Sen. Kevin Cramer Thinks Trump Asking Putin For Dirt On Bidens Is Magnificent Joke

In Russia, joke plays you!

Donald Trump somehow hasn't yet literally put to the test his theory that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any supporters, and we suppose if Republicans are fine with nearly a million people dead of COVID, they would barely bat an eye at his deciding to ask Vladimir Putin to pretty please share any dirt he might have on Hunter Biden, at least when Putin takes brief breaks from ordering war crimes against Ukraine. The wingnuts at Newsmax are fine with it, and so apparently are plenty of Republicans.

For instance, Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota), treated the whole matter as a joke in an interview with MSNBC's Chuck Todd Thursday. Not only did he consider Trump's behavior perfectly fine, just Trump being Trump, he also thought Trump's remarks themselves were a funny joke, just some brilliant trolling of the gullible press who took the comments seriously, haha, what guillible dopes.

Todd asked Cramer to clarify remarks Cramer had made Wednesday to CNN congressional correspondent Manu Raju. Asked about Trump's request of Putin, Cramer dismissed it, because the real scandal is the Russian war crimes, abetted, apparently, by Joe Biden not being strong like bull as he should. Cramer explained the whole notion that Putin might respond to Trump's request was pretty funny, really:

" I don’t know if he has dirt on Biden. If he does, he should reveal it, but he is a war criminal so I don’t expect that he’s right now sitting around thinking about ways that he can reveal other information."

 "I think anybody that has information about crimes that have been committed, all the rest of us would obviously reveal that. Criminals don’t generally do that. In other words, I think, it is perhaps amusing to you that he requested it. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for it."

 Asked if it were appropriate for Trump to make [the] ask, he said: “The appropriateness of things that Trump asks for is more amusing to you than it is to me. We have a current president who is, you know, way more concerning to me frankly than what the former president might be doing”

Honestly, what's the real threat to America? A former president amusingly asking a very busy war criminal to help bring down the current US president, or the current US president, who is "very concerning" in his own behavior?

Cramer dug in a little deeper when Todd asked him why the hell anyone would even believe anything Vladimir Putin might say, about Hunter Biden or anything else. Here's the video, queued up to the part of the interview where Todd asks Cramer about Trump's perfectly normal request of an autocrat who's responsible for killing thousands of civilians in Ukraine.

 www.youtube.com 

Todd: Why would you want that information? Why would you trust propaganda from somebody who is, you know, right now, based on the conversation I had earlier, President Biden called for him to be removed from power? [...] Why would you want to trust anything Putin had to say about Hunter Biden?

Cramer first feinted with a joke about "Russian collusion," then said he was being sarcastic anyway, because why even expect a war criminal to provide information about the many real crimes of Hunter Biden anyway?

Todd pushed Cramer on the propriety of Trump having said anything, what with Putin being an active war crimer right now:

"I mean, I’m sorry, it comes across as almost a bit unpatriotic to ask literally the enemy of the free world right now for propaganda for a political opponent. I mean, it just seemed like a horrendous thing to do by the former president. No?"

Cramer came back with some very smart whataboutism that didn't make a lick of sense. "Chuck, here's the reality," he said, laying out a purely hypothetical situation that is not reality at all: "If Hunter Biden’s name was Donald Trump Jr. or Eric Trump, you guys would be treating the war in Ukraine like it was a Boy Scout camp gone bad."

Again, what does that even mean? If a Trump spawn did something grifty, the media would ignore the invasion of Europe's second largest country? We're not seeing the attempted logic there.

Todd wasn't having it, anyway:

Todd: Don't whatabout. Enough of this! Senator, that is the laziest attack. It’s not about the media...

Cramer: It's also honest. It's also honest!

[ Imaginary Narrator: It was not, in fact, honest ]

Todd: It doesn’t matter about the media! Is it right for the former president of the United States to ask an enemy of the free world to do this?

Cramer started to roll out his line that the real scandal is Joe Biden's handling of the Ukraine emergency, but backed up a bit to dismiss the idea that a former president's humorous trolling during an international crisis was even worth commenting on:

Cramer: Donald Trump is Donald Trump. He hasn’t changed. He’s not going to change. It’s more interesting to the Washington press corps than it is to the general public. Was it the wisest thing in the world to say? Perhaps not, but he’s Donald Trump and he says these things, and the reality is that Vladimir Putin is a war criminal.

No, we didn't forget to transcribe some sort of logical transition there.

Cramer went on to say that while he wouldn't trust anything Putin might say about Hunter Biden, Putin — like any good citizen? — should certainly present any evidence he has, so it could be evaluated, although Putin would automatically be unreliable, and we really are summarizing a US senator who makes laws, Jesus Christ.

What it all comes down to was that Trump was really the winner here, because "Once again Donald Trump baited you all and you all took the bait. Now we’re having to, you know, have a discussion about the Bidens."

Mmm-hmmm. You can really tell Cramer just hates having to talk about Hunter Biden.

Todd tried again to focus on Trump's bizarre behavior, for all the good that did: "At the end of the day, whether you like it or not, he’s the leader of your party. Are you comfortable with the leader of your party playing footsie with Vladimir Putin?"

Cramer fell back on Wingbot Subroutine B-297-8y, and tried to harrumph about Democrats planting false evidence about Trump colluding with Russia, bzzzz-click! and then, when Todd pointed out that had nothing to do with what Trump said this week, Cramer finally got to his Very Serious Concerns about Joe Biden, who is actually far worser:

I’m way more concerned, and I think the American people are, with the current president and his behavior and really the lack of scrutiny compared to a former president who has a long history of saying sort of outrageous things, whether seriously or not seriously, and being taken way, way, way too seriously, frankly, by a press corps that’s all too anxious to jump on an interesting personality, to say the least. But I’ll add when Donald Trump was president, Russia didn’t invade Ukraine.

Also, Cramer added, gas prices were way lower under Donald Trump, so there, even if that was largely because the economy was wrecked by the pandemic Trump refused to take seriously, although if you look closely, you'd see Trump was just trolling the virus to show it who's boss, the end.

[ Manu Raju on Twitter / MSNBC on YouTube / Daily Beast ]

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