My jaw dropped and I almost fell off my chair. Rachel Maddow presented an amazing segment tonight explaining that Putin never said that Donald Trump is brilliant. She went into detail explaining how the word Putin used means “Bright.” In English, the word can mean shiny or intelligent. But in Russian the word does not have the same dual mean.
Politico reported about this back in June. Perhaps it received some notice then, but if so, it didn’t stick considering the fact that Trump continues to claim that Putin called him brilliant. And Trump continues to be enamored with Putin since he thinks Putin thinks he is brilliant.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin said he didn't praise presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump quite effusively as has been reported.
Speaking to Fareed Zakaria during a panel discussion in St. Petersburg, Putin responded Friday to a question about his praise for Trump by saying: "I only said that he was a bright person. Isn’t he bright? He is."
"Why do you always change the meaning of what I said?" Putin asked in response to Zakaria's question about Putin calling Trump "brilliant."
Putin denies calling Trump 'brilliant'
Published: 19 Jun 2016
Perhaps now that Rachel Maddow has shined a light on it, and as it turns out the same facts where covered tonight in a segment on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, other media outlets will start reporting on how instead of complimenting Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin was actually saying the opposite of what Trump thinks Putin said.
Sadly, this should have been debunked every time Donald Trump brought up Putin’s name since Putin made his comments last December.
Note: I originally wrote this diary just after the segment appeared, but decided to completely edit and republish with a complete transcript after I watched the segment again. Here is the segment Rachel Maddow presented tonight. The transcript is below the fold.
[Video Clip]
CLINTON: Meanwhile, bizarrely once again, he praised Russia's strongman, Vladimir Putin; even taking the astonishing step of suggesting that he prefers the Russian president to our American president. Now, that is not just unpatriotic, and insulting to the people of our country, as well as to our Commander in Chief, it is scary because it suggests he will let Putin do whatever Putin wants to do, and then make excuses for him. I was just thinking about all of the presidents that would just be looking at one another in total astonishment. What would Ronald Reagan about a Republican nominee who attacks Americans generals and heaps praise on Russia's president?
MADDOW: Hillary Clinton today in a press conference with reporters, invoking Ronald Reagan to try to make the case that it is just legitimately nutty to have an American presidential candidate say that he prefers the Russian president to the American president. Simultaneously as Hillary Clinton was invoking Ronald Reagan's name to make that case today, Donald Trump's running mate was in California literally calling Donald Trump the second coming of Ronald Reagan.
[Video Clip]
PENCE: What you had in Ronald Reagan, God rest his soul, and what you have in Donald Trump are two men who fundamentally believe in the American dream [cut in clip] 1980. 2016. Two different men. Two different times. But so much seems familiar, does it not?
While Mike Pence was trying to sell Donald Trump as the second coming of Ronald Reagan today, Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan was back in Washington having actually quit a hard time explaining Donald Trump's warm to the point of romantic feelings about the Russian president.
[Video Clip]
1ST REPORTER: At the candidate forum last night, Donald Trump had high praise for Putin, and I'm just curious sort of what you think about that; if you're concerned at all about ...
RYAN: I read the little snippet. Let me say this about Vladimir Putin. Vladimir Putin is an aggressor that does not share our interests. Vladimir Putin is violating the sovereignty of neighboring countries. It certainly appears that he conducting in state sponsored cyber attacks on what appears to be our political system. That is not acting in our interest and that is an adversarial stance and he is acting like an adversary.
2ND REPORTER: Just to follow up on that. Are you concerned, though, of Donald Trump praising Vladimir Putin. Someone you said ...
RYAN: I made my points about Putin clear right there. I'll just leave it at that.
MADDOW: The chairman of the Republican Party, Reince Priebus, also got questions on this matter today. He tried to clean up further in a short interview with the Associated Press, in which they quote him saying quote that Donald Trump was not endorsing Putin at all.
The chairman of the Republican Party is having to clarify whether or not the Republican party's presidential nominee is endorsing the Russian president because for the record, this is what Donald Trump said last night about the Russian president, which has got everybody so twisted up in knots.
[Video Clip from Commander in Chief Forum]
LAUER: Let me ask you about some of the things you’ve said about Vladimir Putin. You said, I will tell you, in terms of leadership, he’s getting an A, our president is not doing so well. And when referring to a comment that Putin made about you, I think he called you a brilliant leader, you said it’s always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his country and beyond.
TRUMP: Well, he does have an 82 percent approval rating, according to the different pollsters, who, by the way, some of them are based right here. Look, look…
LAUER: He’s also a guy who annexed Crimea, invaded Ukraine, supports Assad in Syria, supports Iran, is trying to undermine our influence in key regions of the world, and according to our intelligence community, probably is the main suspect for the hacking of the DNC computers…
TRUMP: Well, nobody knows that for a fact. But do you want me to start naming some of the things that President Obama does at the same time?
