Trump Admits He's Putin's Useful Idiot

During the debate last week, Donald Trump admitted that Vladimir Putin had told him about his plans to take Ukraine, which was at least two years before he actually launched the invasion. If what Trump is saying is true, then that means he knew the attack was going to happen and did nothing to inform US intelligence agencies that it was going to happen - and he certainly didn't warn our allies in Ukraine. Farron Cousins explains the implications of this statement.

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*This transcript was auto-generated. Please excuse any typos.

The last few days, something's been bugging me about what happened during the, uh, Thursday night presidential debate, and it was the statement that Donald Trump made when he was talking about Vladimir Putin, telling him that it was, quote, his dream to take over Ukraine. In fact, here's the exact quote. When Putin saw that, he said, you know what? I think we're gonna go in and maybe take my, this was his dream. I talked to him about it, his dream. That is the exact quote from Donald Trump. I talked to him about it. Now, any conversation that Donald Trump may have had as president of the United States with Vladimir Putin about Putin potentially invading Ukraine with the intention of annexing Ukraine, any conversation that would've happened had to have happened at least two years before the actual invasion, two years, which would mean if Donald Trump is telling the truth and not just lying like he always does, if Trump knew about this two years in advance, if Vladimir Putin felt comfortable enough to tell this man that this is what he wants to do as Trump says he did, why didn't you tell our allies in Ukraine that this was the plan?

Why didn't you put a stop to it? Then, you know, you say you can make a phone call and put this whole thing to rest right now. Why didn't you do that when you were actually president and learned of this top secret Russian plan and saved countless lives, both Ukrainian and Russian? Donald Trump is Vladimir Putin's useful idiot, and he's too stupid to even know that he is a useful idiot. Again, all of this kind of hinges on whether or not Donald Trump is telling the truth. This is a man who told more than 50 lies throughout that entire debate. So assuming he's telling the truth is not something we should do, but we do have to treat this claim as if he is telling the truth. You didn't tell the US intelligence agencies, you didn't tell the generals. You didn't tell anybody in the military, the Joint Chiefs. You didn't tell Ukraine, you didn't tell anybody in Europe. Vladimir Putin is allegedly confiding in you his plans to invade a sovereign nation, and you just kept it close to your chest because you didn't want anybody to know what your friend was gonna do in Russia.

That that's insane. That's crazy dangerous. This man told us on that debate stage in front of millions of people watching all over the country, all over the world, told us that he was trusted with this secret from Vladimir Putin, and he kept that secret.

He put Ukraine at risk, he put Russian lives at risk. He put all of Europe at risk because he didn't want to betray, I guess the secret that his good buddy, his good friend, Vladimir Putin, told him. I mean, that seems like the kind of thing that may warrant an investigation. Did Donald Trump come back to the United States and, and tell the military secretly like, Hey, Putin's gonna do this. You know, we gotta do something. Somebody get uh uh, Zelensky on the phone here. Let's let him know this is coming, because if not, I don't know. Does that constitute some kind of war crime? Possibly? I don't know. Not sure exactly how international law works on all of that, but it seems like a pretty big deal that Putin felt secure enough to trust Donald Trump with his secret invasion plans, and Trump didn't bother to warn anyone what was coming.