Now that both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions are in the rearview mirror and the race for the presidency continues to heat up, the mudslinging and the potshots may end up dictating the final outcome. But when some of these accusations are backed up and proven by authentic video footage, it becomes a little harder to brush them off as hearsay.
Such is the case with Donald Trump, whose purported ties to Vladimir Putin and Russia are becoming more and more evident, even though Mr. Trump has denied having anything to do with the Russian president. During a recent press conference, Trump was quoted as saying, “I never met Putin, I don’t know who Putin is,” which outright contradicts what he said during a 2013 interview, compliments of the well-known cable news station, MSNBC.
The three-year-old interview reveals that Trump says he knows the Russian leader, and that Putin has taken more than a subtle interest in the Trump campaign effort. MSNBC news anchor Thomas Roberts sat down with the Republican presidential candidate, and here’s what Mr. Trump had to say: “I do have a relationship, and I can tell you that [Putin] is 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. But I do have a relationship with him and I think it’s very interesting to see what’s happened.”
Donald Trump also seems to have a great deal of admiration for Vladimir Putin.
“I mean look, he’s done a very brilliant job in terms of what he represents and what he’s representing. If you look at what he’s done with Syria, if you look at so many of the different things, he has really eaten our president’s lunch, let’s not kid ourselves.”
While it’s no secret that the US and Russia have been at odds with each other dating back to the Cold War era, Mr. Trump doesn’t really seem to care about the backlash or any future repercussions for his actions; in fact, he recently called upon Russian hackers to search for and find the 30,000 emails that nobody else can seem to locate. This of course is in reference to Hillary Clinton’s email server that has been deemed “unsecure.”