Vladimir Putin will be up for reelection, and he has shifted his whole political strategy inside of Russia from one where he promised the Russians pretty much a chicken in every pot, a better economic way of life.

It should never be the goal of U.S. foreign policy towards any country to have a - quote, unquote - good relation. Then what? What do we get out of that? We get - Trump is helping the approval ratings amongst Russians. How does that advance American national security interests?

We can deal with Russia on counterterrorism. We have and I think we are right now. That's easy.

Trump has got to define what he seeks to achieve with Russia, and then use diplomacy and sometimes coercion to achieve those ends. Right now, aside from this fight with ISIS, which I would underscore, you know, the Obama administration has been trying to fight ISIS with Russia for several years now.

In the short run, the big windfall winners ... have been the Islamists.

Having a good relationship with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. Only stupid people or fools would think it was bad.

In retrospect, all revolutions seem inevitable. Beforehand, all revolutions seem impossible.

Take cyber-capabilities. We have way more cyber-capability than Russia do. We could intervene in their elections easily. We choose not to do so because we're a different country. That's what Obama was trying to say.