Politics

Trump doesn’t want you to know the true extent of his relationship with Putin

Published

2 years ago

November 13, 2024

Blue Light Newsroom

Trump doesn’t want you to know the true extent of his relationship with Putin

This is an adapted excerpt from the Nov. 11 episode of “Inside with Jen Psaki.”

It’s only been one week since the election and President-elect Donald Trump is already in contact with his old buddy Vladimir Putin. Or is he?

A new report in The Washington Post, citing “several people familiar with the matter,” says the two spoke last Thursday. According to the Post, during the call, Trump “advised the Russian president not to escalate the war in Ukraine and reminded him of Washington’s sizable military presence in Europe.” (Neither NBC News nor BLN has independently confirmed the report.)

In a normal world, if things came down to a “he said, he said” with the Kremlin, we would know whom to believe, the president-elect, but we don’t live in a normal world.

Now, that’s not at all in line with what Trump has long said publicly about his position on Russia’s war with Ukraine — a position that most experts expect would include cutting off aid to Ukraine and basically standing by while Russia holds onto its territory. It’s also not in line with Trump’s threat he could pull the U.S. out of NATO.

But here’s where the situation gets tricky: The Kremlin says that callnever happened. Now, in a normal world, if things came down to a “he said, he said” with the Kremlin, we would know whom to believe, the president-elect of the United States, but we don’t live in a normal world.

And we know from Trump’s first term that the man has a history of being, shall we say, less than forthcoming about his conversations with Putin. A Washington Post analysis from 2019 found at least 16 private conversations between the men from Trump’s first three years in office — and those are just the ones we know about.

The relationship between the two leaders is still shrouded in mystery. There was, of course, that infamous two-hour closed-door meeting between them in Helsinki back in 2018. Despite efforts from lawmakers and reporters, we still know remarkably little about that conversation.

That’s because Trump doesn’t want us to know. In fact, you may remember that Trump even tried to obscure his conversations with Putin from his own administration. Again, according to reporting from the Post:

Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with Putin, including on at least one occasion taking possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructing the linguist not to discuss what had transpired with other officials.

Let me tell you, that’s not normal behavior from a president of the United States.

That particular controversy was after a meeting between the two men at a G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, in 2017 and it was not an isolated incident. Something similar happened after another G20 meeting in Buenos Aires the following year. As the Financial Times reported back then, “Trump sat down with Putin for several minutes of conversation … with no translator or note-taker from the U.S. side to record the dialogue between the leaders.” And ahead of the 2019 G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, Trump told reporters that his conversations with Putin were “none of your business.” So yes, there is a pattern here.

You don’t need to believe in shadowy conspiracies about the Russian “kompromat” to understand that Trump is consistently obscuring the nature and extent of his relationship with Putin. This phone call that may or may not have happened is just the latest example.

Trump has not even been sworn into his second term yet and there are already questions swirling about whether and why he is, once again, misleading the American public about his relationship with Russia and Putin.

Just Psaki

Jen Psaki is the host of “Inside with Jen Psaki”airing Sundays at 12 p.m. ET and Mondays at 8 p.m. EST. She is the former White House press secretary for President Joe Biden.

Allison Detzel

contributed

Politics

‘We are winning elections’: Bernie Sanders on Democrats’ progressive wing

Published

1 day ago

September 6, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

‘We are winning elections’: Bernie Sanders on Democrats’ progressive wing

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Politics

Trump wants the Postal Service to radically overhaul mail voting. But ballots are already going out.

Published

3 days ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump’s controversial demands for the Postal Service to overhaul and monitor millions of mail ballots hit another snag on Friday, when North Carolina became the first state in the nation to start sending out ballots for the November election.

In March, Trump signed the initial executive order, which aimed to crack down on mail-in voting — which he regularly alleges without evidence is a vector for widespread voter fraud — and assert an unprecedented amount of federal control over the upcoming elections.

Under this order and the subsequent rule drafted by the U.S. Postal Service, the USPS would refuse to deliver ballots to states that failed to provide lists of eligible mail voters or did not adhere to an approved envelope design style.

Since then, the order has faced legal challenges, and it remains paused by a federal judge’s orders. But the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow the new rule to proceed — something current and former election officials from both parties say would be both a legal nightmare that oversteps the federal government’s traditional role in elections and a logistical one that is happening far too close to the November election to implement even if they agreed with it.

“Why the hell are you rocking the boat this late in the game?” said Stephen Richer, a former Republican recorder of Maricopa County, Arizona, who has clashed with Trump allies for defending the security of the 2020 election.

