After desperately trying to blame Donald Trump for the current crisis in Ukraine – happening over a year into Joe Biden’s presidency – on her MSNBC show early Tuesday afternoon, anchor Andrea Mitchell couldn’t handle it when former National Security Adviser John Bolton told her that it was Biden’s foreign policy that had “failed.”
“Just to go back to the Trump years….because that’s when Ukraine became so politicized as part of an impeachment,”Mitchell disagreed. She wildly claimed that the flimsy premise of Democrats’ first impeachment of Trump was what emboldened Vladimir Putin to move to invade Ukraine: “There was one call in particular, the so-called ‘perfect call’ Trump had with, you know, Zelenskyy, which, you know, certainly telegraphed to the Kremlin that they could do what they wanted with Ukraine, that America would not stand up.”
Mitchell conveniently ignored Putin’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine that went unchallenged by the Obama/Biden administration. This weakness proved to be a much bigger provocation for Putin, who invaded again in 2014 with Biden still in office as president.
Bolton, a former Trump adviser turned harsh critic, didn’t object to Mitchell’s ranting against the former president, but he did point out: “Well, I think Putin was undoubtedly waiting for a second Trump term, but he’s getting, effectively, almost what he would have expected then. This is going to be a victory for Russia.”
Mitchell looked visibly shocked by the assessment of Biden that he was not doing a good job. “You think what the Biden administration is doing, rallying NATO allies, getting – ”Bolton cut off her: “It has failed….The President says it has failed.”
The host was frustrated and quickly ran to defend the Democrat at the White House. “But it has not failed to rally the untied – the NATO allies, they’ve never been stronger….I was just in Munich and I can tell you that there was no space among those allies.”
Bolton offered a fact-check “There’s plenty of space.Mario Draghi (Prime Minister of Italy) stated that, should the EU impose economic sanctions on Italy, it should not apply to the energy sector. That’s a huge hole in NATO unity.”
The contentious exchange began with Bolton calling out Biden’s weak response to Russian aggression:
We didn’t act quickly enough. My opinion is that we ought to have sent more American soldiers into Ukraine., not to fight the Russians, but to train with the Ukrainians and to show those Russian generals looking across the border and seeing Americans within flags, “I wonder what that means?” Biden rebuffed that offer, stating there wouldn’t be any American forces involved. He also said he didn’t get anything for it.
Clearly Mitchell doesn’t want to hear one word of criticism about Biden but is happy to attack his Republican predecessor.
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Below is the transcript from February 22, 2018.
12:13 ET
(…)
JOHN BOLTON. And we failed to act promptly. I think we should have had more American forces in Ukraine, not to fight the Russians, but to train with the Ukrainians and to show those Russian generals looking across the border and seeing Americans within flags, “I wonder what that means?” Biden took that off the table, saying there would be no American forces involved and he got nothing for it.
ANDREA MITCHELL: Just to go back to the Trump years because you had difficulty –
BOLTON: Why?
MITCHELL – Well, it’s not. Well, why not is because that’s when Ukraine became so politicized as part of an impeachment.
BOLTON: That’s exactly right.
MITCHELL There was one call in particular, the so-called “perfect call” Trump had with, you know, Zelenskyy, which, you know, certainly telegraphed to the Kremlin that they could do what they wanted with Ukraine, that America would not stand up.
BOLTON: Well, I think Putin was undoubtedly waiting for a second Trump term, but he’s getting, effectively, almost what he would have expected then. Russia will win this election.
MITCHELL: You think what the Biden administration is doing, rallying NATO allies, getting –
BOLTON: It failed.
MITCHELL: I mean, truly, Ambassador –
BOLTON – The President claims it’s failed.
MITCHELL: But it has not failed to rally the untied – the NATO allies, they’ve never been stronger.
BOLTON: Mario Draghi –
MITCHELL – I was in Munich just now and can confirm that there wasn’t any space between those allies.
BOLTON: There’s plenty of space. Mario Draghi (Prime Minister of Italy) stated that, should the EU impose economic sanctions on Italy, it would exclude the energy sector. That’s a huge hole in NATO unity.
As I said, “What?” [German Chancellor Olaf]Scholz’s paper maneuver today will only last for a few months. We’ll see how long that lasts.
MITCHELL: Okay, I would just suggest that the Italian leader is not the key player here and what we’ve seen from France, from the U.K., from Germany, a new chancellor, has been to at least stand up and be united, you know, as a presence, as a NATO presence.
BOLTON: I’ll agree the U.K. is on our side.
MITCHELL – Okay. We can agree on one thing. John Bolton, it’s a pleasure. We are grateful for your cooperation.
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