'Trump does not have the intellect': GOP strategist schooled after blaming Russia on Obama

17 August

Republican strategist Brad Todd and Former South Carolina House Rep. Bakari Sellers, Images via Screengrab.

Former South Carolina House Rep. Bakari Sellers and journalist Nayyera Haq on Sunday called out President Donald Trump’s lack of ability to “maneuver” on the world stage, educating Republican strategist Brad Todd on the president's ignorance toward Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The CNN panel was discussing Trump’s meeting with Putin in Alaska on Friday, which ended without a deal to bring an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, but included — as CNN’s Jake Tapper reports — “Trump laying on the praise for Vladimir Putin.”

“I think Vladimir Putin is a thug, I think he’s a war criminal and I think he made Donald Trump look small,” Sellers said Sunday. “I mean, I understand the minutia. I want to deal like every other American wants a deal, or you should be praying for that deal. However, like I've said before, many times: Donald Trump cannot perform on the world stage because he simply does not have the intellect to match up with these world leaders. He's not Barack Obama, he's not Hillary Clinton, he's not even George [W.] Bush when it comes to being able to maneuver in these environments.”

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“And so what you saw was Vladimir Putin come and get what he wanted. I mean, the winner of this is Vladimir Putin," Sellers added.

“That's what happened when he took Crimea,” Todd argued. “Obama gave [Putin] exactly what he wanted when he let Vladimir Putin have Crimea without so much as a shot or an objection.”

Todd insisted Trump’s threat of 50 percent tariffs on India 50 percent tariffs on India will blunt Russian aggression because “India gets 40 prcent of its oil from Russia."

“If you want to stop Vladimir Putin long term, and his aggression, you have to shut off his oil dollars,” Todd claimed.

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Haq explained the “irony” about Todd's “oil dollars” claim, noting “that same Friday is [when] sanctions were supposed to be imposed on Putin, and that came and went."

"And nothing happened," she continued. "And then suddenly, Putin gets rewarded, but with a one-on-one meeting with Trump. And that starts the backpedaling of European phone calls educating Donald Trump on how Vladimir Putin works. And all of that ended up leading to what? A one-on-one meeting where Russia was allowed on U.S. soil on Alaska — which many Russians still believe belongs to them or should come back to them. And now Russia’s back and, literally, Trump acknowledged Russia as a superpower.”

Turning to Todd, Haq continued, “I mentioned this because the Crimea example you mentioned is what kicked Russia out of the elite group of global economic powers. The G8 became the G8, and now Trump has elevated Russia back to this status of equal with all of the democratic powers and to the point now where the United States has accepted a war criminal into the country, is not doing any more sanctions and is not holding Putin accountable for the invasion. That is the key thing. All of this started because Putin decided to invade a sovereign Europe.”

“In 2014, when he invaded Crimea,” Todd shot back. “Would we be here right now if Obama had stopped [Putin]?"

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“Yes, because the Russian imperial ambitions have not changed,” Haq replied.

“The great irony of the Crimea example is Barack Obama made sure that Russia was simply a barren country with a nuclear weapon and maybe a gas pump, like that was it,” Sellers said. “And now, because you lifted sanctions, because you're weak on this thug, because you're weak on this war criminal, And … the president of the United States can't even call him that. I mean, we have to call a spade a spade ... and Donald Trump's afraid to do that."

Watch the video below or at this link.

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