The US President said he’d be open to accepting damaging information from a foreign power on an election opponent and would feel no obligation to tell the FBI if he did.
“I think you might want to listen, there isn’t anything wrong with listening . . . if somebody called from a country, Norway, [and said]‘we have information on your opponent’, oh, I think I’d want to hear it”, Trump told ABC News this week.
When the reporter asked Trump if he would accept information from Russia or China instead of calling the authorities, the leader answered: “I think maybe you do both.”
It’s a risky comment after some of the scandals Trump has faced over the last year. In April, the Mueller report found that Russia had meddled in the 2016 US election with the aim of helping Trump get elected (without his help, to be fair).
And in June 2016, the President’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, met with a Russian lawyer offering “dirt” on his then-opponent Hillary Clinton.
Trump naturally tried to underplay the comments, as usual taking to Twitter to defend himself – but they still prompted calls for his impeachment from Democrats.
Impeachment doesn’t look likely, but perhaps be more careful next time, Mr President.