Still, election officials are trying to project a sense of normalcy for voters, particularly in North Carolina, which serves as a test of whether established local election systems can operate normally amid intensifying federal scrutiny.

“I want to emphasize this point because there has been a lot of outside noise: Our county workers are ready,” Sam Hayes, a longtime Republican lawyer in the state and now executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, said in a Thursday afternoon press conference.

He added, “All we can do is what we’re doing. … It is business as usual as far as I’m concerned.”

Despite the legal challenges, the Trump administration has continued to press the courts to let it proceed. The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to lift an order from a Massachusetts judge which temporarily prevents the USPS from enforcing their rule. It is the second time the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to step in, after winning an earlier victory in which the high court dismissed an earlier hold on the rule as premature.

“The uncertainty is coming from a single activist judge who continues to try and obstruct President Trump from implementing commonsense measures to protect the security of mail-in ballots and ensure only Americans vote in American elections,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement. “These safeguards for mail ballots were proposed months ago giving election officials ample time to prepare for the 2026 election.”

The USPS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Election officials said that if the rule goes into effect this close to November, it would cause chaos and place added strain on the USPS and election officials. And an anonymous federal whistleblower said in a report circulated earlier this week by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) that the USPS was moving forward in a “secretive, rushed, chaotic, and fundamentally flawed process” to try to implement the new system ahead of the midterms.

In the coming weeks, states across the country will follow North Carolina’s lead. Nine other states will begin mailing ballots in the next two weeks, according to a tracker from the National Conference of State Legislatures — with the biggest day for mailing coming 45 days before the election in mid-September.

“It would be so outrageous to try to let this go into effect. It’s hard to even imagine,” said Ben Hovland, a senior fellow for democracy at the progressive think tank Center for American Progress and former Democratic commissioner with the Election Assistance Commission who was fired by Trump in July.

He added, “It would be a break-glass moment for our democracy.”

The rule would require meticulous changes to ballot handling and tracking practices that Hovland said are impossible to implement before Election Day in about two months, effectively disenfranchising millions of voters.

“Ballots are printed. Envelopes are printed. You can go on and on with all the practical reasons that show that implementing something like this at this time is not feasible,” he said.

Richer said he doubted the new rules would bring about more security. Even if the USPS received lists from the states, according to the postal service’s final rule, it would not do any additional vetting of the list, Richer said.

“It’s just that the mail ballots have to be on that list, and I don’t see what added value for election integrity that does,” he said.

He added, “It creates a lot of administrative burden, and I think it creates a lot more opportunity for error.”

While a decision looms in the courts, election officials and experts cast doubt on the likelihood of the rules going into effect before November. A more pressing issue, they said, is the confusion and uncertainty surrounding mail-in ballots, which could subvert and change the behaviors of voters.

“It makes things seem messy or difficult, and it can dissuade people from participating or coming out to vote,” Hovland said. “It certainly also helps establish a pretext to make bad faith claims about election results.”

Hovland said that while none of these claims of voter fraud are backed up with facts, they could cause Americans to lose faith in the voting process.

Still, some current officials contended they were well-prepared for whatever happens — and that they’d be able to communicate effectively with voters who have become increasingly buffeted by dramatic rhetoric about the once-unmentioned nuts and bolts of actually running an election.

“There’s always a lot of noise around elections, that’s not going to change, and it can be hard to differentiate that from what’s actually going on on the ground,” said Jason Tyson, director of external affairs for the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

As Election Day approaches, Tyson and election officials said they urge voters to check their registration status and make a plan to vote.

He added, “I think we’ve got a really well-trained, solid staff who are ready, and who have gone through all of the checks and balances and points of contact that we need to do to get to where we are.”

Politics

Missouri Supreme Court pauses GOP gerrymander, likely netting Democrats 1 House seat

Published

4 days ago

September 3, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Missouri’s Supreme Court suspended a congressional map that state Republicans drew last year that would have netted the GOP an additional House seat, likely keeping the seat in Democratic hands this November.

The court ruled unanimously on Thursday that a referendum petition organized by Democrats to put the new congressional maps to a vote was incorrectly deemed insufficient by Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, and ordered that the gerrymandered map be put to a vote in the fall.

Voters will ultimately decide the fate of the new lines in November. But in the meantime, it cannot be in place for the midterms, meaning Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s original Kansas City-based district will likely stay in Democrats’ hands this fall.