Russia's 2014 invasion of Crimea made worldwide headlines — but apparently Donald Trump can’t be bothered to read the news.
The potential leader of the free world insisted Sunday that Vladimir Putin wasn’t going to invade Ukraine — even though the Russian president did just that two years ago.
“He’s not going into Ukraine, OK, just so you understand. He’s not going to go into Ukraine, all right? You can mark it down. You can put it down. You can take it anywhere you want,” Trump said in an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week.”
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In response, Trump pivoted to his go-to talking point: blame President Obama.
The Clinton campaign — eager to highlight Trump’s ties to Putin after high-profile computer hacks of Democratic groups believed to be the work of Russian intelligence operatives — jumped on his comment.
“Today, (Trump) gamely repeated Putin’s argument that Russia was justified in seizing the sovereign territory of another country by force. This is scary stuff,” Clinton’s senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan said.
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The former prime minister of Ukraine was even blunter.
“Trump’s comments on Crimea and Putin go beyond domestic political campaigning. He challenges values of the free world,” tweeted Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
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