Photo source: RT America.
RT America is a TV channel in Washington, DC, owned by a Moscow-based non-profit funded by the Russian government. The channel airs in English and Russian in several countries, and while claiming autonomy has been “regularly accused of pro-Kremlin bias”.
(Totally unrelated, Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump’s adviser who was allegedly told to shut up/calm down by Chris Christie during the recent security briefing, spoke at an RT party last year and sat next to Putin.)
A Larry King phone interview with Trump about US foreign policy aired on RT America on Thursday evening. Trump gave largely a repeat performance of the NBC forum, criticizing the dishonesty — sorry, the tremendous dishonesty of the American media and reiterating that he has “very strong ideas” and “a very distinct plan” to combat ISIS (“I don’t like talking about it [the plan].”)
The usual stuff: Going to Iraq was a bad idea, and the way we got out was a “disaster”, especially the timetable for withdrawal. King did point out the timetable was developed under Bush, at which point Trump (who had just spent several minutes going on and on and on about Hillary Clinton’s & Obama’s policies regarding Iraq), after a short silence, said “You know what, let’s look to the future.”
He thought Lauer was “very professional…” strong, tough, smart. Hillary “doesn’t have what it takes” to make America great again. “ Just doesn’t feel presidential to me.” King pushed for details on why not, but got nothing.
Debate approach: Trump said last night was good prep. He’s looking forward to the debates. King asked should the moderator have facts at hand and correct the guests? (re. Chris Wallace who has said he won’t fact check.) Trump was sympathetic to the “professional” Wallace: “the candidates should police themselves.”
He is going to release his tax returns when the audit is done. Honestly!! But “Everybody says you should not release them [during an audit]. You get your audit finished first… Very few people bring it up. I don’t think people care… You don’t learn much from a tax return.”
He has “absolutely no opinion” on Putin’s statement that hacking the DNC was a public service.
Does he still think the election will be rigged? “I don’t know that it will be [fair].”
On immigration, King asked for his “gut feeling” about Mexican immigrants. Silence. “Donald, are you there? … We did not lose the connection...” Commercial break. After which, Larry has a new guest and doesn’t tell us what happened to Trump.
Donald??? Are you there, Donald?
Trump’s campaign said they didn’t know the interview, done as a favor to his “good friend” King for his podcast, would air on RT. But… wow, bad optics!
