Hillary’s campaign is going on a strong offensive against Donald Trump on his connections with Putin, and that has not ended with beleaguered former campaign manager Paul Manafort, who has extensive and likely criminal ties to Russian interests, having had to resign from the Trump campaign. This is likely the opening salvo of a major offensive against Trump on his ties to Putin and Russia, financial and otherwise.
The campaign also released this web ad (which could be also run on TV stations if the issue warrants) to show how similar Trump and Putin sound:
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Mook: “Real questions being raised about whether Donald Trump himself is just a puppet for the Kremlin in this race.”
Highlights:
“There are real questions being raised about whether Donald Trump himself is just a puppet for the Kremlin in this race” “The hand of the Kremlin has been at work in this campaign for some time. It's clear that they are supporting Donald Trump.” “We now need Donald Trump to explain to us the extent to which the hand of the Kremlin is at the core of his own campaign.” “There's a web of financial ties to the Russians that he refuses to disclose” “We've seen over the last few week, him parroted Vladimir Putin in his own remarks. We saw the Republican Party platform changed.” “We saw Donald Trump talk about leaving NATO and leaving our Eastern European allies vulnerable to a Russian attack.” “The gentleman he brought with him to his security briefing just last week is someone who's on the payroll of the Russia Times, which is a basically a propaganda arm of the Kremlin.” “We need Donald Trump to disclose all of his financial ties and whether his advisers are having meetings with the Kremlin.” “Donald Trump is refusing to disclose deep financial ties that potentially reach into the Kremlin, which could influence his foreign policy decisions.”.
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ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos sat down with Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, and Mook got deeply into the question whether Trump is merely a Kremlin puppet in the Presidential race.
Transcript of “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos:
'This Week' Transcript: Kellyanne Conway, Robby Mook, Reince Priebus, and Dr. Jill Stein
STEPHANOPOULOS: Hillary Clinton on the stump this week.
We're joined now by her campaign manager, Robby Mook. Thank you for joining us this morning.
….
Robby Mook:
I would also point out that Paul Manafort has been pushed out, but that doesn't mean that the Russians have been pushed out of this campaign. The hand of the Kremlin has been at work in this campaign for some time. It's clear that they are supporting Donald Trump.
But we now need Donald Trump to explain to us the extent to which the hand of the Kremlin is at the core of his own campaign. There's a web of financial interests that have not been disclosed. And there are real questions being raised about whether Donald Trump himself is just a puppet for the Kremlin in this race.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You're saying he's a puppet for the Kremlin?
MOOK: Well, real questions are being raised about that. We -- again, there's a web of financial ties to the Russians that he refuses to disclose. We've seen over the last few week, him parroted Vladimir Putin in his own remarks. We saw the Republican Party platform changed. We saw Donald Trump talk about leaving NATO and leaving our Eastern European allies vulnerable to a Russian attack. The gentleman he brought with him to his security briefing just last week is someone who's on the payroll of the Russia Times, which is a basically a propaganda arm of the Kremlin. He was sitting two seats away from Vladimir Putin at heir 10th Anniversary gala.
There are a lot of questions here. And we need Donald Trump to disclose all of his financial ties and whether his advisers are having meetings with the Kremlin.
The talk then veered to the “Clinton Foundation”, but Mook steers it back to Trump’s ties to the Kremlin:
STEPHANOPOULOS: But hasn't it become a liability?
MOOK: No, look, what the foundation is saying is at the they don't want to become a distraction, that they want to go as far as they possibly can to make sure there's no possible conflict of interests. But again, George, I just want to be fair here, Donald Trump is refusing to disclose deep financial ties that potentially reach into the Kremlin, which could influence his foreign policy decisions, but also where countries like China have leverage over him and could potentially distort his decisionmaking there. None of this is being disclosed. You and I are having this conversation because the foundation has chosen on the take unprecedented steps to disclose their donors from the last few years.
xSo who exactly is advising Trump on foreign policy? https://t.co/OVMdxGT736
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 19, 2016