.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at Trump Doral golf course in Miami