Former CIA Director John Brennan said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Hallie Jackson Reports” that Russian President Vladimir Putin knew former President Donald Trump was an “amateur” who didn’t understand these issues at all.
After playing videos of both Biden and Putin and Trump and Putin, Jackson said, “The tone is obviously starkly different. What do you read into the differences here, and how should people understand that?”
Brennan said, “First of all, Joe Biden is someone that has been engaged on the foreign policy scene, international affairs for about half a century. So unlike a Donald Trump, who really was a novice, an amateur, and stumbled through the issues —”
Jackson interjected, “By the way, ran on being an amateur, right?”
Brennan continued, “Yes, but when Vladimir Putin would look at Donald Trump, he knew that Donald Trump didn’t understand these issues at all. But Joe Biden has seen the evolution of them over the years —Vladimir Putin realizes Joe Biden is deeply knowledgeable about these issues and he can talk about them substantively in a way that Donald Trump never could.”
He added, “I do think the Donald Trump Vladimir Putin relationship was a very, very curious and concerning one. I think it troubled many of us, and I think it continues to as Vladimir Putin continues to speak so highly of Donald Trump.”
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