Milorad Dodik

Uh, Christian conservatives.

Uh, huge Trump guys, like the, the, the, the leader over there, Dodik, I think is his name.

Uh, huge Trump guy.

And so these, these two guys, uh, LaCivita and Blair went over there because they were having an election, and they were over there as like consultants.

They were paid by, uh, a law firm in Washington, registered, like everything was on the up and up, legal, you know, whatever.

And you know, of course the media jumps on him this, "You have guys over in, in, in a Putin-friendly country," right? 'Cause the, the leader there is very friendly to Putin and very friendly to Trump, which is, you know, in line with the, the Sovereign alliance.

And what, from what I read in the New York Times, and granted it's the New York Times, but from what I read, um, they were over there for mainly two reasons.

One is to resist the pressure, help the Republic, uh, resist the pressure to join the EU, which is excellent, right? And also because they were having their first election where they were running voting machines.

What's up with that?

Well, the most curious one is the election of the Bosnian Serb Milorad Dodik, who has been a very strong supporter of Putin, has enjoyed the support of Putin.

What makes it a little more sort of strange is that two of Trump's top advisors, Chris Lasita and another one.

James Blair.

We don't know.

This will be certainly interesting in the upcoming election campaign in the United States.

But he did say, you know, Dodik trying to be a very MAGA person said, If it had not been for Donald Trump's magnificent victory, we would probably be political corpses today.

But now, thanks to the new environment, we are political winners.

It was reportedly taken back in August.

It shows her alongside the extremist Serbian party leader, Milorad Dodik.

The caption reads, "Mostly work and some serious fun." Back with us, David Rohde, Susan Glasser, Mona Charen.

Looks like a lot of fun.

It comes as ethnic tensions are once again rising all over the place, more than three decades after a devastating war.

Bosnian Serb nationalist Milorad Dodik claimed victory for his party in Sunday's elections.

And in the same breath, he thanked both Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

Had it not been for Donald Trump's magnificent victory and his dismantling of the widely hated Biden structure, we would in all likelihood be politically defunct today.

One of the things we did last year as a Congress was to pass on a bipartisan basis the Western Balkans Democracy and Prosperity Act, which helps with supporting young people in the region.

It starts a program called the BOLD Program and expands that across the region.

It would reimpose sanctions on people like Milorad Dodik, who are trying to break up this country and provide other economic support for the region.

So I'm very proud of that.

Uh, you know, I'm a go where the facts lead sort of a guy, but let me tell you about the facts of the Republic of Srpska.

I've met with Dodik before.

Now, Dodik's not the president now, but he's the most powerful person in this republic, and it's a tenuous relationship, and Bosnia and Herzegovina with this region of the Republic of Srpska.

Dodik is buddies with Vucic.

Dodik, uh, who, who leans towards Russia more often than not over in Serbia, Dodik is buddies with Putin.

Putin has occupied Ukraine.

This region is where Putin ultimately wants to go, and I'm saying, guys, and we know that Russia has tried, uh, we know that through hybrid warfare Russia's going all over Europe affecting the outcomes of elections, and they had the sham elections in the, in the occupied territories of Ukraine.

Two of Trump's top political advisors weren't even in the United States.

Actually, they were reportedly making six figures helping a pro-Putin leader win in another country.

And we are live on the USS Abraham Lincoln.

We're going to take you on board the ship that was plagued with reports of multiple sailors going overboard, lack of food, basic necessities.

nationalist, and they had this election upcoming to decide whether that party or another party would take control of both the government of Republika Srpska as well as a seat on this sort of coalition government that governs Bosnia and Herzegovina.

And they started raising concerns, the ruling party did, that they might lose this election and might be stolen from them because of new voting machines.

And if that sounds familiar, it's because the leaders of this party have really tried to position themselves as sort of the pro-Trump party inside of this region.

And so the bringing in of James Blair and Chris LaCivita to top Trump political advisors who were very involved in pushing the claims of, or warnings about the 2024 election and voting machines was not an accident.

Okay? The, the Dayton Accords meant each of these groups could get their own self-government inside Bosnia.

But this guy, this guy, Milorad Dodik, he's been there since the end of the war.

He's a hardcore pro-Putin nationalist who wants to still take Bosnia apart, which would be really dangerous, 'cause we still have Kosovo not fully recognized.

Russia's been meddling there as well.