Former US spy says Vladimir Putin is trolling Donald Trump over 2016 election meddling
Putin has an 'information dominance' over the US President, he says
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Your support makes all the difference.A former US spy says that Donald Trump is being trolled by Vladimir Putin on the topic of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
After the first face to face meeting between the two world leaders in Hamburg at the G20 summit this week, Mr Trump insisted that he had pressed Mr Putin on the issue. The Russian president, meanwhile, fell back on an old line: Show me the proof.
Mr Putin “has an information dominance over Donald Trump. Donald Trump does not live in an area where he even believes his intelligence agencies — he disparages them,” Malcolm Nance, a retired US Navy cryptologist, said on MSNBC.
The Russian president may have his critics, Mr Nance said, but his use of his intelligence agencies is much more advanced than Mr Trump’s.
“It’s the ultimate trolling for Vladimir Putin to say ‘ok give us the evidence, like all the evidence,’ you know? ‘Let us know where we failed in our collection activities and where we succeeded in our successful propaganda warfare against you’,” Mr Nance said.
Mr Trump has received plenty of criticism for his perceived handling of questions related to meddling in the 2016 election. The President has vocally questioned US intelligence agencies on the issue, which contend that Russian sources were involved in the hackings. And, Mr Trump has publicly stated that he thinks investigations into the hacking are bogus, and politically charged to damage his presidency.
Mr Putin has challenged US intelligence sources as well, arguing that any evidence linking the Kremlin to the 2016 election meddling could have been fabricated or altered to be deceiving.
Just after Mr Trump returned from his trip abroad in Europe, the President’s former campaign manager stepped up to say that Mr Putin’s denial of involvement meant that the story is over.
“Now the President has taken this issue directly to the president of Russia and raised it,” Corey Lewandowski said on Fox News. “So, now I think the issue is officially dead.”
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