CNN host cuts off ex-lawmaker accusing Trump of being a Russian 'plant'
February 20, 2025
A former Republican lawmaker accused president Donald Trump of possibly being a Russian asset, but CNN's Jim Sciutto cut him off and redirected him.
Joe Walsh, a former GOP congressman and briefly a candidate in the 2020 Republican primary, veered off topic in a panel conversation about voters losing confidence in Trump's handling of the economy and suggested the basic elements of the "Russiagate" saga might be accurate.
"I apologize, Jim, I can't move past what we just talked about in the last segment," Walsh said. "Donald Trump is saying everything Vladimir Putin would say, and you mentioned the American people generally don't care about what's going on over there [in Ukraine]. The American president right now could be a plant, could be a Russian asset. I mean, think about that. Here I am, I know it's early in the morning to say something like that, but think about that, and if the American people don't care about that, that Putin might have something on Trump, that he's an asset, that he's a plant, that he's doing the bidding of Vladimir Putin – if the American people don't care about that, well – I'm sorry to get off the topic."
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"The thing is, listen," Sciutto said, interrupting Walsh. "We don't have evidence of that. I mean, the point about their positions being aligned, I think, is a different one."
"Identical," Walsh replied. "Everything he's done, everything he's said for eight or nine years is exactly what Vladimir Putin would say and want him to do."
In that earlier segment Walsh referenced, he claimed that Senate Republicans were disturbed by Trump cutting off aid to Ukraine and sidelining its leaders as the U.S. and Russia carve up the nation's territory and resources as conditions to end the Russian invasion.
"Straight up – he's siding with Putin," Walsh said. "Yeah, the president of the United States is siding with Vladimir Putin – period. We know, I know privately this is just pissing off Senate Republicans, especially, but Trump's hold on this party is a thousand times stronger than it was before November. So I think even among Senate Republicans, you're going to hear just a few grumbles when they should be publicly outraged about this."
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