August 28, 2017

Quote of the Day: “I Will Get Putin on This Program and We Will Get Donald Elected”

Metzel Mikhail/TASS/Zuma

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Last night, the Washington Post reported that Donald Trump was actively trying to put together a deal for Trump Tower Moscow while campaigning for the presidency in 2015. Today, the New York Times revealed a “series of emails” between Trump’s business associate Felix Sater and his lawyer Michael Cohen, in which Sater goes on at length about how the real estate deal could help Trump win the White House. 

“Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it,” Mr. Sater wrote in an email. “I will get all of Putin’s team to buy in on this, I will manage this process.”

The emails show that, from the earliest months of Mr. Trump’s campaign, his associates viewed close ties with Moscow as a political advantage. Those ties are now under investigation by the Justice Department and multiple congressional committees.

There is no evidence in the emails that Mr. Sater delivered on his promises…

In another email, Mr. Sater envisioned a ribbon-cutting in Moscow. “I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected,” Mr. Sater wrote.

I have no idea why these guys thought building a condo development in Russia would matter to voters in America, but then again, I never expected Trump to be president. as it is, so what the hell do I know. Anyway, you can read the whole thing here.

Donald Trump says he “stayed away” from Russia, but we found numerous deals that show otherwise.

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THE BIG PICTURE

You expect the big picture, and it's our job at Mother Jones to give it to you. And right now, so many of the troubles we face are the making not of a virus, but of the quest for profit, political or economic (and not just from the man in the White House who could have offered leadership and comfort but instead gave us bleach).

In "News Is Just Like Waste Management," we unpack what the coronavirus crisis has meant for journalism, including Mother Jones’, and how we can rise to the challenge. If you're able to, this is a critical moment to support our nonprofit journalism with a donation: We've scoured our budget and made the cuts we can without impairing our mission, and we hope to raise $400,000 from our community of online readers to help keep our big reporting projects going because this extraordinary pandemic-plus-election year is no time to pull back.

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