Ashley Parker Tells MSNBC That Trump Was ‘Fairly Easy Mark’ for Putin on Ukraine Conspiracy

The Washington Post’s Ashley Parker appeared on MSNBC to discuss reporting that President Donald Trump’s thinking on Ukraine was influenced by Russia, and argued Trump was an “easy mark” for Vladimir Putin.

Parker, also an MSNBC political analyst, told anchor Hallie Jackson Friday that the reporting “confirms what people have long suspected and frankly, people inside the administration–some at least–have long worried about, which was that the president was being influenced by Russia and by Russian propaganda when it came to election interference.”

“The president was a fairly easy mark, so to speak,” Parker continued. “This is someone who was sort of of open to conspiracy theories, open to things that re-enforce his own view of the world. And so when you have Russia and you have Putin pushing to him that ‘hey, by the way, we didn’t meddle to help you as your own intelligence community has told you but in fact it was Ukraine trying to help your opponent,’ that’s an appealing thing for the president to believe.”

Jackson also asked about Trump’s reaction to being impeached broken down in news analysis written by Parker. Trump’s impeachment is closely linked to the president trying to prove the conspiracy that Ukraine worked to defeat him in the 2016 election.

“He did not want to be impeached,” Parker responded. “The way I tried to look at it, this was one of the rare striking instances where President Trump – in just about his entire life actually – is actually being held accountable for his actions.”

Watch above, via MSNBC.