Morning Joe Praises Fox’s Brian Kilmeade ‘Trying’ To Challenge Trump On Ukraine Criticism: ‘Gotta Hand It To Him!’
Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski praised Fox News host Brian Kilmeade for “trying” to challenge President Donald Trump after his attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his new take on Russia’s invasion.
The MSNBC team played back a section from Trump’s interview with Fox News Radio’s The Brian Kilmeade Show on Friday during which Kilmeade pressed the president’s narrative stand unchallenged and insisted that destruction to Ukraine was “Russia’s fault.” Kilmeade repeatedly circled back to steer Trump’s line, as the president insisted Zelenskyy had “no cards” in negotiations.
The exchange came days after Trump branded the Ukrainian leader a “dictator without elections” and falsely suggested that he “started” the war — which began when Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded three years ago.
Reflecting on Kilmeade’s efforts on Monday’s Morning Joe, Brzezinski praised the conservative host: “Gotta hand it to him!”
Scarborough noted that Kilmeade was one of many Republican voices pushing back on Trump’s recent rhetorical pivot:
It is interesting, Brian Kilmeade kept trying to say: ‘Well, if all the buildings are knocked down, Mr. President, they’re all knocked down because of Vladimir Putin. I mean, that’s the reason why they’re destroyed.’ And so now, for some reason, the logic is that you actually punish a country for being invaded and having their buildings knocked down by a Russian invader. It’s very interesting.
“You can see it in the New York Post, you can see it in the Wall Street Journal editorial page… Those are Rupert Murdoch-run outlets,” Scarborough read from journalist Mark Halperin’s newsletter.
He continued:
I think, for Republicans that I speak off the record, their real concern, of course, they’re horrified that it is Zelenskyy that’s being called a dictator and Putin getting a free pass. But what they’re really concerned about is the message that it’s sending to the communist Chinese, who, if Putin is given a free pass for invading Ukraine then these Republicans and all Democrats and they’ll say it publicly, are afraid that Donald Trump is empowering the communist Chinese to invade Taiwan.
Watch above via MSNBC.
