Putin: I’m backing Kamala Harris as I love her laugh
Kamala Harris has said she laughs “from the belly”, like her mother.
For her supporters the chuckle is a selling point, broadening the Democratic presidential nominee’s popular appeal and producing countless online tributes.
Donald Trump, though, has sought to use the laugh against Harris, offering a nickname for the vice-president — “Laughing Kamala” — and telling one rally: “You ever watch her laugh? … You can tell a lot by a laugh. No — she’s crazy. She’s nuts.”
Now, President Putin has joined the debate, suggesting that Harris’s “infectious” laugh made him prefer her over Trump. “She laughs so expressively and infectiously that it means that everything is fine with her,” Putin said on Thursday at an economic forum in the country’s far east. He added that maybe this meant Harris would refrain from further sanctions against Russia.
In the week that Russian state broadcasters were accused by Washington of seeking to meddle in the US election, however, Putin’s interjection could be seen as disingenuous.
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He has previously publicly backed President Biden before his withdrawal from the race, because Biden was a more predictable “old school” politician. On Thursday, Putin said that Biden had “recommended to voters to support Mrs Harris, we will also support her”.
US intelligence agencies, however, believe Russia wants Trump to win because he is less committed to maintaining support for Ukraine in the war against Russia.
Putin added: “Trump imposed more restrictions and sanctions on Russia than any single president before him. And if Mrs Harris is fine, maybe she will abstain from such actions. In the end, it is the choice of the American people and we will respect that choice.”
Putin’s comments came a day after the US Justice Department charged two Russian media executives over an alleged illegal scheme to influence the November election with pro-Russian propaganda.
This week Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said Russia saw Harris as a more predictable opponent than Trump, adding that in any case there was no prospect of an improvement in relations with Washington.
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In the interview, Pavel Zarubin, a television reporter with favoured access to the Kremlin, asked Peskov: “Then who is our candidate now?”
Peskov replied: “We have no candidate. But, of course, the Democrats are more predictable. And what Putin said about Biden’s predictability applies to almost all Democrats, including Ms Harris.”
In the interview, Peskov said American steps to “trample on our country’s interests” had exceeded acceptable limits and that bilateral relations were at a historic low, with “no prospects” at present of setting them on a path towards recovery.
He was also dismissive of Trump’s boast that he could end the Ukraine war within 24 hours if elected for a second term, saying there was no “magic wand” to end the Ukraine crisis overnight.
Putin and the Kremlin have offered a variety of opinions on the US election at different times. In June, Putin said Russia did not care who the next US president was, but that the US court system was being used as a political tool against Trump.
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