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Ex-CIA director: Trump knows what he’s doing with Putin

Posted at 10:03 PM, Sep 13, 2016
and last updated 2016-09-13 22:03:10-04

Donald Trump and PutinDonald Trump’s strategic approach to confronting Russia under President Vladimir Putin is more complex and nuanced than the Republican nominee’s campaign trail rhetoric often indicates, his new senior adviser, former CIA Director James Woolsey, said Tuesday.

Woolsey, who joined the Trump campaign this week, offered Erin Burnett on CNN’s “OutFront” some insight about Trump rhetoric critics say is to conciliatory toward the Russian strongman.

“I think what Mr. Trump does is much more important than what he says,” Woolsey said. “You don’t succeed at something like this based just on language. Language is a tool. I don’t think it is an absolute.”

Woolsey headed the CIA from 1993 to 1995 under President Bill Clinton, husband of the woman he’s now signed on with Trump to help defeat.