Chris Wallace Rips Putin in First CNN Appearance: ‘I Thought He Was a Rational Actor’

CNN+ star Chris Wallace made his very first appearance on the linear (old skool) version of CNN Thursday morning in which he shared recollections of interviewing Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018.

Showing up at the DC set of New Day with co-anchor Brianna Keilar proved to be convivial, informative, and even promotional of CNN’s much-ballyhooed streaming service which Wallace’s star power and or gravitas was brought on to help carry.

Wallace opened by first discussing his interview with Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher, who were among his first guests on CNN+’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace. Kunis is a Ukrainian-American and, along with her husband, has been incredibly effective in helping to raise over $35 million to help Ukrainian refugees via GoFundMe.

Broadcasting from Ukraine, John Berman then pivoted to the Russian president, noting to Wallace that he’s “one of the few people who looked Vladimir Putin in the eye,” in reference to his Helsinki interview with the now-alleged war criminal in 2018. “What was that like? What is he like? And what insight did that give you into this really remarkable decision he’s made to invade another country?”

“There were a couple of things that from our interview in 2018, it was the day of the summit with Donald Trump,” he replied,  “where Trump seemed to fold and say ‘I believe Putin rather than our own intelligence agencies about interference in the 2016 election.'”

“At one point I asked him, this was in the Russian embassy, with Russian security, Kremlin security all around, I said, why is it that so many people who oppose Vladimir Putin end up dead?” he continued. “And from that moment on I had his undivided attention, he sat up, piercing eyes sort of boring into you.”

He proceeded to note how “tough” Putin was. “When I asked him that question, he didn’t blink, he said, all of us have our domestic problems which I felt was an interesting answer to jailing or killing your domestic opponents. ”

“The second thing was what you saw as the motivation for going into Ukraine, this sense of grievance about what the west has done, NATO moving east, and taking a lot of the former Eastern Bloc,” he continued. “The one thing that I didn’t get — and which I think we all feel now — is that I thought he was a rational actor, and now you wonder about that.”

Cable news historians may note that day that a highly respected cable news giant like Wallace first appeared on one network after spending years at its competitor Fox News, and getting weekly notations from this website for “grilling” guests on Fox News Sunday. It is not yet clear if CNN intends to sell this appearance as an NFT.