Like old buddies, Trump and Putin make light of election meddling
Russian leader disputes special counsel’s findings
OSAKA, Japan — Smiling together on a global stage, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin cheerfully dismissed Russian interference in U.S. elections, shared their contempt for the world’s news media and generally flaunted their personal bond on Friday.
That was one day after the Russian leader praised the president of the United States for his nationalist worldview and vigorously declared that the days of the West’s liberals are over.
For some time, Trump has defied the once-entrenched Republican distrust if not outright hatred of the powerful nation at the heart of the former Soviet Union. But Friday’s joint appearance seemed to go even further.
As the two leaders sat down for their first meeting in nearly a year, a reporter asked Trump whether he would warn Putin not to meddle in America’s 2020 election.
“Of course,” the president replied. Then he turned to Putin and facetiously said, “Don’t meddle in the election.” He playfully repeated the request while pointing at Putin, who laughed.
The exchange at the Group of 20 summit in Osaka echoed one of the defining moments of Trump’s presidency from a year ago in Helsinki, Finland. There, Trump pointedly did not admonish Putin about election interference and did not side with U.S. intelligence agencies over his Russian counterpart.
Putin disputes special counsel Robert Mueller’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election to help Trump win. Putin told the Financial Times this week that it was “mythical interference.”
“What happened in reality? Mr. Trump looked into his opponents’ attitude to him and saw changes in American society and he took advantage of this,” Putin told the newspaper.
Putin, who has highlighted populist movements in Europe and America, praised Trump for trying to stem the flow of migrants and drugs from Mexico and expressed a view that liberalism — the main political ideology in the West since the end of World War II — has outlived its days.
“This liberal idea presupposes that nothing needs to be done — that migrants can kill, plunder and rape with impunity because their rights as migrants have to be protected,” Putin said, playing into issues Trump is emphasizing in his re-election campaign.
“The liberal idea has become obsolete,” he said in the interview.
The two leaders also bonded Friday over their mutual disdain for “fake news.”
Trump eyed the reporters at a photo opportunity with the Russian leader and told him, “Get rid of them, fake news. You don’t have the problem in Russia. We have it; you don’t have it.”
Putin responded, “Yes, yes, we have it. The same.”
The two men laughed at that before sitting down for their first face-to-face discussion since the Mueller report was issued in April. The special counsel concluded that Moscow extensively interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign but said he could not prove a criminal conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized Trump for joking about election meddling. He said the joke is on America and “Putin’s the only one laughing.”
“President Trump is basically giving Putin a green light to interfere in 2020,” Schumer tweeted.