Just three weeks before the presidential election last fall, in an interview with Donald Trump, talk-radio host Michael Savage predicted that if Trump won, the Democrats would claim his victory was illegitimate, tying it to Russian interference.
"They're setting it up so that if you win, [the Democrats] will claim that the Russians hacked the election and it is an illegitimate election," Savage told Trump in an Oct. 17 broadcast of "The Savage Nation."
"That's what I see coming."
It was during the October interview, as WND reported, that Trump told Savage that if he won the White House, he might meet with Putin prior to the inauguration.
On his show Thursday, Savage said he brought up relations with Russia in the interview because he saw Hillary Clinton and the Democrats "ginning up a Russia story that was fake."
Trump noted at the time that relations with Russia were widely regarded as worse than at any time since the Cold War, with tensions over fighting ISIS in Syria, Eastern European independence, a rise in cyber breaches and accusations that Moscow was trying to influence the U.S. elections.
Savage asked Trump how he would diffuse the tensions with Russia if he won.
"The problem is Putin has no respect for Obama at all," Trump said in October. "You have potentially a really catastrophic situation here. I'll be honest with you.'
The then-candidate declared: "If I win on Nov. 8, I could see myself meeting with Putin and meeting with Russia prior to the start of the administration."
'This is news?'
On his show Thursday, Savage asked: "If Trump talked with Russia before he was inaugurated or after, so what? What's the big deal?"
He noted Trump is currently on a "historic, monumental foreign trip right now, and all you hear from the left-wing fanatics is … Russia, Russia, Russia."
"They can't stop pushing the false narrative that Trump colluded with the Russians," he said.
Savage, who launched a petition drive this month asking Trump to demand that Britain remove him from its travel ban, pointed out major stories by the New York Times and Washington Post advancing the Russia narrative were based on unnamed sources.
"This is news? This is news? All governments, even ours, try to influence elected officials in every country," Savage told his listeners.
"Do you remember Obama tried to influence the elections in Israel?" he asked. "That didn't get reported by Tapper, Blitzer and company, did it?"
Savage argued the objective should be peace with Russia.
"We are not going to be dragged into war by the evil Democrats who have started this psychotic narrative and now believe it themselves," he said.
Savage insisted there "was no collusion," and no one has presented any evidence to back the Democrats' claim.
"Donald Trump told 'The Savage Nation' he would talk with Putin before he took office, right here on this show, and he was going to do so to make peace with Russia," he recalled.
"If that was collusion, then I'm in favor of collusion."