Peter Alexander: Trump’s ‘Decision to Not Meet with Putin Is a Sign of Weakness’

After spending much of the last two years attacking President Trump for being too friendly with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, MSNBC’s Peter Alexander leveled an attack on Trump for … not agreeing to meet with Putin.

Trump announced Thursday he was calling off his planned Putin meeting at the upcoming G-20 over Russia’s recent belligerence toward Ukraine. 

After the announcement, Alexander called it a “sign of weakness.”

“It was striking to me to hear President Trump and those comments on the south lawn before boarding Marine One, referring to Michael Cohen as a weak person,” Alexander said. “Because I think critics of the president would also say that his decision today not to meet with Vladimir Putin is perhaps a sign of weakness for a man who always likes to cast himself as a strong president, because he will not now — he forfeits the opportunity to stand side by side with Vladimir Putin and condemn him to his face before the world community as he would have had the opportunity to do when the two men meet just a couple of days from now.”

Here’s a transcript of the exchange:

MITCHELL: “... now know is that the Putin summit is off. This is the first time despite all of the pressure over the last few years, the first time we’ve seen this president —“
ALEXANDER: “Yeah.”
MITCHELL: “— really pushback against Vladimir Putin on a substantive issue, not in the past on the campaign violations, not certainly in Helsinki, not after a series of aggressions around the world, but suddenly a cancellation as soon as he takes off in Air Force One.”
ALEXANDER: “Well, at least that’s the way the White House is casting and the president in his own words on Twitter today, Andrea. But it was striking to me to hear President Trump and those comments on the south lawn before boarding Marine One, referring to Michael Cohen as a weak person. Because I think critics of the president would also say that his decision today not to meet with Vladimir Putin is perhaps a sign of weakness for a man who always likes to cast himself as a strong president, because he will not now — he forfeits the opportunity to stand side by side with Vladimir Putin and condemn him to his face before the world community as he would have had the opportunity to do when the two men meet just a couple of days from now. That meeting was scheduled for Saturday. It’s notable that within the last half hour or so, we are now hearing via reports in the region including state media that the Kremlin through a Kremlin spokesperson says that it has yet to receive any official confirmation that that meeting has been cancelled. The Kremlin spokesperson saying that the Kremlin found out by social media through the president’s own tweets. We know that Vladimir Putin is now en route to Argentina where that really what’s going to be perhaps one of the most significant meetings and all eyes will be focused on for the visit here. But I emphasize this point, because even earlier this month at that news conference after the midterm election, we heard from President Trump where he criticized Barack Obama, his predecessor, basically saying that he was to blame, that he had showed weakness by allowing the Russia’s acts of aggression by its annexation of Crimea. And I think a lot of the critics will see the president forfeiting this meeting with Vladimir Putin and may criticize him for not standing up to Vladimir Putin to his face over the latest act of aggressions by the Russians.”
MITCHELL: “Peter Alexander, such useful information from Argentina.”