Donald Trump spit in the face of the United States on Friday as he spoke for an hour with Putin, discussing the Mueller report among other topics.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters while having a gaggle on the White House driveway that President Trump spoke with President Putin for an hour today about nuclear agreements, trade, North Korea, Ukraine and Venezuela, according to the pool report that is reviewed by the White House before it’s sent out. Somehow this left off that Trump spoke to Putin about the Mueller report.
See image of pool report sent to PoliticusUSA here:
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“Earlier this morning, the president spoke with President Putin. They had a very good discussion. Spoke for a little over an hour. They discussed nuclear agreements, both new and extended, with the possibility of having conversations with China on that front as well.
They discussed trade and the fact that it has increased between the two countries since the president has come into office. They also talked about North Korea.
They also spoke about Ukraine and Venezuela, and overall very positive conversation.
And we’ll have a more detailed readout coming shortly but wanted to give you guys that update while I was out here.”
It wasn’t until the last question, or perhaps this is what caused Sanders to end the gaggle, that she revealed this tidbit when asked if Trump discussed the findings of the Mueller report regarding Russia’s interference in the election (the one Trump won), that she replied:
“Very very briefly was discussed essentially in the context of that it’s over and there was no collusion, which I’m pretty sure both leaders were very well aware of long before this call took place. Something we’ve said for the better part of two and a half years and now they moved on to talk about those topics that I discussed.”
It is customary for the White House to send reporters readouts of conversations a president has with foreign leaders, for what should be obvious reasons. The Trump White House doesn’t always do this and so far, there is no readout from this Putin conversation, although they’ve promised it’s coming, but how reliable would it be even if it did come? Not much. All we have now is known liar Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ take on it.
Was she even in the room while Trump was speaking to Putin?
Is anyone monitoring Trump’s discussions with a hostile foreign adversary with whom Trump clearly colluded (in public, often enough) to cheat the U.S. out of a democratic election? It is normal for several staff members to take notes during a call with a foreign leader.
The Mueller Report is an investigation into whether or not Trump knowingly conspired with Russians to win the 2016 election and if the evidence rises to the level that it could be prosecuted.
It found multiple points of contacts between the Trump campaign and Russians, and 251 contacts have been established by the Moscow Project. Ryan Goodman, a legal expert, concluded after examination of Volume One of the redacted Mueller Report, that it identified key findings of Trump collusion with Russians.
This is yet another power grab by Trump. He’s effectively saying, ‘You can’t catch me, I can do whatever I want. Even this.’
Trump wanted us all to know that he is grabbing even more power by now spitting in the face of the United States by talking to the man with whom he is credibly accused of conspiring to win the 2016 election, and without whose help he cannot win 2020.
Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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