Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) suggested Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has some sort of financial influence over former President Trump.

In an interview with MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki,” Pelosi said Putin is the “richest person in the world” and has “stiff competition” to being named the most evil person in the world.

Pelosi asked “what does he have on Donald Trump that he’d have to constantly be catering to Putin?”

Her comments came just after Trump doubled down on his criticism of NATO and said he would encourage Russia to attack U.S. allies who fail to reach the alliance’s defense spending goals. Trump has also declined to criticize Putin for the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a Russian prison last week.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Your argument seems to be “other people do it too, therefore he doesn’t have fealty to Putin.”

    Which is not a very convincing argument.

    • index@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      That’s to give you a picture of how politics work, you can search for any politician you like and there will be pictures of them shaking hands with mafiosi or dictators. Politicians loyalty it toward these who give them money and power.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        And yet that still doesn’t mean that Trump is being used by Putin through kompramat.

        Your entire “this isn’t happening with Trump” argument hinges on “this other thing is happening with different people.” Which is not how it works.

        • index@sh.itjust.works
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          4 months ago

          To believe that trump is a russian puppet is a really poor attempt at blaming USA problems at someone else. If you are outraged that trump has ties with the russian mafia you then should be outraged at the whole government for having the same ties and being totally rigged.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            I never said anything about being outraged. I said you have not supported your claim sufficiently. “A is not A because B is B” is not a logical argument.