Putin Has Message For Democrats: ‘Get Over It’
Russian President Vladimir Putin has not minced words when it comes to his view of Democratic leaders and their accusations that he has stolen their victory. Essentially, Putin has more or less pointed the finger back and accused such leaders of being sore losers.
BREAKING: Putin just said that the Democratic party should “learn to lose with dignity.” Coming from a dictator who only won by cheating! pic.twitter.com/dzpKDlmmwR
— #NotMyPresident (@France4Hillary) December 23, 2016
Despite accusations coming from the White House, Putin has vehemently denied any involvement or tampering with the election, which resulted in a loss for Hilary Clinton and the Democratic party. Additionally, the Kremlin has repeatedly questioned the evidence brought forth by accusers. On Friday, he echoed Trump’s dismissal of the accusations, stating “Maybe it was someone lying on the couch who did it.”
On Friday, at the Russian leader’s nationally televised annual press conference, Putin responded to a question as to whether Russia had interfered with the U.S. presidential election, siding with the former candidate and now president-elect, Donald Trump. The Washington Post relays Putin’s blunt response.
“Democrats are losing on every front and looking for people to blame everywhere,” Putin said in answer to a Russian TV host, one of 1,400 journalists accredited to the marathon session. “They need to learn to lose with dignity.”
The Kremlin then furthered his point by noting that Republicans had also been victorious in the House and Senate, asking “Did we do that, too?”
Putin then honed in on the reasons he believed Trump won the election, remarking “Trump understood the mood of the people and kept going until the end, when nobody believed in him.” He added with a grin, “Except for you and me.”
Russia’s president then went on to downplay the hacking by noting that it is the information that has been discovered by the hacking that is most important, reminding that emails discovered indicated party leaders had favored Clinton.
“And it’s not important who did the hacking, it’s important that the information that was revealed was true, that is important.”
It has been the norm for Putin to hold a press conference once a year near the end of December for the 12 years he has been Russia’s president.
Additionally, during the conference, Putin noted that he has an interest in improving relations with the United States following Trump’s inauguration. The president-elect has vowed to work closely with Russia in fighting terrorism.
Russia has been the focus of such an attack over this past week when the nation’s ambassador to Turkey was assassinated. Putin even moved the press conference back a day so that he was able to attend the funeral for Andrei Karlov, who was assassinated in a public setting by a man who was shouting words about the war in Syria.
After killing the ambassador while yelling, “Don’t forget Aleppo, Don’t forget Syria. We are the descendants of those who supported the Prophet Muhammad, for jihad,” the assassin allowed the shocked onlookers to leave the art gallery where the murder took place.
Putin says he sees “nothing unusual” in Trump’s nuclear comments. https://t.co/3BP31yhQ6A
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 23, 2016
Putin also deflected a question regarding Trump’s promise to upgrade U.S. nuclear abilities and arsenal while stating Russia was also upgrading its own nuclear capabilities. Putin blamed the U.S. efforts to develop anti-missile technology for creating “conditions for a new arms race.”
“Preconditions for the new arms race were created when the U.S. withdrew from the anti-missile treaty. We are not violating any agreements,” Putin said. “Representatives of the current U.S. administration started to say that they are the strongest and most powerful in the world. Yes, indeed, they have more rockets, submarines, and aircraft carriers. We can’t argue with it.”
[Featured Image by Ma Ping/Getty Images]
