Maddow: I Don’t Know What Putin Has On Trump, “But He Works For Putin, And It’s An Embarrassment To This Country”
MS NOW host Rachel Maddow said the Kremlin is running the United States’ foreign policy in an interview on “The Late Show” with host Stephen Colbert. “You know, Russia is a podunk country,” Maddow said to Colbert. “They’re a huge landmass, largest physical country in the world. They’ve got an economy like the size of Italy, right? They’ve got a kleptocratic, sclerotic government run by a guy who’s never going to leave until he dies. The idea that we work for him, that we work for them, is so humiliating and is such an abject failure on the part of Trump in terms of his weakness. I don’t know what Putin has on him, but he works for Putin, and it’s an embarrassment to this country.”
STEPHEN COLBERT: Rachel Maddow, speaking of wars, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are presently in Russia for peace talks, for the Ukraine-Russia peace talks, which I don’t think Ukraine was invited to. Correct. And recently, a leaked phone call made by Witkoff really sounds like he’s chummy with the Kremlin. Am I accurate in characterizing it as Witkoff is advising the Kremlin on how to handle Trump? RACHEL MADDOW: Yes. COLBERT: Okay. So, someone would say that’s treason. [MADDOW NODS] COLBERT: The White House calls it strategy. [MADDOW LAUGHS] COLBERT: What’s — uh, what? MADDOW: First of all, who’s Steve Witkoff? He’s the president’s golfing friend. COLBERT: Yeah, is he — MADDOW: He’s a real estate guy COLBERT: He’s a real estate guy. Florida real estate guy. Yeah. MADDOW: And they’ve decided that the way that we’re going to solve all the intractable problems of the world is by letting him hang out at the Kremlin a lot. And so this is — COLBERT: Probably nice in there. MADDOW: I mean, they probably keep it at just the right temperature, just the right amount of gold. But it’s like his sixth trip or something. And every time he goes to the Kremlin, he has, like, these three-hour, four-hour meetings with Vladimir Putin, who is a KGB officer who’s really good at, like, flipping people. But Steve Witkoff plays golf, so I bet he knows his way around a negotiating table with the KGB guy. Okay. In any case, what we’ve ended up with is the White House plan, the peace plan for Russia and Ukraine, which was… Appears quite literally to have been written in the Kremlin and then given to Steve Witkoff, who then advised the Kremlin on how best to sell it to Trump. I mean, it really just feels like the whole Putin and Trump thing that was so weird for all those years, which a lot of us reported on a lot at the time and got a lot of hassle for it. But I’m just saying, it kind of seems like that’s now paid off with the Kremlin actually running U.S. foreign policy through the president’s doofus golf friend. And it’s hilarious, except for the fact that we’re now years into this deadly war in Ukraine where they used to think we were their ally, and we were helping them stand up against this tyranny, and now we apparently have been captured by the Kremlin and worked for Vladimir Putin. COLBERT: Some European allies have stopped giving us Ukraine intelligence as well because they’re afraid that we’re going to give it to Russia. MADDOW: It goes right to Russia. I mean, literally, they wrote the plan for what they want Ukraine to do, and the White House put it on its letterhead and said, here it is. You better do it. And you know, Russia is a podunk country. They’re a huge landmass, largest physical country in the world. They’ve got an economy like the size of Italy, right? They’ve got a kleptocratic, sclerotic government run by a guy who’s never going to leave until he dies. The idea that we work for him, that we work for them, is so humiliating and is such an abject failure on the part of Trump in terms of his weakness. I don’t know what Putin has on him, but he works for Putin, and it’s an embarrassment to this country. [AUDIENCE APPLAUDS] MADDOW: Sorry. COLBERT: Oh, I’m very happy.
