'Total idiot': Dem lawmaker gobsmacked that Trump envoy is echoing the Kremlin
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, didn't try to hide his dismay Monday when asked about a top U.S. official echoing Vladimir Putin's talking Points on Ukraine.
Steve Witkoff, U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, told Fox News over the weekend that some parts of Ukraine are "Russian territory."
Witkoff also appeared on former Fox News host Tucker Carlson's podcast and CNN's Kate Bolduan played a clip of Witkoff telling Carlson that "There have been referendums where the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule."
Moulton reacted with total disbelief.
"It's just insane, and I think we've known for a while that Tucker Carlson is on the Kremlin's side and has been for some time, but now the lead negotiator for the United States is taking the Tucker Carlson/Putin position on these negotiations. He's literally negotiating for the other side, negotiating for the aggressor, negotiating for the violator of international law. And what does he say? He says, 'Oh, I take Putin at his word.' Is this guy a total idiot? Is he just completely naïve?"
ALSO READ: 'Not much I can do': GOP senator gives up fight against Trump's tariffs
Moulton then suggested that Witkoff was being "paid off by Russia."
Bolduan interjected, "I get your point, but there's no evidence that that has been presented, that there's any payoff that has actually been happening to Steve Witkoff."
"I'm not I'm not saying there's any evidence," Moulton acknowledged. "I'm just trying to understand why on earth would a U.S. negotiator takes our adversary's side? I mean, Reagan must be rolling over in his grave here. The Republican Party has become subservient to Russia."
Boulduan read a portion of a new Time Magazine interview with Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky that read, "I believe Russia has managed to influence some people on the White House Team through information. Their signal to Americans was that Ukraine doesn't want to end the war and something should be done to force them.
Moulton claimed that Zelenskyy was trying to introduce some reality "that the trump Team apparently can't figure out because Vadimir Putin is a KGB agent who is playing Trump like a violin."