A Democratic senator took to CNN on Tuesday to take a shot at the network's own reporters.
Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who sits on the foreign relations committee, joined Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room" to discuss a reported deal that President Donald Trump struck with Ukraine that grants the U.S. access to its rare earth minerals.
As part of the deal, the U.S. will be involved in a reconstruction fund for the war-torn country, Blitzer said, asking for Murphy's reaction.
CNN reporter Nick Paton Walsh told Blitzer they don't have "full transparency" into what the White House agreed to, but said a Ukrainian official described the terms as a "reconstruction deal" that omitted some of the "thornier details" that could resurface later. Walsh noted Trump has clearly shifted toward Russia's views in the invasion amid an "acrimonious" relationship with Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
A planned meeting with Zelenskyy will be closely watched as it'll tell many how committed Trump is to Ukraine, said Walsh.
But Murphy jabbed CNN's reporting to Blitzer.
ALSO READ: 'Gotta be kidding': Jim Jordan scrambles as he's confronted over Musk 'double standard'
"Well, Wolf, I have a lot of respect for your reporters, but this notion that we don't know what Trump is doing is nonsense," he said. "Donald Trump has been very consistent for years. He does not want to support Ukraine's bid for independence and he and the people that work for him are literally just spinning Kremlin propaganda."
Murphy noted that a Defense Department nominee earlier in the day refused to say Russia invaded Ukraine.
"Why? Because that is now the line of the Trump administration. To blame Ukraine for the war with Russia. This is an administration that is every day more and more consistently in bed with Kremlin interests. I don't know why, but it is making us a laughing stock all across the globe."
Murphy said he doesn't know much about the mineral deal, but predicted it will benefit U.S. oligarchs.
"That seems to maybe be the defining ethos of our foreign policy today," he said — what enriches Trump and other billionaires.
