Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) opened an interview on CNN Tuesday evening by slamming the network’s reporting on the Trump administration’s ongoing negotiations with Ukraine.
Murphy joined The Situation Room, where host Wolf Blitzer asked him to respond to reports President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had come to terms on a rare earth mineral deal.
Murphy was listening in as Blitzer got an update on the negotiations from CNN correspondent Nick Paton Walsh.
After being welcomed to the show, Murphy blasted Walsh’s reporting.
Blitzer asked the CNN reporter about the strained relations between Trump and Zelensky and about the mineral deal – which Trump has insisted on as payment for U.S. taxpayers assisting Ukraine’s defensive war against Russia.
One line from Walsh appeared to irk Murphy – that exactly what Trump wants from Ukraine remained unclear.
“Look, I mean, it’s important to point out we don’t have full transparency as to what the White House says they’ve agreed to at this point,” Walsh reported. “They reframed it to, as they described it to us yesterday, as a reconstruction deal for Ukraine, saying that the finalized draft yesterday that was sent didn’t contain the security guarantees that Ukraine wanted but had also taken out some of the thornier items that had been asked for them by the Trump administration, leaving some of those ugly details for later discussions.”
After Walsh wrapped his update, Blitzer turned to Murphy for a live hit from the Capitol.
Blitzer said, “Senator, thanks so much for joining us. What’s your reaction, first of all, to this apparent deal between the Trump administration and Ukraine that would grant the U.S. access to its rare earth minerals in return for U.S. involvement in a reconstruction fund for Ukraine?”
Murphy immediately reacted to Walsh.
“Well, Wolf, I have a lot of respect for your reporters, but this notion that we don’t know what Trump is doing is nonsense,” Murphy said. “Donald Trump has been very consistent for years. He does not want to support Ukraine’s bid for independence, and he and the people that work for him increasingly are literally just spinning Kremlin propaganda.”
Watch above via CNN.
