Latest / Mic Drop Comedy / David Corn - Trump_s Man Crush on Putin _ _How Russia Won

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David Corn - Trump_s Man Crush on Putin _ _How Russia Won · Mic Drop Comedy

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The book is How Russia Won. I don't even know
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: where I'm holding it up. Very timely.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: This new sanctions deal that has been announced by Donald
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Trump against the Lindsey Graham Act that was just passed
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: a month ago, is this the culmination? Is this Trump
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: and Putin becoming, for lack of a better phrase, Instagram official?
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Is this the consummation of this? It is.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: I think up to now on Facebook, you could say
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: it was complicated.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: But for about 12 years or so, Donald Trump has
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: said again and again and again he wants to be
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: friends with Vladimir Putin. When he announced the Miss Universe contest,
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: that he used to own, that he held in 2013,
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: he said, will Putin become my new best friend?
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Is that when they met?
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: Well, they didn't meet, though he was obsessed about meeting Putin.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: That's all he wanted to do.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: He wanted to meet him then.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: He wanted to meet him so, so much. It didn't happen.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: And Russia and Soviet officials since the late 80s have
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: dangled business deals with in front of Donald Trump again
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: and again and again. They've been cultivating him for decades.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Did he resist them?
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: Well, no, the deals never... I don't think they were serious.
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: I think they led him on. The deals really never
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: came together. Bastards! Can you believe that?
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: From Russia?
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: How dare they? And so... But he has always wanted to...
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: be in business with Vladimir Putin.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: But isn't that just Russian business, that he's comfortable with
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: the way Russia does business? He's kind of an oligarch
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: at heart. I can't imagine, maybe you're not suggesting this,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: that they were grooming him for some potential political.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: No, don't! I would imagine that that's how they do business.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: Wasn't he laundering oligarch money through real estate? I use
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: the word cultivate, as they do with many prominent people.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: He showed an interest in doing deals with Russia. They
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: liked that, and they've been working or trying to work
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: with him for many years. And when he was around
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: in that first presidency, which you might remember... I don't.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: He was.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: I know. There were guardrails.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: There were people around him. He tried to reach out
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: to Putin again and again. Remember, Putin was kicked out
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: of the G8 for taking over a big piece of
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: Ukraine called Crimea. And so the G8 said, you can't
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: come and play with us anymore. He would go to
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: G8 meetings to say, where's Vladimir? Why is he not here?
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: He wanted to, you know, be, you know, one with him.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: And there were guardrails, and it didn't happen. And though
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: Russia attacked Putin, Our 2016 election, he kept denying it happened.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: He aided and abetted the attack by amplifying Putin's no-denials.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: And it was kind of a rough time for him.
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: I think now that he's back in power, he sees
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: his chance to consummate, as you said, his man-crush on
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: Vladimir Putin. Because... I don't know what else to call it.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: But why... But there's a reason. I mean, you're going
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: to ask why.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: I was about to ask you why.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: I mean, we know that he has an affection for
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: authoritarian rulers. He wrote love letters to Ken Jeong-un.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: He likes Xi Jinping and Erdogan in Turkey. But there's
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: something about Putin that stands out. And you can look
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: at the, you know, the Ukraine war was running when
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: he came into office. He saw that as a nuisance.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: The Ukraine war? The Ukraine war. It was a nuisance.
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: To him, forging this bond with Vladimir Putin.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Now, this is sounding like some sort of weird psychosexual.
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: Like, what are you... Yes. I.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: I am.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: I rue the Ukraine war keeping me from my Vladimir.
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: Like, that just sounds crazy. But, you know, if you
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: go back and you look at all the times that
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: he dumped on Zelensky, blamed Zelensky for the war, never
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: once blaming Putin for invading the country, he often said,
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: you know... Vladimir and I understand each other. In fact,
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: we went through some things together. People who worked with
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: him in the first term, worked with Trump in the
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: first term, were befuddled by his affection for Putin. They
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: just kept trying to convince him that Putin's not a
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: good guy and that we had... conflict that we needed
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: to resolve. And he just wouldn't go along with that.
