>> Donald Trump has been in France for the G7 Summit, and as you can imagine he has been
as cantankerous as you could expect him to be among our allies.
And one of the issues that he brought up was the fact that Russia is no longer part of
this annual event.
Now Russia used to be part of this annual event until the annexation of Crimea happened
in Ukraine.
Trump argued strenuously that Vladimir Putin should be invited or reinvited back, five
years after Russia was rejected from the then G8, for its annexation of Crimea.
Now he makes the argument in the next clip, let's take a quick look.
I mean, a lot of people are smart, a lot of people say having Russia, which is a power,
having them inside the room is better than having them outside the room.
If I wanted to go strictly by politics I'd probably poll that.
And possibly I'd say gee, I don't want Russia in.
But I really think it's good for security of the world, it's good for the economics
of the world.
Remember, they're building a big pipeline in Europe going right up to Germany.
And I said to Angela, who I had a great relationship, but I said, you pay Russia billions of dollars,
and then we defend you from Russia.
And I say how does that work?
Okay, so, he wants to put them back in the G7 for no apparent reason.
Now, no one has his business ties to Russia, Molar did not so that at all, at all.
He thought it was outside of what he was asked to look into.
He was asked to look into the election, so he looked only at the election.
There's this giant business ties with Russia just looming there.
Both of Donald Trump's sons have said we've got all our money from the Russians for the
golf courses.
So does he owe them something?
Nope, nope, nope, nope.
No idiot Democrat wants to look into it, they're still playing patty-cakes with him.
They won't even take his New York City taxes, which New York has offered to Richard Neil.
And Richard Neil, the head of the Ways and Means Committee in the House, won't take it,
Pelosi doesn't want it.
So nobody's investigating him, it's outrageous.
Now, the Right Wing I get, I don't even wanna bother talking about you bring in Russia,
it's awesome it's strategic, it's brilliant.
Okay, whatever.
So now let's address the portion of the Left Wing that I disagree with, to say the least.
Really, you're gonna make an argument that he wants to bring Russia back to G7?
Cuz he really cares about geopolitical circumstances in a world, and thinks that he'll lead to
more international instability that Russia is in.
You really wanna die at that hill?
That Trump is doing this based on principles that he has about geopolitics?
And you just heard him say he knows it's not popular, but he wants to do it anyway.
When's the last time Donald Trumps did something that didn't benefit him personally?
Mm-hm.
That would hurt him politically?
Yeah, that's a great point.
Look, I don't know if this type of behavior would hurt him politically with his base,
but I will say, look, there're two separate issues.
First off, what motivates Trump?
Why is it that he decided to bring Russia up?
I do not buy for a second that he cares about geopolitical politics.
I don't believe for a second he has any strategy in mind.
However, if you just take Trump and his ties to Russia completely out of it and think about
it in a non-Trump context, I do think that Russia should have a seat at the table.
No.
You don't?
No.
I think it's important to have them be part- Not on this- Not- No.
Listen listen.
Not to negotiate with Putin and concede to what he wants, but I do think that it is a
significant power in geopolitical politics.
And I think it's important to apply pressure both diplomatically and through other means,
Okay.
Like sanctions.
Okay, so tell me why you disagree with that?
Okay, so first of all on the substance, I'm not what the mainstream Democrats who are
like, Russia is the boogeyman and we shouldn't start conflicts.
And them doing the election interfering is tantamount to war, that's crazy talk, okay?
I want stability with Russia, I don't want any conflict, I don't wanna start any new
wars, etc.
But that doesn't mean they have to be in the G7.
So they annexed Crimea, they still have troops in eastern parts of Ukraine.
If you allow them back in the G7, it rewards their aggressive military tactics, which would
cause them to potentially do more aggressive military tactics in other countries that actually
destabilize the world.
It doesn't mean they're not in the United Nations, it doesn't mean you should never
work with them, but we don't have to let them in the NATO and we don't have to let him in
the G7.
They were ejected from G8 for very good reason.
And this is not a conservative position to bring Russia's back in.
Even Boris Johnson from the UK is like, no, no, no, we don't want the Russians.
I know, it's pretty amazing.
Yeah, so almost no one backs Trump on this.
He's all alone because there is no principled position, there is no conservative position,
there's certainly no progressive position that supports it.
All there is is Trump going on Lord, what do you need?
What do you need?
So look, we could argue about this till the cows come home, and I know I'm never gonna
convince that portion of the Left Wing that is they think I lost my mind on it?
Fine, whatever.
I think you've lost your mind completely and utterly.
You've become so bias on that issue that you're not open to new facts.
So when Trump out of the blue comes and goes I need Russian back in the G7.
I need it right now.
Even though that's gonna hurt me politically, but that's okay.
I really want it!
Why?
Because I care about world civility and less conflicts, and I really care about this cuz
the pipeline which I've criticized before in Germany.
He doesn't care about that at all.
Really, really, really?
You don't believe that.
Okay, hold on.
Look and I'll even address it to, look.
Hold on.
I'm not questioning your intelligence, cuz I know Glenn Greenwald's really smart.
I know a lot of guys on that side are really smart.
But Glenn, you don't believe that, you know you don't believe that.
Saying that is ridiculous.
Okay, wait, there's one other thing that I wanna pose, and I wanna get your thoughts
on it, cuz I think this is also a possiblity.
So I agree with you.
Again, I just wanna repeat Trump doesn't care about geopolitical politics.
I'd be shocked if he ever thought about it for a single second.
However, what we do know is that Trump is motived by his- Money.
Money and also- That he owes the Russians.
