A former Pentagon spokeswoman knocked down a defense of President Donald Trump's special envoy as he attempts to negotiate an end to Russia's bloody invasion of Ukraine.
The president defended special envoy Steve Witkoff, a longtime friend from the New York real estate world, after a leaked recording appeared to show him coaching a Russian official on how to appeal to Trump, and a former member of his transition team downplayed the matter.
"President Trumpran this election saying he wasgoing to, you know, try to bringpeace as quickly as possible," Lanza said. "It's turned out to be a littlebit more difficult. He'semployed somebody as a long-termrelationship with to show the Russians how serious he takesthese negotiations, and it'ssloppy. Diplomacy is sloppy.Before we got the agreement withthat, you had in the Middle East, you had multiple potentialagreements that just thatsputtered and didn't end upanywhere. The fact is, is thisadministration, this president,is putting focus on trying tobring a resolution to the mass killing that's takingplace."
"Nitpicking doesn't matterbecause at the end of the day,the results are going to be whatthe results are," Lanza added.
Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright argued that Trump was elevating Putin by holding unilateral meetings with him and granting concessions to Russia despite their aggression, but Lanza disagreed.
"How do you resolve it without talkingto the Russians?" Lanza said. "Guys, he is sanctioning Russian companies left and right,and Russian individuals. Thatdoesn't feel like a concessionsto me."
Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon deputy press secretary under former President Joe Biden, heard enough.
"I'm sorry," she interrupted. "You do not give in and allow the country that was invadedto give concessions to thataggressor, and I think what'simportant here is what thetranscript showed from that Bloomberg reporting is Steve Witkoff is so out of his depththat he's, I mean, people spendyears studying how to approachthe approach the Russians andnegotiate with them. Putin is amaster manipulator, someone thatran, you know, the highest levelof the intel service."
"He ran circles around Obama and Biden," Lanza interjected. "You're right."
"Well, he'sbeing able to manipulate Witkoff, I think," Singh fired back, "as well ashis own puppet, and frankly, Donald Trump, I mean, look atthe red carpet that we rolledout for this on the world stage,like he's giving Putin anaudience and attention, andthat's what he lives for. It'salmost like we're empoweringhim."