Politics

Trump’s ‘Bloodlust’ For White House In 2016 Was ‘Interconnected’ With Putin’s Ukraine Invasion Wishes, MSNBC Host Says

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MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace claimed Monday that former President Donald Trump’s “bloodlust” for the White House in 2016 was “interconnected” with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s wishes to invade Ukraine, citing a Nov. 2 report by The New York Times Magazine.

“It’s clear Putin’s bloodlust for Ukraine and Trump’s for the White House are interconnected and intertwined from the very beginning,” Wallace said during an interview with New York Times (NYT) reporter Mark Mazzetti after citing the magazine article.

The article alleged that Paul Manafort, a one-time Trump campaign manager, had ties to a so-called “Russian agent” named Konstantin Kilimnik, and helped push Trump towards making statements favorable to Russia during the 2016 campaign. Manafort and Kilimnik allegedly came up with a peace proposal to hand over the city of Mariupol in supposedly autonomous republics that would be governed by pro-Russian separatists, according to the piece.

WATCH:

“You know, the people of Crimea, from what I’ve heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were,” Trump said during an August 2016 interview on ABC’s “This Week,” according to DW. Trump also said during a July 26, 2016 event that he would be open to recognizing Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula, according to The Washington Post.

Russia invaded Ukraine Feb. 24, launching a massive attack across the latter country. Mariupol is a crucial port city in the southwestern part of Ukraine captured by the Russians in May.

Allegations that Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia to defeat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton emerged with the now-discredited Steele Dossier, while the FBI reportedly spied on the Trump campaign based on evidence from the dossier. James Baker, a former lawyer for the FBI and Twitter, testified in 2018 that he reviewed the evidence that was used to justify the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants used to authorize the FBI surveillance.

“This was their view, I mean, Flynn had a sort of cozy relationship with the Russians from a business point of view, and more of an ideological view, certainly, and he signs on as a foreign policy advisor. Again, these were people who were more on the fringes of the foreign policy establishment,” Mazzetti said. “These were some of the people … whispering in his ear that kind of lead Trump to make these statements that he was inclined to do so anyway, but they were forming some of the beliefs.”

Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.