Wouldn't it be nice if we actually got along with people?
Wouldn't it be nice if we actually got along, as an example, with Russia? I'm all for it.
Donald Trump has been incredibly praising about Vladimir Putin.
It was one of the most mysterious features of the US election campaign.
Trump said that Putin was smart, that he was a good guy.
The truth is that he is strong and he is tough and he's making our president look very bad.
We've all been scratching our heads to see why is that?
Now, of course, along comes a former MI6 officer called Christopher Steel, whose dossier was
leaked in January and it says that Trump and his team have been secretly colluding with
the Kremlin, which would explain his warm tone.
Trump, of course, says this is fake news.
I think it's a disgrace that information that was false and fake and never happened got
released to the public.
Hacking's bad and it shouldn't be done but look at the things that were hacked, look
at what was learned from that hacking.
According to US intelligence, Russia hacked the 2016 election, sent thousands of phishing
emails to top Democrats, which were clicked on and this was a huge, huge scandal.
There's no hard evidence that Trump and his team colluded in the hacking but, of course,
last summer at a rally, he did say this:
'Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.'
Donald Trump has been interested in Russia and real estate and hotels since 1987 when
he first visited Moscow.
At the same time, none of these ventures seem to have really come off and Trump, of course,
says he has no business connections with Russia.
Russia is a ruse. I have nothing to do with Russia, haven't made a phone call to Russia
in years, don't speak to people from Russia. Not that I wouldn't, I just have nobody to speak to.
Unfortunately, in 2008 his son said that money was pouring in from Russia into the Trump organisation.
Of course, there's a very easy way in which the president could enlighten us all and that
would be by releasing his tax returns.
So far though he has refused to do that.
Paul Manafort was Trump's campaign chairman until he was forced to resign last August
when he came under pressure because of his ties to Russia.
Before that he was a consultant to none other than Viktor Yanukovic, the president of Ukraine
who scarpered to Russia in 2014 having been overthrown, allegedly taking billions of dollars with him.
People knew that he was a consultant over in that part of the world for a while but
I think he represented Ukraine or people having to do with Ukraine or people that ... Whoever.
But people knew that. Everybody knew that.
The FBI is now investigating Paul Manafort to see whether he was talking to the Russian
leadership last year.
It's also looking Carter Page, a Trump foreign policy aide, and Michael Cohen, Trump's personal lawyer.
All three are accused of speaking to the Russians during the election campaign, a charge they vehemently deny.
General Michael Flynn was sacked as Trump's national security adviser after just 24 days
when it turned out that he'd called the Russian ambassador in December after Trump had won
the election and floated the possibility that the new administration could lift sanctions against Russia.
Can you say whether you are aware that anyone who advised your campaign had contacts with
Russia during the course of the election?
Well, I told you, General Flynn obviously was dealing. So that's one person but he was
dealing as he should have been.
During the election?
No. Nobody that I know of.
Rex Tillerson, Trump's US secretary of state, also has deep ties with Russia.
He's one of very few Americans who have got the Order of Friendship from Vladimir Putin
from his former job when he was CEO as Exxon, the oil and gas giant, which has huge interests
in Russia and which will also benefit substantially should the Trump administration lift sanctions.
Some people have described the Trump-Russia story as a new Watergate.
Well, we're not there yet and I think there's an awful lot of material to come, not least
secret material which the FBI is currently examining.
But it certainly feels to me like the biggest political story in recent US history and no
one quite knows how it will end.