The chairman of a conservative think tank stepped in it more than once during a visit to MSNBC’s “The Weekend” and found himself on the receiving end when he tried to blow off Donald Trump’s relationship with Vladimir Putin.
Speaking with co-hosts Symone Sanders Townsend and Michael Steele, Michael Needham of the conservative American Compass was pressed on how President-elect Donald Trump should deal with Putin’s continuing war with Ukraine.
After watching a clip of the former president boasting he could end the war immediately, MSNBC’s Steele remarked, “Okay. I will set aside the idea that it’s going to be settled in 24 hours, but there’s a lot of Republicans in the House and Senate who are not aligned with the president on Ukraine.”
“How do you see narratively and geopolitically navigating the Republicans like [Republican Sen.] Marco Rubio on the record strongly supporting Ukraine in the face of the reality that, you know, Trump has much more of an alignment with Putin than U.S. senators and Republicans?”
“I think that’s a ridiculous way to frame the issue,” Needham shot back.
“Why is that ridiculous?” Steele returned.
“President Trump has more alignment with Putin?” the conservative replied.
“I think he says that because Donald Trump said some of the things Putin has said about letting Russia keep some of Ukraine, so that’s why he said that,” co-host Sanders Townsend explained.
“So the number one geostrategic challenge that the United States faces, that the world faces right now, is a mercantilist country in Chinawhich is a cancer on the world system,” he replied. “Everybody going back to the Obama administration said pivot to Asia. The Trump administration says we need to pivot to Asia, the Biden administration says we need to pivot to Asia.”
‘Right now the war in Ukraine is a gigantic use of resources and weapons,” he added. “We are running low on weapons that are critical to be able to actively deter China from going across the Taiwan Strait. We need to find a way to end the war in Ukraine. President Trump is correct about that. ––it will be negotiated settlement.”
When Needham attempted to ask if the US should be defending Ukraine, Steele bluntly told him, “We should be supporting an ally.”
After a comparison was made to Mexico invading Texas to reclaim territory, Needham replied, “We do not live in the 1990s. If America doesn’t choose, if America doesn’t prioritize, a dangerous world will end up with the United States –“
“You would let Mexico keep part of Texas?” he was pressed.
“We could handle Mexico,” he replied.
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