NBC Reporter Grills Karoline Leavitt Over Trump-Putin Hot Mic Moment
NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell pressed White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on President Donald Trump’s comments caught on a hot mic on Monday.
The president on Monday met with a number of European leaders — including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — to discuss Ukraine’s war with Russia and finding a way to end the conflict. Those meetings came days after a high-stakes summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
Moments before Monday’s meeting with the European leaders, a hot mic caught Trump telling one of them that Putin “wants to make a deal” with him.
“I think he wants to make a deal with me,” Trump said. “I don’t understand that, as crazy as it sounds.”
During Tuesday’s White House briefing, O’Donnell asked Leavitt what gave Trump the impression that Putin “would be willing to make a deal for him”:
O’DONNELL: What has President Trump learned that tells him that Vladimir Putin would be willing to make a deal for him, for President Trump?
LEAVITT: Well, the president has learned a lot, which is part of the reason he opened up this dialogue. The previous administration who oversaw the beginning of this war refused to talk; and President Trump has always said in order to learn, in order to move the ball forward with diplomacy and towards peace, you have to have open dialogue. And so that’s why the president has had several conversations by phone and, of course, an in-person meeting last Friday with President Putin. He also has talked to President Zelensky dozens of times, had him here at the White House yesterday; and he’s understanding what both sides want, what both sides are going to have to give up, and he has always said in order to get a good deal, both sides are going to have to walk away a little bit unhappy.
So he continues to learn a lot throughout these conversations, which is why we’ve seen progress from both sides; and I would also just add when it comes to learning and moving the ball forward, look at how both Russia and Ukraine have actually talked directly for the first time in many years thanks to the efforts of this president and this administration.
O’Donnell then asked what Putin’s motivation for making a deal would be. In response, Leavitt said:
I think, as I just spoke to in my opening remarks, Kelly, Russia and all countries around the world actually respect the United States again. And the president is using the might of American strength to demand that respect from our allies, our friends, our adversaries all around the world; and we’ve seen that not just lead to progress with Russia and Ukraine, but also we’ve seen it in the closing of seven global conflicts around the world, as well. We’ve seen it with the release of hostages in Gaza. You’ve seen it with the end of the conflict between India and Pakistan, which could have resulted in a nuclear war if we had not had a president who believed in the strength and the leverage that comes with the job of being the president of the United States of America.
Watch above via Fox News.
