Early Thursday morning the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson and MSNBC's John Lemire pounced on Donald Trump's boast in a campaign-oriented clip that President Vladimir Putin will do him a favor and release Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich if he is re-elected.
Trump doubled down on the claim that he made in May, saying this week: “Evan Gershkovich, the reporter for The Wall Street Journal who is being held by Russia, will be released almost immediately after the election," before adding, "But definitely before I assume office, he will be home. He will be safe. Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, will do that for me. And I don’t believe he’ll do it for anyone else. And we will be paying nothing. Biden likes to pay massive numbers. We will be paying nothing. Thank you very much."
After Lemire shared the clip with the Washington Post columnist, Robinson expressed his disgust, explaining, "It's obscene. It is absolutely obscene and disgusting that he would use this as some sort of a campaign ploy."
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"You know, the obvious question is, 'Okay, if you could get Vladimir Putin to release Evan, do it. Do it now,'" he continued. "The idea that, 'Oh, yeah, well, if you just vote for me, I will get him home,' it's just obscene, that's the only word for it."
"It does raise the question of what sort of communication he might or might not be having with Vladimir Putin, but he's probably making it all up, sending a signal to Putin not to release Evan until after the election," he added.
"I totally agree, just reprehensible is another word that pops to mind," Lemire replied.
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