As the liberal media continues to meltdown over former President Donald Trump’s alleged praise of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio urges Trump’s critics to lighten up.
In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, Rubio defended Trump as being sarcastic when he called Putin “savvy” and a “genius” in a recent interview.
Rubio also did something else that seems to be missing from the mainstream media’s narrative: pointing out that it was the Trump administration that sold Ukraine the weapons that has enabled the tiny nation to momentarily repel Russian forces, after former President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden paid plenty of lip service to help Ukraine, but ultimately did nothing.
“I heard that interview, OK? I’m not going off the press reports. I heard the interview. I didn’t hear him say that. I heard what I heard. A guy who was being sarcastic. He was saying, ‘Oh, look at this guy, he’s a genius, this, that and the other,” Rubio said in response to a question from “Squawk Box” co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin.
“The problem is people think Donald Trump is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He doesn’t talk like that! He doesn’t talk like some analyst at a think tank. He doesn’t talk like most people in Washington,” Rubio continued.
“But right after he said all that stuff — and I don’t agree with everything he’s ever said about Russia — right after he said all that stuff that people are pointing to, he talked about how we need to impose crushing sanctions,” Rubio added.
Rubio recalled joining other senators at a dinner that Biden hosted as vice president and asking him why Obama didn’t sell defensive weaponry to Ukraine. “We’re afraid they’ll use it, and start a bigger and broader conflict,” Biden replied.
“The Obama administration did not fund any sort of weaponry. … The Trump administration, for everything people want to talk about rhetorically, they did start the arming and equipping of Ukraine, and if it wasn’t for what the Trump administration did, and laid the groundwork for, there’s no way Ukraine would still be able to hold out today,” Rubio told the “Squawk Box” hosts.
When asked again if Trump should use such language, Rubio called it “unfortunate,” but added that the media will continue to twist the words of conservatives, such as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is now being portrayed as pro-Russia for saying something similar to Trump.
“Unfortunately, we live in a moment like this, and maybe we have for a long time, where you gotta be careful with every word that you say, because a media narrative will be created against you.”
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This is the age of “pick apart” every word out of your mouth. He is right.