MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said he thinks a potential President Trump visit to Russia might reinforce the opinion of “a lot” of Americans that the president is a Russian asset.
Trump told reporters Friday he was “thinking about” attending Russia’s Victory Day, which commemorates the 1945 victory over Nazi Germany. Both former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush attended the event during their presidencies.
“I’m not saying Donald Trump should go to Russia. I think, though, at some point, the United States needs to recognize, in a very public way, the remarkable sacrifice the Russian people made in the defeat of Hitler, along with all of our other allies,” Scarborough said Monday on his show.
“But I’m just wondering whether Donald Trump can actually be that president,” he continued. “Because of everything that’s preceded it. The fact that there are a lot of people in America who believe that Donald Trump is either an agent of Russia or at least a useful idiot.”
Scarborough has accused Trump of doing Russia’s “bidding” before.
“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,” the host said last year about the president.
While Trump is considering going to Russia next year, he also emphasized it might conflict with campaign season.
“It’s a very big deal, celebrating the end of the war,” Trump said. “I appreciate the invitation, it’s right in the middle of the political season.”
[Also read: ‘Obvious to me’: Beto O’Rourke claims Trump works for Russia]
