Donald Trump has admitted he would welcome kompromat on his political rivals from any sources – including foreign powers – without necessarily telling the FBI, throwing new bait to Russiagaters so desperate to see him impeached.
Gathering dirt on political opponents is a fair game in US political realities, President Trump told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos.
“I think you might want to listen, there isn't anything wrong with listening,” Trump said. “If somebody called from a country, Norway, [and said] ‘we have information on your opponent' - oh, I think I'd want to hear it.”
It's not an interference, they have information – I think I'd take it.
The US leader equated such info to an ‘opposition research’ that is a common practice in American political campaigns. If the information arouses suspicion, the President said he would probably call the FBI, but otherwise, Trump stressed, real life simply “doesn't work that way.”
“Somebody comes up and says, ‘hey, I have information on your opponent,' do you call the FBI?” Trump said. “The FBI doesn't have enough agents to take care of it... You don't call the FBI. You throw somebody out of your office, you do whatever you do.”
Trump made the bold comments just months after special counsel Robert Muller concluded his nearly two-year investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election. Despite much hype, crowds of Russiagaters were left bitterly disappointed after the probe failed to establish any criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
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