CNN reporter Jim Acosta denounced President Trump’s performance at a press conference with Russian president Vladimir Putin, calling it “astonishing” minutes after it ended. “I think it really crystallizes a very critical problem for the United States right now in that you have the president, the leader of the free world, taking the word of Vladimir Putin,” Acosta complained before fretting: “They came across as playmates on a soccer field more than they did international rivals.”
Jim Acosta, from Helsinki, at 12 noon EDT on Monday, July 16:
“It was astonishing, just astonishing, to be in room with the U.S President and with the Russian president on this critical question of election interference and to hear the President of the United States retreat back to these talking points about DNC servers and Hillary Clinton’s e-mails when he had a chance, right there in front of us, right there in front of the world to confront Vladimir Putin and tell him to stay the hell out of American democracy, and he just didn’t do it.
“It was one of those moments, I think, obviously we all think this is a very big deal right now and sometimes these sorts of things can fade away. But I don’t think this is one of those moments. This is one of those moments, Anderson, I think really crystallizes a very critical problem for the United States right now in that you have the president, the leader of the free world, taking the word of Vladimir Putin who, from all accounts inside the U.S. government, the U.S. intelligence community, the law enforcement community, attacked American democracy in 2016.
“You know, when Vladimir Putin was asked whether he wanted Trump to win, that might have been the only honest moment of this news conference when Vladimir Putin said yes, he did want President Trump to win. And then, shortly after that, handed him that soccer ball. They came across as playmates on a soccer field more than they did international rivals, Anderson. The President of the United States very much yielding the field on this day to Vladimir Putin.”
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