Rachel Maddow noted on Thursday's show that Trump's repeating Kremlin propaganda on the Russian invasion of Afghanistan is just one example of how Trump parrots Putin talking points. On Friday's "Deadline: White House" Nicolle Wallace spoke to Chuck Rosenberg about Robert Mueller's observation of all that in connection to Trump's alleged conspiracy with the Russian government.
Tick. Tock.
NICOLLE WALLACE: Donald Trump's now compilation of seemingly bizarre, seemingly random, seemingly, let me be blunt, just stupid comments about Russia, are probably, at this point, very likely under scrutiny by people investigating his relationship, his contacts, his coordination, if you will, with Russia.
CHUCK ROSENBERG: My goodness, Nicolle, they would have to be. We've wondered why Michael Flynn was debriefed 19 times. That struck us all as an extraordinary number. But maybe now we have a bit more insight into what the Mueller team and Department of Justice are looking at. This is extraordinarily serious. If not because it's a part of Mueller's initial remit, it's at least part of the counterintelligence investigation. Why is the president speaking about Russian interests with respect to Montenegro and Poland and Belarus and sort of a revisionist -- and that's to use the term loosely -- a revisionist history of why the Soviets invaded Afghanistan? It's extraordinary.
WALLACE: Chuck, you just blew my mind as you often do. Let me just press a little farther with you. So you're saying the counterintelligence investigation that was opened, we were led to believe, because of the actions of individuals like Carter Page, who seemed a little hapless, and George Papadopoulos who was mouthing off at a bar, could, by this point, extend to an examination of Trump's foreign policy utterances and conduct?
ROSENBERG: I think they have to. I don't mean to be an alarmist, but I think they have to. Here's why. The President of the United States is echoing directly the line of the Kremlin. On a whole bunch of things. And so whether or not it results in an indictment, whether or not it's something we ultimately can see, touch, feel and hear, this is something that US Intelligence officials have to understand. Why is the president saying what he's saying? Is he just wrong? Does he actually believe it? Or is something being fed to him with the intent of shaping his conduct, shaping his words and shaping his actions? These are incredibly important questions. It doesn't mean you and I will ever know the answer to it, but these are incredibly important questions.
