Conservative CNN Analyst Buries Trump’s Navalny Statement: ‘Stupid, Self-Serving, Wrong’

CNN conservative commentator Alice Stewart ripped into Donald Trump’s Monday statement comparing himself to the recently deceased Alexei Navalny, an advocate and vocal Vladimir Putin critic who died while in a Russian prison last week.

“Navalny died a hero, just as he lived. Donald Trump is afraid to stand up to Putin. Donald Trump’s statement here is stupid, it’s self-serving, and it is wrong,” Stewart said Monday during a CNN panel discussion.

The GOP strategist’s comments followed a Truth Social statement from Trump regarding Navalny’s death, which many suspect was at the hands of Putin and/or other Russian officials. Navalny previously returned to Russia in 2021 after he recovered from a previous poisoning many suspect Putin was behind.

Rather than a statement similar to other public figures who have mourned Navalny and celebrated his life, Trump instead used the death to highlight his own legal troubles, the latest of which was being ordered by a judge to pay more than $350 million in a New York fraud case. He’s also barred from doing business in New York for three years.

The former president wrote:

The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country. It is a slow, steady progression, with CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges leading us down a path to destruction. Open Borders, Rigged Elections, and Grossly Unfair Courtroom Decisions are DESTROYING AMERICA. WE ARE A NATION IN DECLINE, A FAILING NATION! MAGA2024.

Stewart, who has long been a critic of Trump, echoed other officials by saying there is “no mistaking” that Putin has “blood on his hands.” She also blasted Trump as weak in the case of Russia and Putin for not being able to point to the Russian president as responsible for Navalny’s death as quickly as others.

“What this reminds us of is that Vladimir Putin is a brutal dictator. We’re seeing bipartisan comments from people on both sides of the aisle here in Washington that’s saying he’s a bloodthirsty tyrant and this type of behavior should not be tolerated. There’s one person responsible, it’s Putin,” she said. “And for Donald Trump to fail to acknowledge that, that just goes to show that he is afraid to stand up to Putin.”

Watch above via CNN.