Friday on MSNBC’s “The Weeknight,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) said President Donald Trump was “taking concrete actions that hurt Americans,” while dealing with other nations.
Coons said, “Europe and the United States came together around sanctions on Putin and Putin’s Russia when they launched a brutal invasion of all of Ukraine, not their initial invasion in 2014, but the full scale invasion in 2022. Putin is funding his war machine in his aggression against Ukraine, based on oil exports. Hungary’s authoritarian leader was in the oval today asking our president for a special exemption and for some encouragement and support in his reelection. Now, this is the leading person, the leading authoritarian in Europe other than Putin, but member of EU who is backsliding on democracy, who’s oppressed or arrested journalists, who’s knocked out some of the core underpinnings of a free and fair society and President Trump is saying these things about him. i think it suggests both that he doesn’t understand how sanctions work and that he doesn’t understand how a democracy works.”
He added, “President Trump isn’t just expressing admiration for Putin, he isn’t just expressing admiration for Milei of Argentina or for Bolsonaro, he’s taking concrete actions that hurt Americans. The price of coffee has gone up dramatically because of the 50% tariffs that he’s imposed on Brazil, to punish them for going after Bolsonaro for his anti-democratic actions. So there’s lots of ways in which he’s not just saying, I want to emulate these authoritarians, he’s also acting against countries that are our democratic partners. In a world where Canada is actively disfavored and Hungry, elevated. you have to question our president’s commitment to democracy.”
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