Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager came out swinging on This Week.
Clinton’s campaign manager: Trump is ‘Puppet of the Kremlin’
Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager did not pull any punches as he laid our the reasons why Americans should be concerned about Trump’s Russian ties. The following exchange says it all.
George 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. And you heard Kellyanne Conway say, no, we are seeing a different Donald Trump. Best week of the campaign in the last week. And he’s reinforcing that with new policies while Hillary Clinton promises more of the same.
Robby Mook, Clinton Campaign Manager: Well, George, we’re not seeing a pivot. Donald Trump himself said this was not a pivot. He wants to double down on letting Donald Trump be Donald Trump, that’s why he’s brought in to run his campaign someone who wrote — or ran a so-called news organization, Breitbart News, which has peddled some of the worst conspiracy theories around. They’ve run news, quote unquote “news,” that’s defended white supremacists, that’s been sexist, racist, the worst of our politics. So, I think we should be very concerned. 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?
George Stephanopoulos: You’re saying he’s a puppet for the Kremlin?
Robby 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. She 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.
Donald Trump does not only have a Kremlin problem. It appears he owes a lot of money to foreign entities including China. The New York Times reports the following.
Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. An investigation into the real estate holdings of Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, found complex partnerships and debts of at least double the amount to be gleaned from public filings he has made amid his campaign. Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times
On the campaign trail, Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has sold himself as a businessman who has made billions of dollars and is beholden to no one.
But an investigation by The New York Times into the financial maze of Mr. Trump’s real estate holdings in the United States reveals that companies he owns have at least $650 million in debt — twice the amount than can be gleaned from public filings he has made as part of his bid for the White House. The Times’s inquiry also found that Mr. Trump’s fortunes depend deeply on a wide array of financial backers, including one he has cited in attacks during his campaign.
Hopefully, more of the mainstream media would examine the Trump reality.