The White House has hit back at comments made by Vladimir Putin claiming he supports Kamala Harris over Donald Trump in November’s U.S. presidential election....READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE ▶▶
John Kirby, the White House’s national security communications adviser, said Putin “shouldn’t be favoring anybody one way or another.”
“The only people who should get to determine who the next president of the United States is, is the American people,” he told reporters, according to a White House statement. Kirby added that the US would “greatly appreciate” it if Putin would “A. stop talking about our election, and B. stop interfering in it.”
Newsweek has reached out to the Biden administration for further comment.
Vladimir Putin at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok this week, and Kamala Harris at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August. The White House has hit back over Putin’s comments about the presidential…
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Putin said earlier this week that Russia’s “favorite” in the presidential election was formerly President Joe Biden, before he withdrew from the race in July, but that the country would now “support” Harris.
“I told you our favorite, if you can call it that, was President Biden. He’s now out of the race, but he asked his supporters to back Ms. Harris, so we’ll do the same,” he said at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on Thursday.
He added that “the choice is ultimately up to the American people, and we will respect that decision. Favorites aren’t for us to decide – it’s the American people’s choice.”
Putin also spoke about Harris directly, saying: “She laughs so expressively and infectiously that she must be doing well.”
Newsweek also reached out to the Kremlin for comment.
Kirby’s comments came hours after the Biden administration accused Moscow on Wednesday of a widespread election interference campaign.
The Biden administration seized Kremlin-run websites and charged two employees of the Russian state media network, RT, with conspiring to commit money laundering and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
Elena Afanasyeva, 27, and Kostiantyn Kalashnikov, 31, are each facing a maximum sentence of five years in prison for violating FARA, as well as an additional maximum sentence of 20 years for conspiracy to commit money laundering.
An indictment said Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva had directed an unnamed Tennessee-based company to spread Kremlin propaganda and erode support for Ukraine.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said: “The Justice Department’s message is clear: we will have no tolerance for attempts by authoritarian regimes to exploit our democratic systems of government.”
