On Wednesday's edition of CNN's "The Situation Room," domestic correspondent Jim Acosta tore into former President Donald Trump's continued praise for Vladimir Putin — and highlighted the tension it is creating in the GOP and among his own allies.
"How do you say 'there is no bottom' in Russian?" said Acosta. "That is where we are right now with Donald Trump. None of this should be surprising. If you look how Trump fawned over Putin, kowtowed to Putin over the past five years, this is perfectly in character. You'll recall in 2016 when he invited the Russians to find Hillary Clinton's emails, his own family met with the Russians at Trump Tower. The Helsinki moment, when Trump said he trusted Putin more than the U.S. intelligence community. At one point Donald Trump held up military hardware to Ukraine in an attempt to shake down the Ukrainians for dirt on Joe Biden, that was how he got impeached the first time around."
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Acosta went on to say that even a former adviser to Trump expressed misgivings about how this has played out.
"I asked a Trump adviser about what Trump has been saying about Putin over the last couple days earlier today," continued Acosta. "This Trump adviser said it was 'sloppy' the way that Donald Trump went about doing this. He meant to say that Biden got outplayed by Vladimir Putin. But this adviser went on to say there's no doubt about it, this is humiliating. It's humiliating to see an ex-president praising Vladimir Putin in this fashion."
Acosta then discussed the rift that Russia's attack on Ukraine has opened up within the GOP.
"You do have some Republicans like Ted Cruz praising Joe Biden at how he's doling out sanctions," he said. "Then you have people like Josh Hawley inside the Republican Party who are essentially spouting Russian talking points, asking why should Americans go and fight the Russians over in Ukraine when that's never going to happen. So this is just not the party of Ronald Reagan anymore. It's the party of Donald Trump and the party of appeasement."
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Jim Acosta says Trump adviser found his praise for Putin "humiliating"www.youtube.com
