(Robert Jonathan, Headline USA) The politized vendetta by the Democrats against former President Donald Trump is apparently too rancid even for a dictator like Vladimir Putin.
During an economic conference Tuesday in Vladivostok, Russia, Putin weighed in on the lawfare being waged against the 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner.
“As for the prosecution of Trump, for us, what is happening in today’s condition, in my opinion, is good—because it shows the rottenness of the American political system which cannot pretend to teach others about democracy,” Putin said, according to one translation.
“Everything that is happening with Trump is the persecution of a political rival for political reasons—that’s what it is,” he added. “And this is being done in front of the U.S. public and the whole world. They simply exposed their internal problems.”
The Russian Federation president has his own geopolitical reasons for stirring up trouble and promoting internal divisions, especially given U.S. political Establishment’s blank-check funding for the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The subtext for Putin’s remarks, however, seems to be that the Biden administration, in particular, has no standing to lecture the rest of the world about democracy.
To be sure, there’s plenty of hypocrisy to go around. Putin has jailed or allegedly disappeared critics of his own regime.
The ex-KGB officer has controlled Russia with an iron hand since 1999, including a stint as prime minister.
Putin’s unsolicited show of solidarity put former President Donald Trump in a precarious position, in terms of wanting to affirm the validity of the Russian leader’s observations without giving additional ammo to his domestic political rivals and NeverTrumpers, who for seven years have spread baseless conspiracy theories that Trump is a Russian agent.
“It’s all happening, even worse than anyone projected,” the former president wrote on his Truth Social platform in reaction to Putin’s remarks.
“President Vladimir Putin of Russia is using Crooked Joe Biden’s illegal Banana Republic style treatment of his Political Opponent, who is beating him badly in the Polls, to condemn America and all of the good things it once stood for,” Trump continued. “The whole World is watching as the USA is being torn apart by dreams of Election Interference!”
Former Vice President Mike Pence, who is running against his erstwhile boss for the 2024 Republican nomination, was among many who condemned Putin’s pronouncement.
“America’s founding principles will always stand the test of time, and Vladimir Putin’s opinion of our constitutional republic holds no value in the United States,” Pence said.
Meanwhile, failed ex-Republican lawmaker Liz Cheney, now a politics professor at the University of Virginia, used Putin’s remarks in an attempt to bludgeon all Republicans, ignoring the fact that the administration in which her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, served had also openly courted a détente with the Russian leader early in his tenure.
Putin has now officially endorsed the Putin-wing of the Republican Party.
Putin Republicans & their enablers will end up on the ash heap of history. Patriotic Americans in both parties who believe in the values of liberal democracy will make sure of it. https://t.co/XsJN7b6fPs
— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) September 12, 2023
Although Putin’s commentary threatened to revive the Trump–Russia collusion conspiracy theory, the Russian leader anticipated as much and pre-empted such accusations during the same press conference by denying them, for those inclined to believe him.
“Though they accused [Trump] of special ties to Russia, it was complete nonsense, total bulls–t,” Putin said, “and he more than anything imposed sanctions on Russia.”
Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.
