Trump's reactions to Russia intervening in Ukraine:
Some hot takes:
“Well, what went wrong was a rigged election,” Trump said, once again misrepresenting the results of the 2020 presidential contest. “What went wrong is a candidate that shouldn’t be there and a man that has no concept of what he’s do — ”
Trump said “doing,” actually, but Harrington’s clip cut off a bit too early. That’s probably because of what Trump said next.
“I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius,’” Trump continued. “Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine — of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful. So, Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent,’ a large section of Ukraine. I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s strongest peace force … We could use that on our southern border.”
He continued to praise Putin a bit later.
“Here’s a guy that says, you know, ‘I’m gonna declare a big portion of Ukraine independent’ — he used the word 'independent’ — ‘and we’re gonna go out and we’re gonna go in and we’re gonna help keep peace,’ ” Trump said. “You gotta say that’s pretty savvy. And you know what the response was from Biden? There was no response.”
Harrington’s clip didn’t include all of that about how Putin’s move was “genius” and “smart” and “savvy,” something Trump said more than once. And when your press person is cutting off quotes early, that’s not an accident.