Journalists blame Trump's election, Capitol riot for Russia invading Ukraine
It's becoming a common talking point among the media
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Despite being out of office for over a year, former President Donald Trump is being blamed by some journalists for Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine under President Biden’s watch.
Some members of the media also blamed the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riots for Russia's attack on Ukraine. On Thursday, historian and journalist Garrett Graff, a CNN contributor, urged his Twitter followers to remember this foreign war was Trump’s fault.
Former President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
"One thing worth keeping in my mind today: There’s a straight line from Russia’s attack on the US election in 2016 to 1/6 to today’s new invasion of Ukraine. The chaos that Russia unleashed with the election of Trump weakened us to the point Putin feels confident invading Europe," he wrote.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}TED CRUZ: RUSSIA INVADED UKRAINE BECAUSE OF 'CATASTROPHIC' MISTAKES BY BIDEN ADMINISTRATION
President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin. (AP)
"I wrote in 2017 that Russia’s election attack was probably the most successful intelligence operation in history, and today’s developments bear out just how much it changed the world stage and how much space it gave Putin to operate," he concluded.
Journalists from CNN and other media outlets latched on to Graff’s claims. CNN White House correspondent John Harwood praised his analysis.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}John Harwood of Wall Street Journal and CNBC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
"Another way of stating Garrett's point: the Russian thug now attacking Ukraine helped Donald Trump become president because he thought that would some day make this kind of attack easier to pull off. He was right in the short term, longer term TBD [to be determined]," he tweeted.
The Washington Post’s fact-checker Glenn Kessler and NBC/MSNBC news analyst Howard Fineman also retweeted Graff’s initial tweet blaming the election of Trump in 2016 and the Capitol Hill riot over a year ago for "weakening" the United States and emboldening Putin.
SEXTON BLASTS 'INTELLECTUALLY INDEFENSIBLE' MADDOW BLOG POST ON PUTIN INVASION TIMING
Many in the liberal media have spun Putin’s invasion as the former president’s fault to deflect blame from how President Biden is perceived on the world stage, critics say.
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MSNBC host Rachel Maddow’s blog, Maddowblog, claimed this week that Putin waited to invade Ukraine because Trump gave the Kremlin what it wanted. MSNBC host Tiffany Cross, MSNBC analysts Elise Jordan and John Heilemann all have argued on-air that Russian aggression against Ukraine is a result of the former president’s friendliness with Putin.