MSNBC's Chuck Todd: Voters who believe Putin wouldn't have invaded Ukraine under Trump aren't based on 'logic'

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MSNBC anchor Chuck Todd suggested that voters are wrong to believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if President Trump was still in office. 

With Russia launching its attacks on Ukraine, many of President Biden's critics have alleged that such an invasion would not have occurred under the Trump presidency, pointing to the aggression Putin took under Presidents George W. Bush and Obama with the 2008 invasion of Georgia and the 2014 annexation of Crimea while making no similar moves during the past administration. 

The subject emerged during a panel discussion on Friday's installment of "MTP: Daily." 

MSNBC anchor Chuck Todd.  (William B. Plowman/NBC)

"There was this focus group - and it’s qualitative, not quantitative - where swing voters, Trump-Biden voters seem to buy the idea that Putin wouldn’t have done this in Trump was president," Todd said to Democratic strategist and former DNC spokesperson Xochitl Hinojosa. "How does the Democratic Party answer for that?

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Todd then went out of his way to vocally reject the notion voters believe about the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis.

"I don’t buy that," the MSNBC host stressed."I don’t think that matches logic, but voters do. That’s a perception issue."

Hinojosa first responded by calling the image of Trump being president during the current international crisis as "scary."

She went on to say that Democrats have to run on with a message that they are looking after "American interests" and point to Biden's "leadership" on the global stage. 

Earlier in the week, Todd went to bat for the Biden administration over how voters view the economy. 

The liberal host went off on polling that showed a majority of people think the economy is in either a recession or depression, declaring it was "just not true," and blaming the "right-wing echo chamber" for causing those views. He also accused Americans of not feeling "first world enough." 

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"Fifty-one percent believe the economy is in a recession or depression. I mean, look, it’s just not true," Todd exclaimed after NPR reporter Ayesha Rascoe argued that Biden wasn't able, as president, to actually do anything about the rising inflation rates plaguing the country, citing a USA Today-Suffolk University poll.

"This economy is frustrating. This economy with COVID has been — I’ve got money and I can’t find something. But my god, there’s jobs. There’s good jobs," he added. "Is this the right-wing echo chamber is better than the Democratic echo chamber? Or is there something else missing here?" 

"Meet the Press" moderator Chuck Todd. (Reuters/Ringo Chiu )

Jen Palmieri, a former White House communications director under the Obama administration, agreed with Todd and claimed that Democrats didn't just repeat what they were told to say, unlike Republicans. Republican strategist Matt Gorman pushed back, arguing that what people were feeling was broader than just the economic measurements, citing staff shortages and supply shortages.

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"We don't feel first world enough," Todd interrupted. "I want to tell people go live in another country and realize we have it pretty good here."

Fox News' Brandon Gillespie contributed to this report.