Of course he didn't say anything, the pussy...

‘A lot of people said it’s a fake issue’: Trump confirms he didn’t raise Russian bounties with Putin

Administration officials have been inconsistent in their explanations of the extent to which the president was briefed on the matter.

By QUINT FORGEY

President Donald Trump acknowledged Tuesday that he did not raise reports of Russian bounties on American troops during his phone call last week with President Vladimir Putin, suggesting U.S. intelligence on the matter was “fake news.”

“No, that was a phone call to discuss other things. And frankly, that’s an issue that many people said was fake news,” Trump told Axios’ Jonathan Swan.

When pressed on who specifically had used that term to describe the U.S. intelligence, Trump said: “I think a lot of people. If you look at some of the wonderful folks from the Bush administration, some of them, not any friends of mine, were saying that it’s a fake issue, but a lot of people said it’s a fake issue.”

The president did not identify which officials from former President George W. Bush’s administration had spoken dismissively of the alleged Russian bounties, which came to light last month after The New York Times first reported that U.S. intelligence officials concluded the Kremlin’s military intelligence unit offered to pay Taliban-linked militants in Afghanistan to kill American troops and other coalition forces there.

Top administration officials have been inconsistent in their explanations of the extent to which Trump was briefed on the bounties, but POLITICO reported earlier this month that the White House told congressional lawmakers the relevant intelligence was included in the president’s daily written brief in late February.

Trump’s remarks Tuesday represent the White House’s first public confirmation that he did not discuss the bounties when he spoke with Putin last Thursday.

According to a White House readout of the call, the two leaders talked about “efforts to defeat the coronavirus pandemic while continuing to reopen global economies,” as well as “critical bilateral and global issues.”

Trump also “reiterated his hope of avoiding an expensive three-way arms race between China, Russia, and the United States and looked forward to progress on upcoming arms control negotiations in Vienna,” the White House said.

On Tuesday, Trump said he and Putin “had a call talking about nuclear proliferation, which is a very big subject where they would like to do something, and so would I. We discussed numerous things.”

But as for the alleged Russian bounties, Trump said: “I have never discussed it with him, no. I would. I have no problem with it.”

Both White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and the president have refused to comment in recent days on whether the bounties came up in the latest conversation between Trump and Putin.

At a White House briefing last Friday, McEnany told reporters she was not on the call and that the bounty intelligence “is unverified still to this day,” claiming there are “dissenting opinions within the intel community.”

“We don’t talk about what we discuss, but we had plenty of discussion, and I think it was very productive,” Trump said Monday of his conversation with Putin, during a visit to a vaccine production plant in North Carolina.

Asked about U.S. intelligence that Russia had been supplying weapons to the Taliban, Trump justified the alleged Kremlin arms program by pointing to U.S. support for Afghan fighters during the Soviet Union's war there in the 1980s.

“Well, we supplied weapons when they were fighting Russia, too. You know, when they were fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan,” Trump said.

Trump suggested he has not been formally briefed on intelligence suggesting that Russia was arming the Taliban — intelligence endorsed by Trump’s own former commander of U.S. and NATO-led international forces in Afghanistan, retired Army Gen. John W. Nicholson.

“I’m just saying, we did that, too,” he continued. “I don’t know. I didn’t ask Nicholson about that. He was there for a long time. Didn’t have great success because, you know, he was there before me. And then ultimately, I made a change.”

Trump said he “had heard” Russia was arming Taliban fighters, but added, “again, it’s never reached my desk.”

The president’s likening of Russian activity in Afghanistan to U.S. government actions is reminiscent of other statements Trump has issued in apparent defense of Putin’s authoritarian regime.

When he was asked in 2015 about the high-profile murders of several journalists who had been critical of the Russian leader, Trump memorably told MSNBC: “Well, I think our country does plenty of killing also.”

And after Bill O’Reilly, then of Fox News, characterized Putin as a “killer” in an interview with the president in 2017, Trump responded: “You got a lot of killers. What, you think our country’s so innocent?”