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A Republican strategist drew heavy flak on "CNN This Morning" for defending tech billionaire Elon Musk's dual role as a government contractor and federal budget slasher.

Donald Trump's megadonor-turned-close adviser posted on his X platform that Verizon's communication system for air traffic control was "breaking down very rapidly" and recommended his own Starlink satellite internet service as an upgrade, but GOP strategist Brad Todd didn't see any problem with Musk dramatically cutting the federal workforce while scooping up government contracts himself.

A comment made by Donald Trump about Russia and Vladimir Putin during a White House talk on Thursday drew the attention of two MSNBC hosts on Friday morning which led them both to rip it apart.

Asked by a journalist if he could trust the Russian strongman, the president replied, "I think he'll keep his word. I've spoken to him, I've known him for a long time now, you know, we had we had to go through the Russian hoax together –– that was not a good thing. It's not fair, that was a rigged deal and had nothing to do with Russia. It was a rigged deal inside the country and they had to put up with that too. They put up with a lot."

Trump's return to talking about the "Russian hoax" led "Morning Joe" co-host Willie Geist to fact-check the president.

ALSO READ: 'Gotta be kidding': Jim Jordan scrambles as he's confronted over Musk 'double standard'

"Before we get on to talk about Ukraine, we have to just pause right there and that statement was extraordinary," Geist stated. "The president of the United States saying he and Vladimir Putin went through the Russia hoax together, they were in this thing together that people were out to get them, when it was well documented whether you think the Trump campaign in 2016 sought the help or welcomed the help or not."

"It's not disputed that Russia put its thumb on the scale in that election, but he [Trump] sees a partner in that fight and a fellow victim," he added.

Co-host Joe Scarborough contributed, "Every single one of Donald Trump's intelligence select leaders that he selected, agency heads that he selected, believed, and it was the position of our government that Russia interfered in the 2016 election."

Continuing in that vein, he added, "But there is no hoax behind the central fact that Russia interfered in the election for the benefit of Donald Trump, whether he sought that help or not. Again, that's been a raging debate since 2017 but even Marco Rubio, when he was running the Senate Intelligence Committee, Marco Rubio and Republicans said that Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, and actors in it, caused a direct counterintelligence threat to the United States of America's security."

"That's what Marco Rubio that's what the Republican Senate Intel Committee said and, again, not to belabor this point, but, you know, they're just some things that that that, you know, stop the presses, and this is one of them," he added.

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Reports that U.S. Agency for International Development employees caught up in a new round of federal firings were given just 15 minutes to clear out their offices led to a blistering attack from Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) on the Trump administration.

“I'm really shocked by it,” Welch said Thursday in an interview on CNN’s “The Situation Room.” He added: “But nothing shocks me anymore with the Trump administration.”

A U.S. Navy veteran is sounding the alarm as the Trump administration's funding freeze means he'll lose access to a life-saving cancer treatment should he need it again.

Kyle Lewis was given a dire prognosis when he was diagnosed with cancer. A doctor at Johns Hopkins entered him into a clinical trial for a drug that saw some success in fighting his particular form of cancer. It saved his life and he believes it can save others, too.

CNN's Boris Sanchez on Thursday identified a "telling moment" during President Donald Trump's joint press event with United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The moment came when Trump was asked if Americans would help the United Kingdom if Russia launched an attack on British peacekeeping forces in Ukraine, and the president suggested that they would not.

President Donald Trump appeared to deny he'd made a previous, controversial claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is a "dictator" at a press conference following his White House meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer — a claim that triggered widespread outrage from U.S. allies given the united front NATO countries have shown up to this point in supporting Ukraine against Vladimir Putin and the Russian invasion.

Trump also continued to reiterate his stated belief Ukraine cannot join NATO — a security goal Ukraine has sought so desperately that Zelensky even offered to resign in exchange for his country's accession to the alliance.

The New York Times has identified 45 individuals working in the so-called Department of Government Efficiency formed by Elon Musk with Donald Trump's blessing.

The quasi-government advisory board has recommended sweeping cuts to federal agencies and tossed thousands of federal employees out of their jobs after Trump established DOGE through an Inauguration Day executive order, but the group's leadership structure and staffing remains murky enough that White House Press Secretary Katherine Leavitt was reluctant to reveal the top official in charge.

The co-hosts of "The View" attacked new Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after they said he got basic facts wrong during the Wednesday Cabinet meeting.

An outbreak in Texas claimed its first life this week, leading to questions about what the federal government is doing to help stop it.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was ridiculed by one of his Democratic colleagues on Thursday for going on CNN Wednesday night and telling host Kaitlan Collins that angry voters appearing at town halls have been Democratic activists.

That led Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) to openly scoff during an appearance on MSNBC after host Ana Cabrera shared a clip of Johnson pushing back at Collins and telling her furious town hall attendees were "paid protesters in many of those places. These are Democrats who went to the events early and filled up the seats."

Asked for comment, Houlahan bluntly stated, "That's enormously paranoid."

ALSO READ: 'Gotta be kidding': Jim Jordan scrambles as he's confronted over Musk 'double standard'

"I think that the reality is –– listen, I just had a town hall. We had 700 seats filled. We had hundreds, I estimated about 5 or 600 who were turned away and they were all very concerned," she added. "And I live in a purple community of roughly 40 percent Dems, 40 percent Republicans and 20 percent independents and people are anxious and they are worried."

"And listen, that's their job," she said of GOP lawmakers. "Their job is to have these town halls and to listen to the feelings and concerns of their community and the idea that somehow these are plants is ridiculous."

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Real America's Voice correspondent Brian Glenn, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R-GA) boyfriend, used a racial epithet to describe new MSNBC host Eugene Daniels, who is Black and serves as president of the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA).

During Thursday's War Room broadcast, host Steve Bannon praised White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt for stripping control of the briefing room from the WHCA.

A Democratic congressman accused president Donald Trump of selling out to Russia and its president Vladimir Putin.

Trump will meet Friday with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss a proposed peace deal that would establish a jointly managed “Reconstruction Investment Fund" involving the war-torn nation's natural resources, but Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) told "CNN News Central" the agreement sounds like it could have been drawn up by the Kremlin.

Building upon a speech he gave on the floor of the Senate, Sen. Angus King (I-ME) lashed out at billionaire Elon Musk for gutting the U.S. government and questioned his motivations on Thursday morning.

During an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," King pounced on Republicans in the Senate who have been standing by and letting Musk and his DOGE staffers arbitrarily fired federal workers and canceled funding for government programs with no oversight.

Speaking with "Morning Joe" regular Katty Kay, King complained, "If Donald Trump doesn't like USAID, come to Congress, pass a bill. He's got a majority in both houses to abolish it, but don't do it in the middle of the night with this guy, Musk, and nobody knows who he's working for or what his authority is."

ALSO READ: 'Gotta be kidding': Jim Jordan scrambles as he's confronted over Musk 'double standard'

"You know, we've got a bunch of 25 year-olds deciding cutting programs," he added. "Here's another example, the other day, and this tells you where we are, someone pointed out that the ebola prevention program was cut in the USAID cuts. Musk said, 'Oh, that was a mistake, we're going to fix it.' Think of the implications of that?"

"What he's really saying is 'I get to decide which programs we fund and which we don't' –– that's not the way our system is set up," he argued. "That's not the way, the way this thing is supposed to work. Again, to protect our freedoms, people who are cheering, all of this going on."

"Boy, they're going to have some second thoughts when the eye of Sauron turns to them," he added with a "Lord of the Rings" reference.

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