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: He kept wanting to call Putin and congratulate him on
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: the most recent elections that were rigged. And now... Putin's election.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: Putin's elections. And now that he's, you know, back in office,
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: and I think he's coming to see the end of
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: his second term, he's... Okay.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: We hope.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: We hope... He's come to the realization that he can't wait...
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: FOR THE UKRAINE WAR TO BE OVER. THAT THAT WAS
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: GETTING IN THE WAY. AND IT USED TO BE ONCE
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: THE WAR IS OVER, WE CAN CUT DEALS AND WE
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: CAN STRIDE THE WORLD TOGETHER. AND NOW IN THE LAST WEEK,
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: THIS IS THE CULMINATION. THIS IS HOW RUSSIA WON. We're
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: going to start making deals now regardless of the war.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: So this is forgetting about maybe the framing of he
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: wants to be his best friend or he wants to
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: be a man crush. This is really about a theory
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: of power in the world. The United States established a
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: world order after World War II that was. We were
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: allied with other liberal representative democracies and the rules of
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: the road.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: We didn't hate Canada, actually. They seem very nice.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: And now, is this the culmination of he sees a
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: world order that is a triumph for it? Trump, Putin
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: and Xi Jinping basically divide up the spoils of what
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: we see.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Is that overstating it?
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: No, I think when he looks, one person who worked
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: with him in the first term told me, when he
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: looks at Trump, excuse me, when Trump looks at Putin,
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: he sees one of the richest guys in the world,
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: and the guy has total authority. And Trump wants both
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: of that. So, yes, he wants to divide up the world.
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: The idea that we're governed by international laws and rules
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: is offensive to him. He doesn't like dealing with those petty,
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: pesky little democracies like they have in Europe or in Canada.
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: And this is what Putin's been aiming at. This plays
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: to what Putin wants. He wants to restore the Soviet
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: Russian Empire. The biggest obstacle to that is what? NATO
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: and those Western liberal representative governments that you talked about
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: that used to be led by the United States. And
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: so he's waged a shadow war, which is what I
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: write about in the book, against the West and the
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: United States trying to exacerbate the political discord we have here,
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: which is our own responsibility, and create divisions within NATO itself. And,
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: I mean, this is his plan. It's one of the
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: most successful covert operations in modern history. And this week,
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: we see success.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: What would hold him back? What then would be the guardrail?
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's very cynical if we're to.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Let me give....
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: A counter case that is slightly less Dr. Evil in
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: a volcano and slightly more, maybe it gives Trump more credit,
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: maybe it gives him less credit. He's used to running
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: the Trump organization and he was trained by Roy Cohn.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: And The Trump Organization has no shareholders. It's, I want
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: to get something done, I say it. I do business
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: like a businessman. I take the spoils, I you pay me,
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: that kind of thing. You mean like a mob boss.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: And so he is much more comfortable going to a
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: country and going, who's in charge here?
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Who do I have to talk to? And if the
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: idea is, well, we have a parliamentary system, and then
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: if you could talk to them, and then what we'll
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: do is we'll take a vote on it. Right.
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: So it's less....
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: I have a vision of the world as illiberal powers
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: and authoritarians, you know, basically strip mining its riches and
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: more like, I just like to deal with one guy.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: The issue is to what extent Yes. Why does he
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: want to do that?
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: I'm asking you.
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: I just asked you.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: No, you're asking me.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: Well, we know that he's made $ 7 billion in crypto.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: A lot of this is personal arrangement.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: How much more does he need?
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: Well, how many yachts can you water ski behind?
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: I think five.
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: Okay. I'm good with three. But, so, to what end?
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: I think, you know, we see him... There's this thing
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: we have called the Constitution.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: It does.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: Tell me more.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Is that in this book as well?
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: It's the appendix, yes. And he does not want to
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: adhere to... He said that democracy is messy, and he
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: wants to have a regime, I think that's a fair
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: word for it, where he gets to rule and he
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: gets to enrich. That includes his clan and his cronies
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: and some of his relatives, not all of them. He
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: doesn't like every one of them. Sure. Right? And so
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: he looks at Putin and he goes, that's kind of
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: a model. That's a model. He sees that as a...
