“I’m not going to tell Putin what to do. Why should I tell Putin what to do? He already did something today where he said don’t blame them, essentially, for your incompetence.”
by digby
I was doing some research for another piece the other day and read the transcript of Trump’s last press conference of the 2016 campaign, which took place on July 27, just a few days after Wikileaks released its first batch of 20,000 DNC emails on the eve of the Democratic convention. He had a lot to say.
TRUMP: It’s just a total deflection, this whole thing with Russia. In fact, I saw her campaign manager I don’t know his title, Mook. I saw him on television and they asked him about Russia and the hacking.
By the way, they hacked — they probably have her 33,000 e-mails. I hope they do. They probably have her 33,000 e-mails that she lost and deleted because you’d see some beauties there. So let’s see.
But I watched this guy Mook and he talked about we think it was Russia that hacked. Now, first of all was what was said on those that’s so bad but he said I watched it. I think he was live. But he said we think it was Russia that hacked.
And then he said — and this is in person sitting and watching television as I’ve been doing — and then he said could be Trump, yeah, yeah. Trump, Trump, oh yeah, Trump. He reminded me of John Lovitz for “Saturday Night Live” in the liar (ph) where he’d go yes, yes, I went to Harvard, Harvard, yes, yes. This is the guy, you have to see it. Yes, it could be Trump, yes, yes. So it is so farfetched. It’s so ridiculous. Honestly I wish I had that power. I’d love to have that power but Russia has no respect for our country.
And that’s why — if it is Russia, nobody even knows this, it’s probably China, or it could be somebody sitting in his bed. But it shows how weak we are, it shows how disrespected we are. Total — assuming it’s Russia or China or one of the major countries and competitors, it’s a total sign of disrespect for our country. Putin and the leaders throughout the world have no respect for our country anymore and they certainly have no respect for our leader. So I know nothing about it. It’s one of the most farfetched I’ve ever heard. Yes, Jon (ph)?
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
TRUMP: I never met Putin, I don’t know who Putin is. He said one nice thing about me. He said I’m a genius. I said thank you very much to the newspaper and that was the end of it. I never met Putin.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
TRUMP: I would treat Vladimir Putin firmly but there’s nothing that I can think of that I’d rather do than have Russia friendly as opposed to the way they are right now so that we can go and knock out ISIS together with other people and with other countries. Wouldn’t it be nice if we actually got along with people, wouldn’t it be nice if we actually got along, as an example, with Russia? I’m all for it and let’s go get ISIS because we have to get ISIS and we have to get them fast.
You saw what happened with the priest, it’s only going to get worse. And Hillary Clinton wants to allow 550 percent more people from that region into our country and we have no idea who they are, where they come from, where their documentation is, it’s only going to get worse and it’s going to start getting bad in our country. We’re letting people come in by the tens of thousands. You see what happened to the French priest. A friend of mine, he said he was going to France, like three, four months ago. I saw him yesterday. I said how’d you like France. He said I wouldn’t go to France. I wouldn’t go to France. Because France is no longer France. France is no longer France. They won’t like me for saying that but you see what happened in Nice, you see what happened yesterday with the priest who was supposed to be a spectacular man. France is no longer France and this world better be very careful and they better get very tough and very smart and they’ll never do it with Hillary Clinton.
And by the way, in terms of change, she’s been there for 30 years. She’s been doing this for 30 years. What she’s going to go all of sudden things are going to change? She’s bought and sold 100 percent by special interests and lobbyists. Yes, Tom (ph)?
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
TRUMP: None, none.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
TRUMP: Because it’s under order. And I’ll release them when the audits completed. Nobody would release when it’s under — I’ve had audits for 15 or 16 years. Every year I have a routine audit. I’m under audit, when the audits complete I’ll release them. But zero, I mean I will tell you right now, zero, I have nothing to do with Russia, yes?
