'Very strange': Lawmaker flags most 'revealing' part of Trump's 'hot mic moment'
A Democratic lawmaker revealed her concerns about a comment by President Donald Trump about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The U.S. president's whispered comments to French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this week were unwittingly picked up on a nearby microphone, and Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) told "CNN News Central" what worried her about Trump saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin would agree to end his invasion of Ukraine to hand him a victory – "as crazy as it sounds."
"I encourage Mr. Trump to use the leverage that he has," Dean said. "We are the indispensable nation in the end of this, but we also have friends and allies that we must lift up. The European allies who came there should be a trilateral meeting. Mr. Trump should want to champion that, but as I say, I'm very concerned about the erratic nature of the Trump administration's diplomacy. Walking right up to Mr. Putin in Alaska and warmly welcoming him, contrast that with what happened on Feb. 28 with [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy in the Oval Office and the shameful display by the vice president and the president there. I wish we could keep the president, our president, on a course that says Putin is the murderous dictator. He will not dictate whether or not they can have security, relationships with, with Ukraine. I wish the president would see this clear-eyed."
"Something that was revealing to me was that hot mic moment," Dean added. "You heard that Mr. President, Trump, said that he thought Putin wants to do this 'for me.' It's a very strange ending of that sentence. If you were really interested in peace and diplomacy and an end to the killing and a return of the children, you wouldn't be talking about 'for me.'"
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