On Sunday’s broadcast of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” former National Security Council Senior Director Fiona Hill insisted former President Donald Trump, despite being out of office for more than a year, played a role in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine.
Hill argued that Trump’s request for a “personal favor” set the wheels in motion for the invasion.
“[I] think there’s just the one point that sums everything up that you yourself touched on is that President Trump at a pretty critical period, withheld military assistance to Ukraine that was desperate for it at that particular junction, basically to get Volodymyr Zelensky to do him a personal favor,” Hill said.
She insisted that the request, which would later play a role in Trump’s first impeachment, was a signal of weakness to Putin.
“Well, that sends a message to Putin that Ukraine is a plaything for him, and for himself as well, and for the United States,” she added. And that nobody’s really serious about protecting Ukraine. And that was ultimately a sign of weakness. It’s our political divisions, our parties are infighting, which was on full display there, that Putin I think is quite shocked now that we’ve got some collective action together.”
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