“So I don’t know exactly what happened. I think it’s, it’s tragic. It’s terrible. That shouldn’t happen. We don’t have any evidence yet, but I’ll take a look. “

Asked about his doubts about what has already been presented, Trump added:

“It’s attractive for everyone to mention Russia. And I don’t care if you mention Russia, but I think China, at this point, is a country you deserve to communicate much more than Russia. . . “

He continued to tell how much he “got along” with his Moscow counterpart.

In other words, Putin’s government is accused of trying to kill a Russian opposition leader, provoking outrage from our Western allies, and Donald Trump (a) is skeptical of the evidence; (b) replace the subject; and (c) promotes his closeness to the Russian autocrat.

If the Kremlin had written a script to follow through the US president, would it have sounded different?

© 2020 NBC UNIVERSEL