The Daily Populous Sunday December 31st, 2023 morning edition
Authored by newsweek.com and submitted by mixplate

Retired U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey said Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is "actively hoping" that former President Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election.

Trump, the frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, has long praised and even quoted the Russian leader on the campaign trail. At a rally in Durham, New Hampshire, earlier this month, the former president quoted Putin who criticized the numerous criminal charges that Trump is currently facing, all of which the former president has pleaded not guilty to.

"Even Vladimir Putin...says that Biden's, and this is a quote, politically motivated persecution of his political rival is very good for Russia because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others about democracy," Trump quoted Putin as saying, who made the comment during an economic forum in eastern Russia in September. Putin did not name Biden in the original quote.

Meanwhile, the relationship between Trump and Putin has been criticized since the former president's 2016 run when questions of Russia's alleged election interference and possible coordination with the Trump campaign arose.

Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally on December 17 in Reno, Nevada. Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen at the Grand Kremlin Palace on December 27 in Moscow. Retired U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey said Friday that Putin is "actively hoping" that Trump wins the 2024 presidential election. Justin Sullivan/Contributor/Getty Images

"I have never understood this whole relationship between Mr. Trump and Putin. Putin is a thug, a murderer, he's gotten the Russian Federation into terrible trouble economically, politically. He stamped out free speech. So, why Mr. Trump seems to be in league with this desperado is hard to understand," McCaffrey said during his interview appearance on MSNBC.

He added: "Yes, Putin and for that matter other criminal enterprises like the North Koreans are actively hoping to have Mr. Trump back in office, where in my personal opinion, he would be devastatingly bad for U.S. national security."

McCaffrey, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, was in the U.S. Army for 32 years and later served as director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy under President Bill Clinton.

Newsweek reached out to McCaffrey via X direct message, Trump's campaign via email and the Russian government via online form.

Following Trump's 2016 win against his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, the Department of Justice (DOJ) launched an investigation into possible Russian interference in the election.

Special counsel Robert Mueller led the investigation and in March 2019 his findings were made public in what is notoriously known as the Mueller report.

"Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities," the report said.

Russia has denied allegations of election inference and Trump has called the Mueller report a "complete and total exoneration."

However, regarding the question of whether Trump obstructed justice, the report said, "The President's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests."

"While this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him," according to the report.

In March 2021, a U.S. intelligence report was released that alleged Russia also tried to help Trump in the 2020 election, but that there was no evidence of foreign voter fraud.

Putin authorized "influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden's candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting Trump, undermining public confidence in the electoral process and exacerbating socio-political divisions in the U.S," the Office of the Director of National Intelligence report said.

The Kremlin denied allegations that it interfered in the 2020 election, which Trump ultimately lost to Biden. The former president also denied being "given help from any country" in the election.