contribution to the republican presidential candidate went from this big under romney to this big under trump, which didn t necessarily make sense given trump s particular politics right. in his place in the ideological firmament. well we knew they were spending more money against me than they d ever spent against a candidate, and it ended up to be at least $30 million. so that was known, but what we have learned since are these very close relationships that were being forged between the nra and officials connected to the nra and figures in russia, which is such a joke. i mean, there is no opportunity for citizens in russia to have the kind of access to weapons that the nra advocates for, but they found common cause with these characters, oligarchs and agents of oligarchs, and there was concern about it but we didn t have the capacity to do much more than try to say well
such a joke. i mean, there is no opportunity for citizens in russia to have the kind of access to weapons that the nra advocates for, but they found common cause with these characters, oligarchs and agents of oligarchs, and there was concern about it, but we didn t have the, you know, the capacity to do much more than, you know, try to say, well, of course they re against me, because i ve taken positions against them. let me ask you about something that you said to me when we talked a year ago. you were talking about, basically, the prospect of managing this president. you guys, do we actually have this clip that we can play? all right, roll it. the people around him have to be our first line of defense against him doing something that could have serious repercussions. placing a lot of hope for
necessarily make sense given trump s particular politics. right. in this place in the ideological firmament. well we knew they were spending more money against me than they d ever spent against a candidate, and it ended up to be at least $30 million. so that was known, but what we have learned since are these very close relationships that were being forged between the nra and officials connected to the nra and figures in russia, which is such a joke. i mean, there is no opportunity for citizens in russia to have the kind of access to weapons that the nra advocates for, but they found common cause with these characters, oligarchs and agents of oligarchs, and there was concern about it but we didn t have the capacity to do much more than try to say well
using the recruitment techniques he learned in the kgb to rise to the top and be selected as the successor. putin secured his footing on the national stage using the power and money of a close knit group of oligarchs. during his first stint as president, he solidified relationships to help strengthen the russian economy. but he never let the idea of reclaiming the glory of the soviet empire leave his mind. this was demonstrated in 2008 when russia moved into georgian territory, an area that was formerly part of the soviet union. when he said the breakup of the soviet union was a great geopolitical catastrophe in 2004, people were wrong to dismiss that. what he s clearly saying is, i m going to at least where i can opportunistically take every advantage to restore russia s standing and, you know, we re going to come back and show our