Putin pours cold water on Trump's Hunter Biden hopes

(Image credit: Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)

If President Trump were looking for a little last-minute boost from Russian President Vladimir Putin, Putin had nothing for him on Sunday. In televised remarks on state TV, Putin "took the time to knock down what he made clear he regarded as false allegations from Trump about the Bidens," Democratic nominee Joe Biden and his son Hunter, Reuters reports. Putin said Trump's story about Hunter Biden getting money from the widow of a former Moscow mayor was news to him, even though Trump tried to tie Putin to the alleged payment.

In Ukraine, Putin said, Hunter Biden "had or maybe still has a business, I don't know. It doesn't concern us. It concerns the Americans and the Ukrainians." And regarding the money Hunter Biden made working for a Ukrainian company, he added, "I don't see anything criminal about this, at least we don't know anything about this (being criminal)."

U.S. intelligence has determined that Russia is secretly working to boost Trump and damage Biden in the 2020 race, much as Russian intelligence boosted Trump and damaged Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. But with Biden leading substantially in the polls, Russian state TV has started mocking Trump as Putin's poodle while Putin has started saying a few positive things about Biden. Biden isn't reciprocating, telling 60 Minutes on Sunday's broadcast that Russia is America's biggest threat but China is its top adversary.

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Trump's Hunter Biden allegations are probably too little, too late, and too tame anyway, even if they were true, anti-Trump GOP strategist Mike Madrid tells Politico. "Whatever October surprise or whatever money he's got, he needed to spend yesterday," he said. "He's got a bigger time problem than a money problem and he's got a huge money problem. It's time. He's running out of time."

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.