AP Photo/LM Otero
Mark Cuban.
- Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban said Russia didn't have any effect on the election.
- "Look, if you spotted Donald Trump two pieces of bread and behind him was a refrigerator full of ham, he couldn't collude with the Russians to make a ham sandwich," he said.
Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban told The New York Times that "the Russians had no effect on" the 2016 presidential election.
In an interview with Times columnist Maureen Dowd, Cuban was asked for his thoughts on 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton pointing the finger at former FBI Director James Comey, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Russia for her shocking loss to President Donald Trump. Cuban was a prominent supporter of Clinton during the general election campaign, introducing her at a handful of rallies and attending a pair of presidential debates as her guest.
"They didn't see [the loss] coming at all," he said of the Clinton campaign. "I remember right before the election, they invited me to the party in Brooklyn. I'm like, 'are you kidding me?' You do not plan the parade before you win the championship."
The owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks and star of ABC's "Shark Tank" used a sports metaphor to describe Clinton's weak campaigning.
"In sports, matchups matter, right?" he said. "Hillary was prepared to have a policy-against-policy matchup against a politician. She was not prepared to have a matchup against a movement."
"The Russians had no effect on the election," he continued. "Look, if you spotted Donald Trump two pieces of bread and behind him was a refrigerator full of ham, he couldn't collude with the Russians to make a ham sandwich. Right?"
Cuban earlier this year said on multiple occassions that he did not believe any collusion between Russian officials and Trump would be proven.
"There will be no Russian-Trump collusion," Cuban tweeted in June. "They will prove individuals leveraged Trump connection as Get Rich Quick Schemes. True Pay to Play."
"I know Trump isn't smart enough to manage a conspiracy or know when he is being played," he added.
Cuban has repeatedly teased reporters about a possible 2020 presidential run throughout much of 2017, ramping up that teasing in recent weeks. The billionaire revealed in a recent Fox News interview that if he were to run for president in 2020, it would "probably" be as a Republican. During an appearance at an Atlanta conference earlier this month, Cuban said if he "was single" he'd "definitely be running."