WATCH: CNN host confronts Jill Stein over why she met with Putin in Russia -- and she blames the Democrats

Appearing on CNN Saturday morning, Green Party candidate Jill Stein gave a rambling explanation for why she met Russian President Vladimir Putin before the election saying no one cared about it until after former Secretary Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election.

Speaking with host Michael Smerconish, Stein seemed incredulous that attention was focused on the meeting in Russia organized by Russia Today.

"Take me inside the dinner you had with Vladimir Putin in 2015 and the prominence it afforded you," the CNN host began. "My question is was that in and of itself a form of meddling along the lines of 'let me give some attention to green party candidate Jill Stein' -- you know the theory -- any vote for Stein that otherwise would have gone to Hillary. What was that dinner about?"

'Let's be clear, that was a conference," Stein replied. "That picture didn't start to circulate until long after the election. It essentially wasn't covered here in the U.S. there was media at that conference, and it was a day-long conference where my message was very clear. It was the message of my campaign. which is that we need a peace offensive in the Middle East. Now, this was a message that was particularly friendly to the Russians. It was saying to them that we need to stop the bombing. they had just begun bombing in Syria."

"I would have loved for that message to have gotten out but there's basically zero coverage," she continued. "It's now circulating. It's funny, Michael, you have to ask why is that picture kicking up a storm right now? I think it's very related to the fact that the Democrats are looking for someone to blame."

Watch the video below via CNN: