Retired U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey said Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “actively hoping” that former President Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election.
Trump, the frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, has long praised and even quoted the Russian leader on the campaign trail. At a rally in Durham, New Hampshire, earlier this month, the former president quoted Putin who criticized the numerous criminal charges that Trump is currently facing, all of which the former president has pleaded not guilty to.
“Even Vladimir Putin…says that Biden’s, and this is a quote, politically motivated persecution of his political rival is very good for Russia because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others about democracy,” Trump quoted Putin as saying, who made the comment during an economic forum in eastern Russia in September. Putin did not name Biden in the original quote.
Meanwhile, the relationship between Trump and Putin has been criticized since the former president’s 2016 run when questions of Russia’s alleged election interference and possible coordination with the Trump campaign arose.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Trump, the frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, has long praised and even quoted the Russian leader on the campaign trail.
He added: “Yes, Putin and for that matter other criminal enterprises like the North Koreans are actively hoping to have Mr. Trump back in office, where in my personal opinion, he would be devastatingly bad for U.S. national security.”
McCaffrey, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, was in the U.S. Army for 32 years and later served as director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy under President Bill Clinton.
Newsweek reached out to McCaffrey via X direct message, Trump’s campaign via email and the Russian government via online form.
Following Trump’s 2016 win against his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, the Department of Justice (DOJ) launched an investigation into possible Russian interference in the election.
Putin authorized “influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting Trump, undermining public confidence in the electoral process and exacerbating socio-political divisions in the U.S,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence report said.
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