Politics & Government

Rohrabacher Recalls Arm-Wrestling Putin...and Losing

The Republican congressman who represents Fountain Valley recalled the friendly match in an interview with public radio station KPCC.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher told an interviewer on KPCC that he once arm-wrestled Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who was a local official at the time.

The story came up Thursday when KPCC's Washington correspondent Kitty Felde talked with the Republican congressman about the Russian proposal on Syria's chemical weapons.

Putin was in Washington in the early 1990s with a Russian delegation, Rohrabacher recalled. While there, Putin and two other Russians ended up playing a game of touch football with Rohrabacher and a few of his friends.

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"We all ended up going to this Irish Times Pub afterwards. And we were having a little bit too much to drink, I guess,"Rohrabacher told KPCC.

"Anyway, we started arguing about who won the Cold War, etc. And so we decided to settle it like men do when they've had too much to drink in the pub. So we got to these arm-wrestling matches, and I ended up being paired off with Putin.

"He's a little guy, but boy, I'll tell yea. He put me down in a millisecond! He is tough. His muscles are just unbelievable. "

Rohrabacher, whose district includes Fountain Valley, opposes the use of military force in Syria.


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