President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted Hillary Clinton to win the 2016 presidential elections, contrary to claims by his critics and opponents.
Trump made his comments during an interview by Pat Robertson of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN):
In an effort to debunk claims that Russia wanted to help him win the election, the president argued thatâs an illogical conclusion.
He thinks Putin would actually have been happier with Hillary Clinton in the White House because heâs building the U.S. military and working to export U.S. energy, which Russia opposes.
âWe are the most powerful country in the world and we are getting more and more powerful because Iâm a big military person. As an example, if Hillary had won, our military would be decimated. Our energy would be much more expensive. Thatâs what Putin doesnât like about me. And thatâs why I say, why would he want me? Because from day one I wanted a strong military, he doesnât want to see that,â Trump told Robertson.
âAnd from day one I want fracking and everything else to get energy prices low and to create tremendous energy. Weâre going to be self-supporting, we just about are now. Weâre going to be exporting energy â he doesnât want that. He would like Hillary where she wants to have windmills. He would much rather have that because energy prices would go up and Russia as you know relies very much on energy,â he continued.
âSo there are many things that I do that are the exact opposite of what he would want. So what I keep hearing about that he would have rather had Trump, I think âprobably not,â because when I want a strong military, you know she wouldnât have spent the money on military,â he said. âWhen I want tremendous energy, weâre opening up coal, weâre opening up natural gas, weâre opening up fracking, all the things that he would hate, but nobody ever mentions that.â
Trumpâs analysis is similar to that provided by Breitbart News in May (original links):
It is an article of faith on the left that Russia wanted Trump to win the election because Vladimir Putin anticipated a more pliant approach, signaled by Trumpâs explicit desire to negotiate a better relationship. But the Russians may just as well have preferred Hillary Clinton, who had given Russia everything it wanted while serving as President Barack Obamaâs Secretary of State â from the ill-fated âreset,â to a surrender of U.S. missile defenses in Eastern Europe, to the sale of 20% of Americaâs uranium reserves to a Russian company closely tied to the Russian state.
In June 2016, in an email released Tuesday by Donald Trump, Jr., pop music publicist Rob Goldstone wrote an email to the younger Trump in which he attempted to arrange a meeting with a Russian lawyer who, he said, had âhigh level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its governmentâs support for Mr. Trump.â
Though the lawyer apparently did not have such information, the email has encouraged Trumpâs critics and opponents in their belief that Russia intervened in the U.S. presidential election in an attempt to help Trump win.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the âmost influentialâ people in news media in 2016. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
Source: Breitbart