‘Whoa, whoa, whoa!’ Newsmax host abruptly cuts off reporter over Russian meddling remark

While discussing President Donald Trump’s upcoming visit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Newsmax host Bianca de la Garza cut off Politico reporter Daniel Lippman in a fiery exchange Wednesday after the journalist referenced past Russian election interference.

Political analysts are already questioning whether Trump’s past affinity for Putin will play into Russia’s hand at the negotiating table. Those questions have been of great interest to European leaders, who managed to secure a commitment from Trump on a few red lines.

Speaking to this commitment, Lippman referred to past incidents where he believed Trump was “played” by Putin, including in Russia's meddling in the 2016 election.

“I think the Europeans were very strong to make sure that Trump doesn't get played by Putin, because he has met Putin in the past where Trump has kind of taken Putin's line on election interference or other issues,” Lippman said, before being abruptly cut off by Garza.

“Whoa, whoa whoa!” Garza shouted. “Election interference? Don't go back to Russiagate because that's a whole other thing that we don't want to... yeah.”

Trump and his allies have fiercely rejected claims of Russian interference into the 2016 election, with his administration going as far as to launch an investigation into Obama administration officials – who they allege manufactured the claims – for “treason,” a criminal probe that even critics of the Russiagate narrative argued had “landed with a thud.”

“Played by Putin?” Garza continued. “He also just said that he's going to have more sanctions, he's told India, 'I'm going to put sanctions on you,' he's going to do this because he wants to starve Putin of the money to fund the war. So it's comments like that, 'he's getting played by Putin’… at least he's having the conversation, at least the meeting is happening. I'll let you continue here.”

Scheduled to take place in Alaska on Friday, Trump’s meeting with Putin is being closely watched by world leaders, with the two expected to discuss ways of ending the Russo-Ukrainian War, which in June reached more than one million casualties.

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