Early Thursday morning, the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson and MSNBC’s John Lemire lambasted Donald Trump for using a campaign video to send a message to Vladimir Putin, seemingly to score political points by leveraging the arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
In the clip, Trump boasted that President Vladimir Putin would release Gershkovich if he is re-elected. Trump reiterated his claim made in May, stating, “Evan Gershkovich, the reporter for The Wall Street Journal who is being held by Russia, will be released almost immediately after the election,” before adding, “But definitely before I assume office, he will be home. He will be safe. Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, will do that for me. And I don’t believe he’ll do it for anyone else. And we will be paying nothing. Biden likes to pay massive numbers. We will be paying nothing. Thank you very much.”
Lemire shared the clip with Robinson, who expressed his disgust, explaining, “It’s obscene. It is absolutely obscene and disgusting that he would use this as some sort of a campaign ploy.”
“You know, the obvious question is, ‘Okay, if you could get Vladimir Putin to release Evan, do it. Do it now,'” he continued. “The idea that, ‘Oh, yeah, well, if you just vote for me, I will get him home,’ it’s just obscene, that’s the only word for it.”
Robinson also raised concerns about the implications of Trump’s statements. “It does raise the question of what sort of communication he might or might not be having with Vladimir Putin, but he’s probably making it all up, sending a signal to Putin not to release Evan until after the election,” he added.
Lemire concurred, calling Trump’s actions “reprehensible.”
This new incident is reminiscent of the time Trump directly called on Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails for his political gain, once again showing his willingness to engage with foreign powers for personal political advantage.
Watch the segment below:
