by digby
Trump cleared the whole thing up:
“I said, did you do it? And he said no, I did not. Absolutely not. I then asked him a second time in a totally different way. He said absolutely not,” Trump said.
I think we can put this whole thing to bed now, don’t you? Trump asked him twice, in two different ways (to fool him, dontcha know) and he said absolutely not.
So can we move on to wall building and torturing like he promised?
Update: He also said that Putin would have preferred Hillary Clinton to win because he wants a strong military and fracking.
That’s not what he said at the time …
Oct. 17, 2016:
Trump tells radio host Michael Savage that he might meet with Putin prior to the start of his administration.
“I think I could see myself meeting with Putin and meeting with Russia prior to the start of the administration,” he said. “I think it would be wonderful.”
In the interview, he also said that Clinton shouldn’t talk “so tough” on Russia, saying “She talks tough with Russia. She shouldn’t be talking so tough. Frankly, if we got along with Russia and knocked out ISIS, that would be a good thing, not a bad thing.”
Trump says at a rally in Ohio that it was not smart of Clinton to speak “very badly of Putin.”
And why on earth wouldn’t Putin prefer this guy:
Dec. 18, 2015
Trump said on Morning Joe that Putin was a better leader than Obama, and dismissed Joe Scarborough’s allegations that the Russian president “kills journalists that don’t agree with him.”
“He’s running his country and at least he’s a leader, unlike what we have in this country,” Trump said.
He added: “I think our country does plenty of killing also, Joe, so you know. There’s a lot of stupidity going on in the world right now, a lot of killing going on, a lot of stupidity.”
Dec. 20, 2015
In an interview with ABC’s “This Week,” Trump defends against allegations Putin has ordered the killings of journalists and dissidents.
“As far as the reporters are concerned — as far as the reporters are concerned, obviously I don’t want that to happen. I think it’s terrible — horrible. But, in all fairness to Putin, you’re saying he killed people. I haven’t’ seen that. I don’t know that he has. Have you been able to prove that? Do you know the names of the reporters that he’s killed? Because I’ve been — you know, you’ve been hearing this, but I haven’t seen the name. Now, I think it would be despicable if that took place, but I haven’t’ seen any evidence that he killed anybody in terms of reporters.”
Dec. 21, 2015
Trump tells Iowa radio host Simon Conway, “I’ve always had a good instinct about Putin. I just feel that that’s a guy—and I can analyze people and you’re not always right, and it could be that I won’t like him. But I’ve always had a good feeling about him from the standpoint.”
Dec. 30, 2015
Trump says at an event in South Carolina that Putin says he’s “brilliant.” And attacks his opponents, saying, “they want me to refute his statement.”
Jan. 26, 2016
In an interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo, Trump discusses the 2006 murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian security agent, and the 2016 findings of a British inquiry that Putin “probably approved” his poisoning.
“Have they found him guilty?” Trump said. “I don’t think they’ve found him guilty.”
“If he did it, fine. But I don’t know that he did it. You know, people are saying they think it was him, it might have been him, it could have been him. But Maria, in all fairness to Putin—I don’t know. You know, and I’m not saying this because he says, ‘Trump is brilliant and leading everybody’ —the fact is that, you know, he hasn’t been convicted of anything.”
Feb. 15, 2016
Trump says at a news conference he’d be a better negotiator with Putin than his rivals.
“You want to make a good deal for the country, you want to deal with Russia – and there’s nothing wrong with not fighting everybody, having Russia where we have a good relationship as opposed to all the stupidity that’s taken place.”