Not even an unprovoked attack on a U.S. ally could shake the favor-trading arrangement between the Russian government and former President Donald Trump.
In a remarkable interview with a conservative outlet released Tuesday, Trump suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin should release damaging information on the Biden family. Repeating an unproven claim that Biden’s son, Hunter, received a large consulting fee from the wife of Moscow’s mayor, Trump said Putin should clarify the matter.
“I would think Putin would know the answer to that,” Trump said. “I think he should release it. I think we should know that answer.” Trump added that Putin might be inclined to fulfill his request because “he’s not exactly a fan of our country” anymore.
CNN provides crucial context:
Trump’s public appeal to Putin harkens back to his infamous July 2016 comment in which he said, “Russia, if you’re listening,” and then urged Putin to hack Hillary Clinton’s personal emails. It was the start of a years-long effort by Trump to raise his political prospects with foreign help.
The Trump campaign in 2016 also embraced and capitalized on Russia’s election-meddling operation against Clinton. For instance, the campaign regularly played up Democratic emails that were hacked and leaked by the Russian military, and members of Trump’s inner circle also met during the campaign with a Russian agent who promised dirt on Clinton.
In 2019, Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to launch unfounded corruption investigations against then-candidate Joe Biden and withheld nearly $400 million in US military aid as part of the scheme. This incident led to Trump’s first impeachment.
And during the 2020 campaign, some of Trump’s top allies collaborated with a known Russian spy to peddle disinformation about Biden and his family, including some of the same claims of corruption that Trump mentioned in the new interview.
Meanwhile, on Russian state TV, a prominent host, Evgeny Popov, called on the American people to initiate a regime change in the U.S.
Popov said Russia must “help our partner, Trump, to become president.”
Newsweek reports:
Russia’s restricted media landscape, in which Kremlin-critical independent outlets have been forced to close, has been highlighting any perceived pro-Russian sentiment in American media, including from Trump and from Fox News‘ Tucker Carlson.
This March, Carlson repeated claims from Russia’s Foreign Ministry claims Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, helped fund a U.S. biolab in Ukraine.
As Newsweek has reported previously, Moscow’s broader claims that Ukraine was preparing biological weapons in cahoots with the U.S., which have been echoed by several U.S. right-wing networks, has been dismissed by one Swedish-based scientist as “ridiculous.”
