Putin has said he supports Vice President Kamala Harris instead of Donald Trump in the presidential election
Presidential Election : According to Vladimir Putin, Russia will back Vice President Kamala Harris over Donald Trump in the next presidential election in November.
Speaking on Thursday at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia will now “support” Harris but that, prior to Biden’s withdrawal from the race in July, President Joe Biden was the “favorite” of the nation.
The Situation
When Biden, 81, withdrew from the contest in July, he backed Harris, 59. The Democratic Party has been putting more and more pressure on him to withdraw from the contest after his catastrophic June CNN debate with Republican Donald Trump. Biden’s mental capacity and suitability for another term in government has drawn criticism.
What is Acknowledged
“I told you that Mr. Biden, the president of the United States, was, if you could call it, our favorite. Although he was eliminated from the contest, he advised all of his followers to support Ms. Harris. Thus, we will follow suit. We’ll stand with her,” Putin said.
“Ultimately, the choice is up to the American people, and we will respect that choice,” he said. It is not for us to decide who the favorites are. Ultimately, it is the American people’s decision.”
Furthermore, according to Putin, Harris “laughs so expressively and infectiously” that she must be “doing well.”
“Trump has introduced more restrictions and sanctions against Russia than any previous president,” he continued. Additionally, if Ms. Harris is doing well, maybe she won’t take such acts.
When Harris’s presidential campaign was first announced, the Kremlin responded cautiously.
“At the moment, we cannot assess Ms. Harris’s potential candidacy from the point of view of our bilateral relations because, so far, her contribution to our bilateral relations has not been noticed,” said Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for the Kremlin, in July.
“There were statements that were replete with rhetoric quite unfriendly toward our country, but her actions in relations to bilateral relations come under neither a plus nor a minus sign.”
Putin, who has praised former President Trump on several occasions, said that Biden is “more experienced, more predictable” than Trump in a February state TV interview.
“He’s a politician from the old formation,” he said of Biden. “But we will work with any U.S. leader whom the American people trust.”
In response, at the time U.S. national security spokesperson John Kirby said that Putin “should just stay out of our elections.”
Opinions
Putin, according to the state-run Russian news source Sputnik, was “trolling” the Democratic Party with his comments.
Sputnik wrote on X, previously Twitter, “Putin keeps trolling US Democratic Party, ‘endorses’ Kamala Harris for POTUS.”
Steve Rosenberg, the Russia Editor for BBC News, said on X that the Kremlin “will know very well” that [a US presidential contender] “these days any public endorsement by Moscow will do that candidate no favors in an election.”
“Which is probably why it previously backed Joe Biden, and now Kamala Harris,” he said.
What Comes Next?
The United States will hold its election on Tuesday, November 5, 2024.
