Fox’s Brit Hume Baffled by Trump’s Putin Comments: ‘I Don’t Know What the President’s Talking About’
Fox News Chief Political Analyst Brit Hume had a hard time parsing some recent comments by President Donald Trump.
Trump expressed disappointment in Russian President Vladimir Putin over the ongoing war in Ukraine. Over the weekend, Russian airstrikes killed at least a dozen people in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv as Trump insists he is trying to broker a peace deal to end the bloodshed.
“I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin,” Trump told reporters on Sunday. “I’ve known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all.” And in a post on Truth Social, the president said Putin “has gone absolutely CRAZY!”
Appearing on Monday’s Special Report on Fox News, Hume said he failed to understand where Trump was coming from, considering that Putin has always been an autocratic thug.
Guest host Rich Edson welcomed Hume to the show and pointed to a tweet from his guest stating, “Putin hasn’t changed. He’s always been a brutal tyrant.”
“Do you think those comments mean a change from the White House?” Edson asked about Trump’s remarks. “Are we gonna see sanctions or does President Trump just wash his hands of this whole thing?”
“I think it’s something to hope for, Rich,” Hume replied, before noting Trump’s affinity for Putin that dates back years:
But the president has always had a very odd conception of Vladimir Putin. I think he’s thought that he and Putin could be kind of friends and partners and could make deals together and so on.
I don’t think Putin has changed. I don’t know what the president’s talking about. This is the way Putin has always been. He’s always been a particularly brutal dictator willing to take whatever measures he thought necessary to advance his interests, whatever he thought he could get away with. He thought he could get away with invading Ukraine. He thought he could conquer Ukraine in a matter of days. He failed to do it. And he has been spending his own people’s blood and treasure for as long as he’s needed to after that. And now he seems more intent than ever. He’s the same old Vladimir Putin.
Hume went on to say he hopes Trump “has had a real moment of truth” and come around to see the dictator for what he is.
Watch above via Fox News.
