“Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough accused President Trump of doing Russia President Vladimir Putin’s “bidding” multiple times throughout his show Tuesday.
Scarbarough said the phrase at least four times on “Morning Joe,” criticizing Trump’s tough talk with NATO allies in Belgium, which he said was to Putin’s benefit.
“He is doing the very thing that Vladimir Putin would want a western leader to do more than anything else, and that is to undermine NATO. He could not be doing Putin’s bidding more effectively if he were an active agent of Vladimir Putin and the KGB,” Scarborough, a vocal Trump critic, said towards the beginning of his three-hour show.
“And still, diplomats will be diplomats, and they are doing their best to try to deal with American president who appears to be doing his best to do the bidding of Vladimir Putin,” he said later after expressing relief that Trump didn’t insult NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg when the two shook hands for a photo opportunity that was taking place.
Trump used his public appearance with Stoltenberg at a breakfast meeting to complain that Germany continues to get up to 70 percent of their energy from Russia. He said that’s a “very bad thing” for NATO, and hinted it gives Russia leverage over Germany so it doesn’t contribute more to NATO. Trump also kept up his complaints about other NATO members “not paying what they should,” and said it’s an “unfair burden” to the U.S. Stoltenberg agreed, saying Trump’s message was “having an impact.”
“Making that bad spy novel all the more unbelievable about an American president doing the bidding, whether consciously or subconsciously for Vladimir Putin by undermining NATO, would be the fact that that bad spy novel would begin with the president being investigated for possible collusion with Vladimir Putin and Russia,” Scarborough said later in the show after it was brought up in the discussion that Putin loves the idea of an American president attacking Germany at a NATO summit.
“A president accused of being too close to Vladimir Putin and with suspicions raised about Vladimir Putin having something on him going to Putin’s bidding. This isn’t a spy novel’s work. You don’t do it in the light of day, but Donald Trump does,” he continued.
Trump will meet with Putin in the coming days in Helsinki. The two leaders are expected to discuss U.S.-Russia relations and national security issues, according to the White House.
Trump’s campaign is under investigation for possible collusion with the Russians.
Scarbarough previously accused Republicans of doing Putin’s “bidding.”
