this one is very mysterious, which leads many people to believe that it s not true, including me. it sounds like it has been conco concocted, a story to hold him perhaps as a hostage in return for the russian marina butina who we are holding right now. so do you think that this was let s go with that story line for a second, if in fact this was concocted for butina, for maria butina, do you think that this was put together earlier on when she was first apprehended and arrested, or after she pled guilty? obviously i don t know the answer to that question, but it strikes me as a classic tit for tat strategy that vladimir putin has used in the past. remember last summer in july when he met with president trump in helsinki, mr. mueller had just indicted 13 russian intelligence officers, and so putin showed up to that summit to say, well, i have a list of a dozen americans who we believe have broken russian law, and it was a completely fabricated set
department spokesperson heather nowart, this is a classic tit for tat and what is the state department saying about it? they are saying it is not a classic tit for not a classic t because the russians were responsible for this chemical weapons attack the first on british soil with weapons grade toxic agent, and that therefore the only two victims here are the british citizen, former russian spy, and his daughter. so, they re saying that this should not have been a retaliation against the united states and that russia is the one who is responsible for it. i tried to drill down on that with heather nauer at the briefing. andrea, go ahead. why haven t we heard from the president of the united states? the last thing we know about his communications with russia were his congratulatory call to vladimir putin when he did not