Former President Donald Trump is charging that Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, is playing Joe Biden "like a drum" and the just-launched attack on Russia's neighbor, Ukraine, would not have happened were he still in the White House.

A report at TampaBay.com said Trump described the situation as "not a pretty thing to watch."

Trump, who earlier stirred up his critics in both parties by describing as "savvy" Putin's strategy of declaring two parcels of Ukraine as independent and then claiming Russia's forces were invading as "peacekeepers," was attacked over his comments by Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who was removed from her GOP leadership post for her earlier attacks on Trump.

She claimed Trump's position "aids our enemies," a claim that surfaced often during Democrats' pursuit during and after the 2016 election of their now-debunked claims that the Trump campaign was colluding with Russia.

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The Daily Mail reported on Trump's charge the invasion would not have happened were he still in office.

During an interview on Laura Ingraham's program on Fox, he was asked about Putin, and China's president, Xi Xinping.

"Well, I had a good relationship with both," he said. "It was hurt by the Russia hoax. You see what happened with Durham and those reports and other reports including Mueller. It was just a made up hoax and it really hurt our country but despite the hoax, I had a good relationship and with president XI of China, other than the fact that I was tariff-ing and taxing the hell out of him."

He continued, "As a young man growing up, I always heard that the worst thing that could happen is drive those two countries together. It really started with Obama and energy. He drove them together because one needed the energy and the other needed the money. He drove them together and Biden -- I kept them apart - and Biden now it's a great love fest and that's a very bad thing and I think you can probably add Iran into it too."

Trump explained, about Ukraine, "This should have never happened. This would not have happened during my administration. In fact, some people are saying why didn't this take place over the last four years? It didn't for a very good reason and I'll explain that to you someday, but it wouldn't have taken place and it wouldn't have taken place right now. It's a sad thing for the world and the country and a lot of people that will be needlessly killed."

He said he knows Putin and got along with him "despite the fact I shut down Nord Stream 2," a pipeline project from Russia that would leave parts of Europe dependent on Russia's energy.

He said Putin presumably saw Biden's weakness over his pullout from Afghanistan. In that decision, Biden left behind hundreds of Americans, thousands of U.S.-supporting nationals and some $80 billion in American war machinery in the hands of the terrorists of the Taliban.

"I really believe that's where he started thinking he could do this," Trump said.

"As an American I am angry and saddened," he said. "It all happened because of a rigged election. That includes inflation and that includes millions of people pouring in on a monthly basis - far more than three million people - and they're coming from 129 different countries. They are destroying our country."

His comments raised the issues that continue facing Biden, the crisis he created at the southern border by dropping President Trump's security efforts, such as the wall construction, and the fact that inflation has surged under Biden to its highest level in decades, leaving American households paying hundreds of dollars a month more for the same services and products that had earlier.

Legacy media outlets routinely describe as a "lie" any comment from Trump regarding the 2020 election. But the facts are that there were influences not seen in any earlier election that likely changed the result and "bought" the win for Biden.

Those include the $420 million that Mark Zuckerberg handed out to elections officials who were instructed then to recruit voters from Democrat districts. An analysis later concluded that was enough to change the outcome and put Biden in the White House.

Further, legacy and social media censored, just before the election, devastating information about the Biden family's overseas business operations and the paychecks that were coming in from sources including those in Moscow.

A Media Research Center survey revealed had those details been widely reported, Biden likely would have lost the election.

Further, multiple elections officials simply ignored or changed their own state laws regarding ballots to "accommodate" COVID, moves that later were declared illegal by state courts.

Trump also suggested the weakness perceived by America's opponents with Biden in office won't stop with Ukraine.

"Now they laugh at us. That’s why you have Ukraine, that’s why you’re going to have China. Taiwan is next, and you’re going to see the same kind of thing," he said.

He said had he been in office, "this never would have happened."

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https://www.wnd.com/2022/02/trump-putin-playing-biden-like-drum/