Maggie Haberman And Kaitlan Collins Roast Republicans Dancing Around Trump Remarks That Don’t ‘Make Logical Sense’

CNN commentator and New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman and anchor Kaitlan Collins roasted Republicans dancing around President Donald Trump’s comments that don’t “make logical sense.”

Trump flew into a rage at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Wednesday and referred to him as “a dictator” after Zelensky made public comments about “misinformation” that Trump has been repeating. Republicans have been characteristically reluctant to weigh in.

On Wednesday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Haberman and Collins called out Trump’s shift over Zelensky’s remarks, and ripped Republicans — and one deflection in particular:

K. COLLINS: I think this is one of those situations where shocking, but not surprising, really fits what we are watching play out.

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Yes, if anyone is surprised, they haven’t been paying attention, not just for the last several years, in the interregnum between when Trump was last in office, and when he is now.

But the campaign in 2015 and 2016, where he was very skeptical of Ukraine, where he was talking about Russia’s annexation of Crimea as something that some Ukrainians actually liked, which was just not true.

He was always very skeptical of NATO and the Alliance. That should not be a surprise. And he has been talking about — he has a very mercantilistic approach, where he has been talking about foreign countries ripping off the U.S. for a long time.

And he admires strongmen, and he admires Vladimir Putin, and has for a long time.

I think this is different than just a policy switch. A policy switch would be the U.S. is not really going to fund Ukraine the way it has, or we’re going to see security guarantees on the aid.

This is different than what Trump himself said, on Sunday, to reporters, which was that he had asked Putin, does he want all of Ukraine, summing the effect of, does he want all of Ukraine? And that would have caused a lot of problems for us. And he said, No.

In the last day, Trump is saying that Zelenskyy better move fast, which sounds like better move fast to accept the deal Trump wants, or he’s going to get run over. That is — that’s more than a policy switch.

K. COLLINS: And what’s changed in the last day is Zelenskyy coming out, and he’s saying that–

HABERMAN: Criticizing him.

K. COLLINS: –Trump is surrounding with–

HABERMAN: Yes.

K. COLLINS: –surrounded by disinformation, and not hearing the truth.

HABERMAN: Yes, and Trump is not fond of Zelenskyy. I know he keeps saying he is. But according to a number of people in his world, he isn’t and hasn’t been for a long time. There’s all kinds of historic reasons why.

Trump has a vision of Russia from its days as a superpower, and I think that he is looking at it as a more significant country. But this is not something that should surprise anyone.

What is striking is just the near — it’s not silence from Congress, and from Republican senators, who had been pretty hawkish on Russia before, and who had supported Ukraine, at least to some extent.

It’s, again, we’re back to this gaze aversion from Republicans, criticizing Trump. And instead, it’s just, No, I don’t agree with that word, or, I wouldn’t say that. And so, Trump knows that he can essentially do what he wants right now.

K. COLLINS: Well, one senator today said that she needed to see the context of the comment.

HABERMAN: Right.

K. COLLINS: I don’t know what the context is to calling him a dictator.

HABERMAN: I don’t — I don’t think that — I don’t think there was a setting, in which calling Zelenskyy a dictator was going to make more logical sense.

Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.