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: But there's also, I mean, I keep going back to this.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: There's something personal there. You know, the book opens with
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: a scene that you'll remember a year ago, August, when
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: Putin flies to Alaska.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: He's a pariah. No other head of state will meet
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: with him, but he flies to Alaska at Trump's invitation
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: to supposedly resolve the war on Ukraine, which doesn't, of course, happen.
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: Putin comes down, red carpet.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: Trump's waiting at the end of the red carpet. Go
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: back and look. This is on YouTube. He's bouncing up
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: and down, clapping his hands. He looks like a kid.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: at Christmas morning.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: To be fair, you don't know what music was playing.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: That's true. It might have been very much on beat.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: It is... He... But to the point of, like.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: The phone call he made with Ukraine, which he does
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: have antipathy for, where he threatened their military shipments unless
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: they would get him dirt on Joe Biden, he referred
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: to as a perfect phone call.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: What I'm saying is.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: He does business in a corrupt and extortionate manner. So
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: he doesn't view... There's nothing wrong with Vladimir Putin. It's
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: what you would get away with if you could get
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: away with it.
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: Which is what he wants to do. There's no moral
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: judgment on him. Which is why he doesn't care about
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: Ukrainian democracy. The fact that Putin invaded Ukraine doesn't bother him.
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: In fact, we see what happened in the last couple
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: of days... with him basically saying this is Zelensky's fault.
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: He called Zelensky a dictator the other day. He has
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: never called Putin a dictator. He has never blamed Putin
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: for invading Russia. There's no peace there. He blames Zelensky.
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: There's a very simple way to end the war. Putin
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: could end the war.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: Right. Right?
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: He could leave.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: He could just, okay. It's not his.
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: My bad. My bad.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: I'm taking the troops back. But he never puts pressure
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: on Putin.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: In your mind, Does Donald Trump truly believe that the
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: world would be a safer, more stable, more prosperous place
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: if it was run by three authoritarians, a triumvirate of Russia, China,
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: and the United States? Does he truly believe that those
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: alliances are not what keeps.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: Us on a more prosperous path?
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: I think, John, you're giving him too much credit. By
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: the way, first time. Finally. It's been a while. He was.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: Very good on The Apprentice. I remember watching The Apprentice
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: and thinking, that's a good show.
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he was okay on SNL.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: But you're saying that he's thinking about the stability and
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: security of the rest of the world. I don't think
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: he is. I think this is very much driven from
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: what he wants for himself and for those around him.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: And listen, I mean, do you think he watches the show?
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: Because I would love to.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: This show?
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: You think he watches this show?
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: I don't think he has cable.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: No, I don't.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: By the way, South Park is on before us. I'm
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: pretty sure he doesn't watch.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: Because I would love to sit down and talk to him,
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: because he doesn't talk in those terms. If he has
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: a geopolitical theory about why you can sabotage democracy in Ukraine,
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: toss them overboard, and cut deals with a guy who's
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: an indicted war criminal who has kidnapped thousands of Ukrainian
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: children and who's lobbing bombs at civilian sites, if he
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: has a geopolitical theory about why that's good for the
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: rest of us, I'd like to hear it. I mean,
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: I really would like to hear it.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Can I tell you what I think it is? Do
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: you ever watch Peaky Blinders? Oh, yes.
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: OK.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: You'll like this. OK, good. All right.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: Do you remember the Vendetta season with Adrian Brody when
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: he played Luca?
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: The guy from?
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: Right, from Italy. And then it came down. So there
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: was a theory of power that Thomas Shelby learned from
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: the Vendetta. And that was the theory called big. small
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: and that's how he ends up getting revenge yeah don't
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: you think that is we're all looking for some larger
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: geopolitical when in his mind he's like big small like
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: that's how it's supposed to be and i'm big so
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: i'm small and putin's big so he's small and xi
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: jinping is big and he's small he literally just looks.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: At it but that's the jungle and this is the
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: jungle you.
