The day after President Joe Biden characterized Russia’s brutality toward Ukraine as “genocide,” Donald Trump agreed last night that “what’s going on in Ukraine” is “a genocide.”
But while the assessment was welcome, if you’re thinking this would serve as the basis for Trump finally criticizing Vladimir Putin, think again.
It was a month ago when the former U.S. president appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program, and the host repeatedly tried to get the Republican to denounce Putin. Three times, Hannity put the ball on the tee; three times, Trump wouldn’t take a swing.
Last night, as New York magazine’s Jon Chait noted, Hannity tried again.
Referring back to their previous conversation, he asked Trump if Russia’s invasion was “evil.” Trump declined, instead ranting about the weakness of NATO: “I think in a hundred years, people are gonna look back and they’re going to say, ‘How did we stand back, and NATO stand back?’ — which, in many ways, I’ve called a paper tiger.” He did not concede Russia was morally wrong to invade.
There can be no doubt that Hannity was trying. After three failed attempts a month ago, the Fox News host specifically asked Trump, “I asked you the last time you were on, whether you think that this is evil in our time. Do you believe this is evil in our time?”
The expected answer was, “Yes.” What the former president offered instead was an odd, disjointed harangue criticizing NATO, NATO members, and our allies’ trade policies. European countries, the Republican added, are “every bit as bad as China.”
Remember, the question was about whether Russia’s genocidal invasion of Ukraine represents “evil in our time.”
As viewers saw heartbreaking footage of dead bodies being picked up in Ukraine on their screens, Trump proceeded to brag about his relationship with the dictator in Moscow. “I knew Putin very well — almost as well as I know you, Sean,” the former president told the Fox host.
Given that staffers from the Trump White House described Hannity as Trump’s “shadow” chief of staff, that’s quite a statement.
As part of the same boast, the Republican added, in reference to his conversations with Putin, “I will tell you, we talked about it, we talked about it a lot, he did want Ukraine, but I said, ‘You’re not going into Ukraine.’ He would never, ever have gone into Ukraine.” While such a conversation probably never occurred — Trump has a long history of describing the details of discussions that only happened in his imagination — it’s worth noting that Putin probably didn’t invade Ukraine during Trump’s term because the Russian leader saw an American president moving in a direction Moscow liked, and he saw no need to put that progress in jeopardy. Nevertheless, it would’ve been easy for Trump to criticize Putin during the interview. Hannity certainly seems to want him to. In fact, the criticisms would’ve offered a welcome counterbalance to the many instances in which the former president has complimented the Russian dictator since mid-February. But for some reason, Trump just couldn’t bring himself to do so. Asked about “evil,” the Republican’s attention shifted to our allies, not to the Russian war criminal. I wonder why that is.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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