After years of decrying President Trump and Republicans for being too soft on Russia or worse, being a willing partner in Vladimir Putin's anti-American foreign policy, MSNBC's Keir Simmons found himself on Tuesday blaming the United States, or at the very least President Bush, for Putin's hostility towards America and the West.
Simmons joined MSNBC Live from London where he reported that a recently passed referendum will allow Putin to continue being Russia's president until 2036.
For Simmons, this prompted a short history of Putin's relationship with the U.S., "As you say, quite stunning when you think that he was President of Russia when President Clinton was president in America. One thing to say, you have had different President Putins over his term. Early on during the Clinton years, he was much more friendly towards America."
Then, according to Simmons, is when things went bad, "Then you had the Iraq, Afghanistan wars which Russia was really furious about, and President Putin put his cards on the table and made the switch with the famous speech in Munich."
The year after that infamous Munich speech, Putin would invade and dismember Georgia, one of the U.S.'s closest allies in the War on Terrorism, but Simmons left that part out. He also left out that after 9/11, Putin originally supported the war in Afghanistan. The U.S. didn't change, Putin did.
Host Ayman Mohyeldin sought to bring the segment to a close by remembering, "Yeah, and I'm old enough, Keir, to remember when President George W. Bush said that he looked into his eyes, Vladimir Putin's eyes and trusted him. I wonder if that is still the sentiment?"
Maybe MSNBC can ask that question of Joe Biden, because if Mohyeldin is old enough to remember that, he's also old enough to remember the failed reset attempt under previous administration that led to the dissection of Ukraine, which MSNBC claims to care a great deal about.
This segment was sponsored by LeafFilter.
Here is a transcript for the July 2 show:
MSNBC
MSNBC Live10:37 AM ET
KEIR SIMMONS: As you say, quite stunning when you think that he was President of Russia when President Clinton was president in America. One thing to say, you have had different President Putins over his term. Early on during the Clinton years, he was much more friendly
towards America. Then you had the Iraq, Afghanistan wars which Russia was really furious about, and President Putin put his cards on the table and made the switch with the famous speech in Munich. Going forward, though, I suspect that you're going to see the same kind of nationalism and cynicism from President Putin.
AYMAN MOHYELDIN: Yeah, and I'm old enough, Keir, to remember when President George W. Bush said that he looked into his eyes, Vladimir Putin's eyes—SIMMONS: Yeah
MOHYELDIN:-- and trusted him. I wonder if that is still the sentiment.