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: Know stephen miller you know stephen miller right i'm familiar
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: I mean, he put out a tweet, an ex, whatever
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: you call it, a truth, well, they're not truths, a
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: couple months ago, in which he said literally, might makes right.
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: And that's, you know, to your point earlier about having
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: a geopolitical order that's based on rules and respects and even,
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: you know, honoring... international borders, they say to hell with that.
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: I mean, Trump, it's just a hindrance because it gets
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: in the way of him being a very corrupt and
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: rich emperor. So that's why he doesn't like these rules.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: And so I think, you know, yeah, it goes back
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: to the mob boss.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: Did anybody say to him about the might make rights? Like,
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you know this, but like, That
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: is kind of.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: What the world tried.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: Like, the whole point of the post-World Order was we
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: were going to try to move away from might makes
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: right because it's getting us a tremendous amount of bloodshed.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: It's why we did the Geneva Convention. It's why we
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: did all these treaties on nuclear weapons. We thought that
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: this would move away from a more Darwinian approach.
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: And you see Trump... you know, basically dumping on our alliances.
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: You mentioned Canada and NATO. You know, he says, I'm
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: going to take Greenland if I want to, and throws
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: the NATO alliances.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Because big, say it with me.
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: Big, f * * * ing small.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: You know what? I don't want to be presumptuous. When
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: this comes out in paperback, that should be the title. Remarkable.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: How does this in your mind ultimately play out? Will
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: they do the summit where Xi Jinping and Putin, without
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: Ukraine's involvement, without Europe's involvement, decide this is what we're
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: doing going forward?
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Because they will have a vote in it.
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: Well, the other side always gets a vote.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: They always get a vote. And so Putin, as you
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: just referenced, has called for this summit with Trump and
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: Xi Jinping without Zelensky, Ukraine, to resolve the war. Well,
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: how do you think Putin wants to resolve the war?
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Amicably?
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: Exactly.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: And fairly.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: And so, I mean, I think it's going to be
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: very tough for Trump to say no. He has invited
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: him kindly to the G20 meeting that is coincidentally happening
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: at his Doral resort in Florida, right? Just a coincidence.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: And before you go into your whole spiel, no markups.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: He has been very clear. All the food is going
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: to be coming at wholesale prices.
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: That's true. And so he's going to be meeting him
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: in December, and I think it's going to be very
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: hard for him to say no to a... It's not
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: a one-on-one, a one... It's a throuple, right, that they're
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: going to try to have.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: Now you're back on that. Now you're back.
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: I think it's going... Big f * * * ing hole.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: Wouldn't you... Thank you.
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: He can talk to you like that.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: Wouldn't... Don't you think one of the most difficult parts
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: about this, it's one of the few areas where Donald
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: Trump's pronouncement Even more so than his AI is now
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: super intelligence, which nobody other than those people who run
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: tech companies are now doing just because it keeps them
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: away from regulation. Almost more than anything, Americans will not
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: accept the idea that Vladimir Putin is an honorable ally
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: to the United States and does not wish this country ill.
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: I think most Americans will not accept that. The interesting thing, though,
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: is that the Republican Party has gone along with almost
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: everything he has done. Even after passing the sanction bill
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: that you've highlighted earlier on, you know, Trump just came along,
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: and we knew this was going to happen. And he
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: waived the sanctions. He was not going to accept this.
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: He's tried to weaken or write off every sanction that
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: has been imposed on Vladimir Putin since he's been president,
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: both times. And so, you know, they sent a letter.
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: Six or ten of them sent a letter to Trump saying,
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: we disagree. Boom! Boom!
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: And I bet it was maybe at some points italicized.
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: Bold. Maybe bold.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: There's probably an underlining.
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: But no exclamation point. To whom it may concern! No
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: exclamation point. And so, has anyone, you know, really come
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: down hard on him?
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: And that's why, in my mind, you can make all
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: the cases about the economy and things like that. In
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: my mind, there's not a Republican in Congress who deserves
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: to be re-elected because of the fecklessness in which they
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: have managed this very....
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: Oh, and the crowd goes nuts! Thanks for being here.
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: How much you want!
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: David Corn!