The much anticipated premiere of Sunday Night With Megyn Kelly has arrived. The host had previously promised to ask Putin about election meddling and whether Russia and the U.S. could work together. Well, she never got to the second question because Putin was royally angry about the first one, which also splintered off to address the Trump campaign’s alleged collusion with the Kremlin. The full interview is available at the bottom of this post, but we’re gonna work through a few snippets first.
Kelly previously went on record to say that Putin was “very personable” when the cameras clicked off, but he was incredibly testy during this interview. Above, Kelly asked about the meetings that took place between the Russian ambassador and Trump associates (which Michael Flynn, Jared Kushner, and Jeff Sessions have all admitted to by now), and Putin was aghast at both U.S. investigators and the media. He denied the meetings happened and said he doesn’t talk to the ambassador (not even about Kushner’s back channel request or any sanctions talk):
“There were no meetings. You understand? There were no meetings. When I saw this, my jaw dropped … I have no idea, I’m being completely honest with you … do you think that from all over the world, from the United States, the ambassador reports to me every day who he meets with? That’s complete nonsense, do you even understand what you’re asking? … For me, this is just amazing. You’ve created a sensation out of nothing. Out of the sensation, you’ve turned it into a weapon of war against the current president … you people are so creative over there, good job. Your lives must be boring.“
Kelly also asked about those “patriotically minded” hackers that Putin fingered (along with toddlers) last week. In the below clip, Putin denied that Russia cared at all about who becomes the U.S. president:
“We don’t even have to do that. Presidents come and go, and even the parties in power change. But the main political direction does not change. That’s why in the grand scheme of things, we don’t care who is the head of the United States … even if we wanted to, it wouldn’t make sense for us to interfere.”
Putin to @megynkelly: “In the grand scheme of things, we don’t care who’s the head of the United States” https://t.co/oWSKbSkrAq
— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 4, 2017
Putin then said the U.S. interferes with election campaigns around the world (which has been true, historically speaking, on a number of levels), so they shouldn’t point fingers at Russia: “It doesn’t sound like a justification. It sounds like a statement of fact.”
Putin accuses U.S. of interfering in electoral campaigns of other countries in exclusive sit-down with @megynkelly https://t.co/JBE8ZDhoq7
— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 4, 2017
Other highlights included Putin repeating a Cold War conspiracy theory that U.S. intelligence arranged John F. Kennedy’s assassination, and he flat-out denied even knowing former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who’s under investigation for Russian ties, even though Flynn sat next to Putin at a gala for RT, a state-run Russian propaganda media outlet.
You can watch the full interview below. It was kind of amazing to see Putin let loose, albeit while spouting a bunch of lies.
(Via NBC News)