It's not often that television hosts find themselves put in the position of being part of the news instead of reporting what happened to other people. But Fareed Zakaria--the same "analyst" who laughably claimed that "Donald Trump became president" after bombing Syria--found himself the unwitting tool of Donald Trump's desire to take down Joe Biden to win re-election.
As he does with many world leaders, Zakaria and his staff reached out to Ukrainian president Vlodomyr Zelensky after his historic win for an interview. As they negotiated the particulars--where, when, in English or with translators, et al., Zelensky and his staffers had their own agenda: they were planning to use this interview to announce the investigations that Trump had demanded (read: extorted) in order for Ukraine to get the funding Congress had mandated.
But then the media got wind of the whistleblower report and the Democratic majority announced an investigation into the withholding of funds and voila! the funds were suddenly released. The need to be on GPS was no longer a necessary mechanism and the interview was scuttled.
Zakaria said Thursday that it was his belief that the White House did not specifically request that Zelensky appear on "Fareed Zakaria GPS" but simply that it should be a televised interview.
He added that he had no idea that Zelensky had planned to announce Ukraine's investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Asked for his reaction when he found out that Zelensky's announcement would have been on his show, Zakaria replied, "You win some, you lose some. I would have loved to have it. He's a fascinating guy. I still would love to have an interview with him one of these days."
While semi-interesting as a footnote in history, it is also notable in how it lays to waste the Republican talking point that Zelensky was unaware of the withholding of funds and that he didn't have to do anything to get the funds released.
Zelensky was very much aware and very much willing to do whatever it took. Per The New York Times, the Zelensky administration made the calculus "that American military aid and diplomatic support during upcoming peace talks were worth the risk of seeming to support Trump in the American political process."
It was only the work of people who actually care about the rule of law and respecting our electoral sovereignty coming forward that kept CNN from being used to thwart democracy and help Vladimir Putin.