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
TRUMP: I don’t know, I don’t know. It depends on the audit. It depends on the audit, not a big deal. By the way, just so you understand, I’ve released my papers, 104 pages of documents. I built an unbelievable company, tremendous cash, tremendous company with some of the great assets of the world. You’ve seen it. You were all very disappointed when you saw it actually but that’s OK. Far, far great than anybody ever thought. I have a great company. I built an unbelievable company but if you look there you’ll see there’s nothing in Russia.
And as far as the tax returns, as soon as the audits complete, like any lawyer would tell you, Greta Van Susteren she was going over it a while ago, she’s a lawyer. She said well no lawyer would let somebody release a tax return when they’re under audit. It’s a routine audit. I’ve gone through audits, which I think is very unfair, for 15 years. I have friends that are very rich and never get audited. I’m audited every year. Maybe that’s because of politics, who knows.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
TRUMP: I’m not going to tell Putin what to do. Why should I tell Putin what to do? He already did something today where he said don’t blame them, essentially, for your incompetence. Let me tell you, it’s not even about Russia or China or whoever it is that’s doing the hacking. It was about the things that were said in those e-mails. They were terrible things, talking about Jewish, talking about race, talking about atheist, trying to pin labels on people — what was said was a disgrace, and it was Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and believe me, as sure as you’re sitting there, Hillary Clinton knew about it. She knew everything.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz could not breathe without speaking and getting approval from Hillary Clinton. Couldn’t breathe. And you saw that. It also showed that it was a fixed race, but I’ve been saying that long before I saw the e-mails. It was a rigged race. It was totally rigged. And Debbie Wasserman Schultz rigged it for Hillary Clinton, and the sad part is, Bernie Sanders has, to use an old word that I use on occasion, he’s lost his energy. He wants to go home and go to sleep. But he’s got a lot of people that walked out last night. Now, hundreds of people walked out of the Democrat Convention last night. I didn’t even hear about it. Nobody showed it. I didn’t see it on television. You people don’t talk about it.
The Republican Convention was incredible. I hear I had one of the biggest bounces in decades. Like, some people are saying nine points. In fact, a poll just came out ten minutes ago, “Los Angeles Times”, Trump 47, Clinton 40. And the reason is that people are sick and tired of Hillary Clinton.
QUESTION: (inaudible) Putin (ph) say stay out? Why not say that?
TRUMP: Why do I have to (ph) get involved with Putin? I have nothing to do with Putin. I’ve never spoken to him. I don’t know anything about him other than he will respect me. He doesn’t respect our president. And if it is Russia — which it’s probably not, nobody knows who it is — but if it is Russia, it’s really bad for a different reason, because it shows how little respect they have for our country, when they would hack into a major party and get everything. But it would be interesting to see — I will tell you this — Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let’s see if that happens. That’ll be next. Yes, sir…
I still can’t believe that millions of people thought that was just great. I’ll never be able to understand it.
But if you look at what he said aside from his crude invitation to release Hillary Clinton’s personal emails from her personal server (which was never hacked, by the way) he has never altered his view one bit from that day.
He publicly doubts it was Russia and thinks that if it was it was purely because Russia didn’t respect our government which they would do if he were president so we don’t have to worry that they would ever do it again. It all good because Clinton is corrupt and incompetent. We know that’s one of the main reasons Putin wanted to disrupt the election — his personal loathing for Clinton and a desire for retribution. He claims that Clinton had “rigged” the primary and later went on the say that she was rigging the general election too, refusing to say if he would recognize the outcome if it didn’t go his way.
All of this tracks with what has been reported as the strategy of a Russian Think Tank distributed last June just prior to the Wikileaks release. Maybe Trump didn’t know anything about that. He probably didn’t. But as with so many other instances, he seems to have had a coincidental mind meld with foreign agents who were trying to disrupt the election. What are the odds?
Update: You’ll note he says he doesn’t know Putin. Check out this speech in 2015 where he says he does. I know he’s said it bunch of times but I hadn’t heard this one.
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