CNN's Jim Sciutto challenged a conservative commentator to justify Donald Trump's weakness against Russia, and then moved on when he was unimpressed with his response.
The TV host started out by asking Republican strategist Brad Todd why the president had made concessions to Russia heading into negotiations to wind down the war in Ukraine after antagonizing U.S. allies.
"When you look at this, Brad, entering a negotiation, Trump has already said Ukraine is going have to give up territory, it will not be a member of NATO, and he's also saying he wants to welcome Russia back into G7," Sciutto said. "Of course, he was kicked out because of the invasion. Help me understand why with allies, Trump begins with maximalist positions. You think of Canada, 51st state, Denmark. I'm going to take Greenland, Panama, I'm going to take over the canal. But on this he makes concessions prior to the negotiation. Is that strong? Is that strength?"
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Todd sidestepped and blamed the situation on former president Barack Obama.
"The question that was asked was, should Ukraine return to its pre-2014 borders?" Todd said. "That's when Russia invaded Crimea and took it from Ukraine, and Barack Obama did absolutely nothing to stop him, and so I think that's the original sin in this situation in Ukraine, and both president [Joe] Biden and president Trump have struggled to put the genie back in the bottle for Obama's failure to stop Russia from taking over Ukraine. I hope he takes a hard line."
"Trump is president now," Sciutto interrupted. "[He's] saying he's willing to allow Russia to keep territory that it invaded, which would be the first time, we should note, since World War II that a leader of a country would be allowed to take territory and keep it by force."
"Jim, that's false," Todd countered. "Barack Obama let Russia keep Crimea after they invaded Crimea. He did nothing to stop it, that's just a false assertion."
"I've written a lot about that," Sciutto responded. "He did not recognize the annexation. That's the point, that's the difference."
"He did nothing to stop him," Todd added. "He said he did nothing to stop – he said he said he couldn't do it because of Russian identity there."
Sciutto seemed to have heard enough and moved on to another panelist.
"I understand you're not willing to criticize anything president Trump will say," Sciutto said.
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