Russian politician offers to fly political party to Florida to celebrate Trump’s acquittal

The leader of Russia’s pro-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, congratulated President Trump for his acquittal in the Senate and suggested that he and members of his party, as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin, visit Trump’s Florida estate to “raise glass to your success.”

“I congratulate you on your victory in the Senate and the failure of vile and false accusations against you,” Zhirinovsky tweeted. “Today you are the model leader of a huge modern state and the strongest president the US have ever had.”

Dear @realDonaldTrump, I congratulate you on your victory in the Senate and the failure of vile and false accusations against you. Today you are the model leader of a huge modern state and the strongest president the US have ever had.

— Владимир Жириновский (@Zhirinovskiy) February 8, 2020

Zhirinovsky went on to denounce House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as well as Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), the sole Republican who voted to convict Trump on either article of impeachment.

“You are a brave man and you can make America great again. We are outraged by the actions of Mrs. Pelosi. Her behavior was inappropriate. It was clever of you to refuse shaking her hand,” Zhirinovsky continued, referring to a moment from Tuesday’s State of the Union address in which Trump appeared to ignore Pelosi’s outstretched hand. 

“We were shocked by the treacherous act of the republican Romney, who voted against you,” Zhirinovsky added.

The impeachment inquiry investigated Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Trump is accused of using nearly $400 million in military aid to pressure Zelensky to conduct an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden. 

In 2016, the House and Senate Intelligence committees determined that Russian intelligence agencies hacked the Democratic National Committee’s server in an effort to meddle in the presidential election. The Justice Department went on to serve indictments against 12 members of a Russian intelligence agency in relation to the hack.

Despite the evidence presented by American intelligence agencies, at a joint press conference with Putin in 2018, Trump said he didn’t “see any reason why it would be Russia.”

During the impeachment trial, Trump and his Republican allies attempted to advance a debunked theory that suggests Ukraine, a U.S. ally, interfered in the 2016 election. The theory seeks to justify the president’s request for an investigation of corruption in Ukraine. 

Fiona Hill, a former White House adviser on Russia, called it a “fictional narrative” during her testimony before the House Intelligence Committee.

“These fictions are harmful even if they are deployed for purely domestic political purposes,” Hill said, adding that Russian forces have put in millions of dollars to advance those narratives. “When we are consumed by partisan rancor, we cannot combat these external forces as they seek to divide us, degrade our institutions and destroy the faith of the American people and our democracy.”

Updated: Feb. 10 at 7:09 a.m.