'Really hard to believe': Morning Joe rips Trump for continued praise of Putin despite Ukraine debacle

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough ripped Donald Trump for continuing to defend Vladimir Putin despite his invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian economy has been hobbled by punishing sanctions, and Ukraine has held strong for five days, but the former U.S. president had nothing but praise for Putin's intelligence.

"It is hard really to believe that -- and you covered this guy for years -- that even with a European invasion going on," Scarborough said, "even with the world standing up and speaking out against Vladimir Putin he still insists this week in saying the invasion was beautiful, it was brilliant, Vladimir Putin -- even not backing down from that, talking about how smart he was to say that they were peacekeepers and what powerful, great peacekeepers they were, or the strongest peacekeepers, something along those lines, along, of course, with the former secretary of state Mike Pompeo who was talking -- again, praising to high heavens Vladimir Putin."

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"This is the same guy who swore two years ago to a reporter saying that nobody gave a blank about Ukraine, and Donald Trump won't back down," Scarborough added. "He is still talking about how smart Vladimir Putin is, when Putin has made one of the most -- one of the grandest miscalculations on the world stage of anybody in our lifetime."

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