LAUER: But do you want to be complimented by that former KGB officer?
TRUMP: Well, I think when he calls me brilliant, I’ll take the compliment, OK? [cut in clip] If he says great things about me, I’m going to say great things about him. I’ve already said, he is really very much of a leader. I mean, you can say, oh, isn’t that a terrible thing — the man has very strong control over a country.
MADDOW: Donald Trump at the Commander in Chief forum last night with Matt Lauer, restating his admiration for Russian president Vladimir Putin: "If he says great things about me, I’m going to say great things about him ... when he calls me brilliant, I’ll take the compliment, OK?"
Here's the thing. Do you want to know the real crazy Bilderberg, lizard people, fake moon landing, juice boxes make you gay truth about this particular issue in our presidential politics?
Vladimir Putin never actually called Trump, brilliant. Gah! Oh no. This is going to unravel the whole thing.
[Video Clip]
ZAKARIA: You made some comments about the American Republican, presumptive nominee, Donald Trump. You called him brilliant, outstanding, talented. These comments were reported around the world. I was wondering what in him lead you to that judgment and do you still hold that judgment.
PUTIN: You personally are very famous in our country. You are not only famous as a journalist in one of the biggest t.v. stations, but as an intellectual. But you always change the meaning of what I say because at the moment you speak as a journalist, not as an analyst. Why are you juggling with what I said. I only said that he is a bright person. Isn't he bright? He is. I did not say anything else about him.
MADDOW: See. This is ... This shouldn't be important but this year it is. This whole thing about Trump praising Putin because Putin praised him. This whole thing that has turned the Republican party into pretzel because now their presidential nominee is saying he prefers the Russian president to the President of the United States of American.
This whole thing about Putin praising Trump and that lead to this whole problem for Republicanism, let alone this Republican nominee, let alone the Republican party. It appears to have been a bit of misunderstanding.
It's true that the word "brilliant" was initially reported when Vladimir Putin made his comments in Russian about Donald Trump last December. But the news sources who originally translated his remarks that way ... they later corrected themselves to say that the actual Russian word that Putin used when talking about Donald Trump only means brilliant in one sense. It means brilliant in the sense of shiny; brilliant as in a bright light; not as in a bright person.
NBC went to the chair of the Russian Department at Dartmouth College today and asked about the actual words that Putin used when he described Donald Trump back in December; asked about that difference between our concept of the word brilliant which could mean both shiny or genius. Asked about that difference between our concept of the word brilliant and the Russian word Putin actually used. Turns out that had Putin meant to call Donald Trump brilliant, as in a genius, as in a smart person, which is what Donald Trump thinks Putin said about him.
It turns out if that is what Putin said, he would have used this word [BLESTIASHCHII], which I am not going to pronounce because I do not speak Russian. Apologies to my ancestors.
He did not use that word which would mean brilliant in the sense of being a genius; being a very smart cookie.
Instead Putin, when talking about Donald Trump, used this word, which I will also not pronounce [YARKII]. But Russians use this word to mean brilliant in the sense of bright light or bright colors. And so the initial translations of Putin last December calling Donald Trump brilliant were all corrected after the fact.
The Guardian newspaper actually issued a print correction at the time, changing their translation to say that Putin did not call Trump brilliant, he called him colorful. Other translations were later amended to show that Putin actually called Donald Trump a word more like flamboyant.
And Putin himself has clarified with Fareed Zakaria this past June that he did not call Trump brilliant in that genius sense. He was not complimenting him in that way. He does not think he's a genius. He thinks he's flamboyant and colorful. And that is not nearly as nice a thing to say.
And you know what, it really shouldn't matter. Now on the one hand, who cares? And we now have to because this is apparently an election where the Republican presidential campaign does its research at the number one online debunker of 9/11, and the Oklahoma City bombing, and the Challenger disaster, and the Aurora movie theater massacre, and the Sandy Hook shootings, and the Boston bombings, because all of those things didn't really happen. They're all government conspiracy theories.
On the one hand, that is their news source. That is what they at the highest levels are circulating to the American public as the truth they ought to know about their country. This is an election year where the Republican party is running as their candidate for president, a candidate who is so self-centered and narcissistic that a flippant and apparently misquoted compliment from another foreign leader was enough to put enough stars in his eyes that the Republican party's presidential nominee now really does say that he prefers the president of Russia to the President of the United States.
This stuff is crazy and it should be irrelevant. But this is the highest level of our politics right now.
And it is so easily manipulatable because that's what it is. I mean nobody's done it already, but somebody should send a fake mash note from Kim Jong-il to Donald Trump complimenting him on his suits or his hair or something. And then wait five minutes and ask Donald Trump if he thinks the United States government should give North Korea a state dinner. Seriously.