MSNBC “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough on Monday weighed in on the prospect of a virtual debate between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russian leadership claims to be working on setting up the debate, but there is no indication the White House would accept the invitation.
Scarborough, pointing to polls online showing Putin’s approval rating “shot up in the Republican Party when Donald Trump was president,” called it “bizarre” to see GOP commentators cheering for the two to debate. He argued that the same commentators “bizarrely” think “Biden would be wiped out by Putin.”
“I know it sounds bizarre — certainly bizarre to people … who grew up either in families filled with cold warriors or who actually worked to help in small or large ways during the Cold War, but you’ve actually got Republicans and these anti-Democratic forces … and you could go through it, chapter and verse over the past several years about how we talk about Russian disinformation, but you actually have people on the far right who are … actually supportive of Vladimir Putin,” Scarborough asserted. “I mean, there are polls you can Google right now that show how Vladimir Putin’s approval rating shot up in the Republican Party when Donald Trump was president, but you can also see during the Ukraine-Russia skirmishes, right-wing commentators, cheering against Ukraine — cheering for Russia.”
He continued, “You see other people this past week actually bizarrely cheering for a Putin-Biden debate and bizarrely saying that Biden would be wiped out by Putin. Many of them are now puffing up Vladimir Putin in the same way that they’ve puffed up Donald Trump. It is bizarre.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent
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