Fiona Hill, President Trump’s former top adviser on Russian affairs who testified before the House impeachment inquiry, says Vladimir Putin has the United States ‘exactly where he wants us.’
Hill, who served as senior director for European and Russian Affairs on Trump’s National Security Council under John Bolton, told CBS News’ 60 Minutes that Moscow is manipulating the divisive nature of American politics to serve its own ends.
She said that Russia, which is accused of interfering in the 2016 presidential elections, is exploiting divisions in American society.
‘The Russians didn't invent partisan divides,’ Hill said.
‘The Russians haven't invented racism in the United States.
‘But the Russians understand a lot of those divisions, and they understand how to exploit them.’
Russia has denied interfering in the US elections.
Hill claims that Putin is satisfied with the bitter divide that has pitted Americans against one another.
‘Putin, sadly, has got all of our political class, every single one of us, including the media, exactly where he wants us,’ Hill says.
‘He's got us feeling vulnerable… on edge, and he's got us questioning the legitimacy of our own systems.’
When asked if the US and Russia were in another Cold War, Hill replied: ‘There is no ideological struggle.
‘The Cold War were two systems against each other.
‘In a sense, we're in the same system. We're competitors.’
Hill was one of nine government officials who testified before the House Intelligence Committee in November as lawmakers gathered evidence that served as the basis for the impeachment of Trump.
Trump was acquitted in the Senate of two articles of impeachment over his actions toward Ukraine.
The president conditioned military aid to the Eastern European country on its government's willingness to conduct investigations into domestic political opponents, namely Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.
Trump has accused Biden of corruption without offering evidence. Biden, a leading contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, has denied any wrongdoing.
In November, Hill told lawmakers that a separate group of officials were running a Ukraine policy that was 'domestic and political in nature.'
In her testimony, Hill outlined how EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland had been sent on a 'domestic political errand' on Trump's behalf that would 'blow up' and she warned against the dangers of mixing together domestic and foreign politics.
'He was being involved in a domestic political errand, and we were being involved in national security foreign policy,' she said of Sondland in her testimony, 'and those two things had just diverged.'
She admitted to clashes with Sondland - particularly with his lack of coordination on a staff level - and said she told him flat-out: '"I think this is all going to blow up" and here we are.'
During her testimony, Hill urged lawmakers not to promote 'politically driven falsehoods' that cast doubt on Russia’s interference in the 2016 US election.
Hill said some members of the panel appeared to believe that Russia and its security services did not meddle in the 2016 presidential race to support Trump, and that perhaps Ukraine did.
'This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves,' said Hill.
'In the course of this investigation, I would ask that you please not promote politically driven falsehoods that so clearly advance Russian interests,' she said during the hearing, which ended after more than five hours of testimony.
Hill left the National Security Council in July of last year. She is currently a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington, DC, think tank.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
