Rep. Chris Stewart said any reports that allege President Donald Trump knew about Russia offering Afghan militants bounties to kill U.S. soldiers and didn’t do anything about it are “nuts.”
During a Wednesday appearance on Fox News' “America’s Newsroom,” the Republican lawmaker from Utah said he wouldn’t be surprised if Russia did offer bounties on U.S. soldiers, but ripped anyone who believes Trump wouldn’t protect U.S. soldiers.
“There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do to protect our soldiers, but President Trump feels exactly the same way,” Stewart said. “The whole premise of this story is that he wouldn’t protect our soldiers, that he doesn’t care about their safety, and he somehow is deferring to Vladimir Putin. I just think the whole premise of it is nuts. And by the way, how many times have we seen this? It’s so predictable where you have this anonymous leak. It’s clearly designed to weaken or embarrass the president, and so many people run with it.”
Stewart said the report should be looked into. He also said he wouldn’t put it past Russia to offer the bounties.
“I mean, my gosh, Vladimir Putin wants to weaken, to embarrass, to diminish the United States all over the world, and he certainly isn’t above trying to kill U.S. soldiers, especially in areas as volatile as the Middle East or Afghanistan or Pakistan,” he continued. “How can that surprise anyone that that might be true?”
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