Hold on, money and there's one other thing that Trump is motivated by, and that's flattery.
He likes to be around individuals who are complimentary toward him.
And he has done such a great job at demonizing our long standing allies, members of the G7,
that maybe there's a possibility he wants Vladimir Putin to be part of these meetings
again.
These annual meetings because he knows that Putin is gonna tell him all the lovely, fluffy
things that he wants to hear about himself.
But even that's not true, because if you've noticed, Putin actually has barely said anything
about Trump.
And unlike Kim Jong-un and other leaders that have gone around kissing Trump's ass, at least
verbally while doing other things in the background, Putin hasn't done that.
It's not like Putin and the press conferences goes, I believe US intelligence rather than
Russian intelligence.
I think Donald Trump's a great leader.
He hasn't said any of that.
He just says, comes to the press conference and goes Trump, heel!
And Trump goes, yes, I believe the Russians instead of my own government.
Yes, Vladamir is a strong leader.
You need strength, he's very strong, right?
So comes in and bows, but I've never seen Putin bow.
I've never seen him give like big compliments to Donald Trump.
Well, look, I think that he's been very friendly with Donald Trump publicly when they have
met and when they've done like joint press conferences.
But one other thing is, remember they've had a number of private meetings.
Now of course why do they want those meetings private without any US officials part of it,
without any transcript or any record of those meetings?
They could be talking about some of their shady deals or whatever, but- 100%.
Look, I just think that Trump has this affinity toward dictatorial regimes.
I think that he loves authoritarians.
I think that he sees authoritarians and he feels this connection.
There's like a love connection.
Nonsense.
And it's happened with Duterte, and it's happened with Bolsanaro in Brazil.
Look, I'm just I'm giving you all of the possibilities.
Look at Reek in that picture.
I know, I get it.
I'm giving you all of the possibilities.
And don't get me wrong, I don't deny that there are some business deals going on behind
the scenes that should be investigated.
Okay.
With that said, I do think that if you do care about geopolitical issues applying pressure
through economic means and sanctions is great, and I would lean in that direction.
But I want Russia to be part of the conversation and apply pressure that way as well.
That's where I'm coming from.
Yeah, okay.
Yeah.
So look, there's dictators he doesn't like.
I agree with you, he likes authoritarian dictators that are on his side, but he doesn't seem
to like the Iranian leaders.
He doesn't seem to like Maduro, so he's pretty selective about the dictators that he likes,
right?
Well, you could argue about whether Maduro is a dictator or not, but certainly Trump
thinks so.
So there's 50 other dictators in the world that he doesn't love.
He wants Venezuelan oil, also.
Okay, yes, it's always about the money.
Okay last thing, guys.
You can think anything you like, but you're wrong, okay?
Jesus.
No no no, you are.
And so, I don't care, and you can cry about it all day long, too.
So, the reality is, you're ignoring obvious things.
He goes into meet the Russian leader without an American translator, let alone any American
government official.
Like you can go and be like, that once happened in 1837 as well, when there were no translators.
Anyway, so I'm having fun there, but overall they were like, maybe that happened once or
twice before.
That's not even true.
You're trying to find excuses.
His son says, we got all the money from the Russians, he does almost everything on behalf
of the Russians, including weird, out of the blue things like yeah, let's put them back
in the G7 when no one else, not even any other Conservative agrees with that, okay?
And then on top of that, he goes on secret meetings with Putin, where he doesn't want
any American to hear what they're talking about.
The answer is super obvious.
Okay.
He has business ties with the Russians, they have leverage over him and they tell him what
to do.
If you wanna cry about that, go cry somewhere else.
No way, I think Trump is really honest about Putin.
He's dishonest about everything else, but he's really honest about beloved Putin in
Russia.
I think you're crazy for thinking that.
I have to mention one other thing.
I would feel terrible if I didn't, so I'm gonna do it right now.
Look, there was the foreign minister of Iran.
Look, Iran is not part of the G7, however, Zarif who is the foreign minister of Iran
was invited as a guest.
And so I don't know, is there a possibility that having an Iranian presence there upset
him to the point where he's like well, if Iran gets to be here, then Russia gets to
be here, too.
Nope, nope.
I'm just putting that out there, too.
No way.
Okay.
He planned this long ago.
And of course this, no.
Guys, you're trying so hard- I'm not trying hard.
Not to see the obvious.
I'm giving you details.
The Russians own him.
I can't wait to have any kinda power where we can prove that out, okay?
So you can't say based on this, obviously I can say it all day long, I'm not gonna put
somebody in prison over our assumptions no matter how obvious they might be.
But what God damn prosecutor look into his business ties with Russia?
What is wrong with you guys?
It's the most obvious thing in the world.
And don't tell me they've looked into it because they haven't.
Show me the case where they looked into it.
You don't have it, you just go, but won't you look into it.
So you must be guilty, he must be innocent.
And if you're on the so-called left, and you keep insisting and screaming from the rooftop
how innocent Donald Trump is, even though you know they haven't looked into his business
ties with Russia.
What's your motivation?
And I think your motivation is that you're too, you dug a hole too deep, and you can't
get out, so you've surrounded yourself with your own bias.
Nope, Trump's totally innocent on Russia, totally innocent.
No, I don't want to see his business ties.
I don't want to see the hundreds of millions of dollars he took, and I don't want to talk
about whether he might be biased about money and his own personal interest.
He is on everything else but not this one.
On this one he's pristine.
Okay.
Okay, well, have at it, Haas, make that argument.
And get mad at me, but you're wrong and I'm right.