The following podcast contains explicit language.

If Putin likes Donald Trump, I consider that an asset not a liability.

We could make deals in Russia very easily if we wanted to.

I just don't want to because I think that would be a conflict.

I have no conflict of interest, provision, as present.

As far as Buzzfeed, which is a failing pile of garbage.

Hello and welcome to Trumpcast.

I'm Virginia Heffernan.

On Trumpcast, we cover the man who, unlike history, repeats himself first as farce and

then as tragedy.

Apologies to Karl Marx.

Actually, no apologies to Karl Marx.

Because today, speaking of authoritarian press conferences, we're using another Marxist

conceit.

Reporters of the world unite in international solidarity.

It's Alexei Kovalov, an independent Russian reporter who's asking for this solidarity.

Kovalov, who blogs about propaganda and fake news from Moscow, has witnessed what he

says is the grim spectacle of the annual press conferences by Vladimir Vladmirovic.

That's, of course, Vladimir Putin, who insists reporters call him by his fanciest name,

like Donald, on the apprentice insisting on being called Mr. Trump.

At these press conferences, Kovalov says, reporters are checkmated at every turn and

it's almost hopeless to try to fight the hypnotism, bullying, and bullshit that ran

...