'Opposite of patriotism': MSNBC's Mika casts suspicion on Trump's deference to Putin

MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski is raising questions about Donald Trump's loyalty to the nation he hopes to lead again.

The former president compared himself to the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who died under suspicious circumstances in an Arctic prison after surviving multiple poisonings, and both Brzezinski and "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough cast suspicion on Trump's longstanding refusal to speak out against Vladimir Putin.

"At the beginning of our support for Ukraine," Scarborough said, "there were people on the far, far left that would mock and ridicule the argument that China was watching, that if we didn't push back on Russia, if we didn't support Ukraine, that not only would Putin get that message and keep going into Ukraine and going to the Balkan states, but [Chinese president] Xi [Jinping] would get the message and he'd go into Taiwan. He wants to go into Taiwan. If America lost its will to support people fighting for their own freedom, the message would be sent."

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"The message that Xi is getting right now from little Mike Johnson and Donald Trump is just devastating," he added. "The message is this: Republicans, who for the past 50 years have been the main force to push back hard on communism, they've surrendered to the communists. They've surrendered. Mike Johnson surrendered to the communists, to the ex-communists, the wannabe communists. Mike Johnson surrendered, Donald Trump surrendered a long time ago to Vladimir Putin, surrendered to Xi a long time ago. He has nothing but praise for Xi, for Kim Jong-un, these communist leaders. That is a message that Xi is receiving loud and clear."

"It's not just Donald Trump now," be continued. "It is the Republican Party, once the bulwark of against communist aggression, it is Ronald Reagan's old party that has collapsed."

Brzezinski sensed something sinister in Trump's fealty to Putin and other foreign authoritarian leaders.

"This is a terrifying inflection point," Brzezinski said. "For anybody who doesn't take it seriously or think the election doesn't matter, says, oh, he's not serious, you're out of your mind at this point. You have to listen to what's happening."

"Also, I mean, if you read the judge's judgment in the civil fraud trial, it talks about Trump's behavior, not just being bad, not just being impossible to stop, being pathological," she added. "You have to ask the question, what is going on here? He's absolutely doing something for himself or for Putin. It is the opposite of patriotism, opposite of dedication to this country."

Watch the video below or at this link.

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