Will accept dirt on 2020 opponent from Russia, China: Trump

TIL Desk/World/Washington/ US President Donald Trump has said that he would accept damaging information provided by foreign actors such as China or Russia on his Democratic opponent in the 2020 presidential elections.

In a TV interview on Wednesday, Trump said that he would listen to that information on his rival in a hypothetical scenario in which another country offered it and denied that this would constitute foreign electoral interference.

“There’s nothing wrong with listening,” Trump said. “If somebody called from a country – Norway – ‘We have information on your opponent’. Oh, I think I’d want to hear it.” “It’s not interference,” he added. “They have information; I think I’d take it.”

He compared the situation to “oppo research” – a common term in political jargon referring to the compilation of information that may cast an opponent in a negative light – and said about members of Congress: “they all do it”.

When asked if he would alert the Federal Bureau of Investigation (fbi) when made such an overture, the President said: “I don’t think in my whole life I’ve ever called the FBI… Give me a break. Life doesn’t work that way.”