'Who's that good for?': Maddow connects the dots on Donald Trump's behavior toward Russia

Republicans are having a hard time with this they try to move on to the next question they express annoyance with their own constituents for asking about it they get brusk and short in their answers or like Senator Lisa marowski they just purport to be really perplexed really confused really scratching my head they have a hard time with this all the Republicans do especially the guy at the top you just mentioned Putin though and this has been this controversy the past week can you say yes or no whether you have talked to Vladimir Putin since you

stopped being president well I don't comment on that if I have a relation sound I don't I don't talk about no I don't talk about that talk about I don't talk about I don't talk about that I don't ever say why don't you talk about it I don't ever say about why not what does that mean I mean that that was right before the election but it continued after the elction ction and people get so mad when I play this tape people get very angry with me when I play this tape but you know honestly

bring it on makes me appreciate it all the more because clearly at least it strikes a nerve watch have you talked to President Putin no I have not you haven't talked to President Putin since you've been eled no well I don't want to say that but I haven't spoken to him recently so you've spoken to President Putin since you've I don't want to say that I don't want to say anything about that to talk who have you spoken to I don't want to say so you've already spoken of Vladimir Putin I don't want to say

that I don't you want to I don't want to say I don't want to say I can't say why can't you say why can't you say what precludes you from saying listen it's Friday night let's just do this let's just cut to the chase here let's do a little look see at the landscape to see why exactly it is so hard uh for Republicans to deal with this topic what exactly is so hard for Republicans to talk about what exactly is it that we are doing up to and including switching sides in a war but

it's it's not limited to that it's and it's all things that that don't seem like good news for the United States that makes them particularly hard to talk about but nevertheless with Donald Trump back in the white house we keep doing these things relentlessly and urgently and they all cut in the same direction and it's really hard for Republicans to explain because of what it obviously means it's clear why they do not want to talk about this stuff and it gets all the more clear when you just line this stuff up let me let me

show you what I mean here's one uh Donald Trump's handpicked attorney general she gets sworn in to lead the US justice department on her first day on the job what is the first thing she does headline us Cuts task forces on foreign influence and Russian sanctions quote in a memo sent to staff Wednesday us attorney general Pam Bondi revealed she had disbanded the foreign influence task force a unit dedicated to investigating violations of the foreign agents registration act Bondi did not elaborate but figures on the Republican party's conspiratorial far right have accused the government of

abusing Farah to unfairly Target political operatives like Paul manfor Trump's 2016 campaign chair who was indicted in a probe into Russian influence in that Year's us election also on Wednesday the day of her swearing in Bondi disbanded task force klepto capture an initiative started in 20122 to enforce sanctions against Russia who's all that good for shutting down the foreign influence task force shutting down enforcement of the foreign agents registration act and getting rid of the task force that enforces sanctions against Russia who are all those things good for why' we do those things and so

urgently her first day on the job uh here's another one which happened that same day quote in a little notice directive on her first day in office attorney general Pam Bondi ordered a halt to a years- old federal law enforcement effort to combat secret influence campaigns by China Russia and other adversaries that try to Curry favor and sew chaos in American politics buried on the fourth page of one of 14 policy memos Bondi issued Wednesday the order disbands the FBI's foreign infl infuence task force last year just dep justice department prosecutors and FBI agents exposed

an alleged scheme in which Russia backed media funneled $10 million to a conservative Us Media company that hired prominent right-wing influencers here's how the New York Times bannered that one bluntly quote Trump dismantles government fight against foreign influence operations dozens of employees who had been working to fight foreign interference in US elections have been reassigned or forced out that includes not only the FBI but also sisa the cyber security division at Homeland Security which we soon learned um the president's top campaign donor had installed a 19-year-old operative who reportedly personally operates websites in Russia and

who has been associated with multiple criminal cyber hacking gangs that's who the president's top campaign donor installed at s giving him full access to systems and data at the US government cyber security agency a 19-year-old kid with ties to Russia and cyber crime who's that good for how do you explain to your constituents who that's good for and why we are doing that as a country and what else what else is hard to explain to Ye Old constituents when it comes to that radical switch in the US government that Lisa marowski described how about this

headline CIA plan's largest mass firing in nearly 50 years well that's good for someone who's that good for that came right after this oh Trump's new handpicked CIA director sent a list of CIA employees to the White House in an unclassified email quote current officials confirm that the CIA had sent the names of employees to the office of personnel management complying with an executive order signed by president Trump Senator Mark Warner top Democrat on the intelligence committee wrote that the sharing of the officers names was a quote disastrous National Security development one former agency officer

called the reporting of the names in an unclassified email a quote Counter Intelligence disaster ah yes a disaster for the United States and for us intelligence in particular but very good news for someone hey speaking of things that ought to be classified headline how Trump's security clearances order could make the us vulnerable the plan to give temporary security clearances without background checks opens the door to breaches and Espionage experts say giving out security clearances without background checks that look for things like you know criminal entanglements lots of debt anything that they could blackmail you over

or any contacts with foreign governments to make sure that you're not you know secretly working for we're not doing the background checks anymore Trump just has ordered that the classified material be made available to whoever he says with no checks that doesn't seem like good news for the United States but again it's good news for someone uh how about when they decided that the first agency they would destroy would be usaid who cheered the loudest for that Russia welcomes usaid Cuts calls agency machine for interfering yeah it was it was fantastic news for someone no

one was seen to benefit more or to be more loudly cheering it on than Vladimir Putin and that was before the specific news confirmed today that among the projects Trump is explicitly and specifically turning off right now this week is the program by which the US helps Ukraine keep its electric grid up and running even though Russia has repeatedly targeted that electric grid throughout the war because Russia's idea of how it wants to win the unprovoked war it declared on our Ally is to make the civilian population including kids and the elderly and hospital patients

and everyone their best idea for how to prosecute that war is to cause them to freeze to death by bombing the electric grid in February so more than any other evident targeting they have targeted the electric grid that serves the civilian population in Ukraine it is the United States that has helped Ukraine masterfully keep the power grid up despite those repeated onslaughts by Russia until this week when Trump just cut it off which is good news for someone right president dressed up the defense secretary he handpicked off the cast of The Fox and Friends Weekend

show put him in a bright blue suit and sent him to Europe where he volunteered unasked that Ukraine can't be expected to keep all of its own territory he said that would be quote unrealistic it would be quote unrealistic to not let Russia take parts of Ukraine he then volunteered on asked that Ukraine will not be allowed to join NATO now we've got prot Trump Republican Senators saying yeah not just Ukraine won't be allowed in NATO we ought to get out of nat too which of course would collapse NATO who would that most benefit who

for whom would that be really really good news Donald Trump says let's let Russia back into the G7 Donald Trump is reportedly preparing right now for his own big in-person Summit with Vladimir Putin Donald Trump already started highlevel meetings between the Russian and US governments including inex an inexplicable three and a half hour meeting specifically between the president's real estate friend and Vladimir Putin himself Steve witkoff came back from that meeting and how'd that go went pretty well for someone headline paring Putin and Trump witkoff says Russia was Ed into invading Ukraine headline Trump Envoy

can't name a single concession Russia will make in peace deal what does it seem like is going on here imagine if a foreign adversary imagine if the Putin government somehow could just do a thought experiment imagine they could somehow exert control or influ uence over the government of the United States what do you think the Putin government would have the US government do if he could control it what kind of headlines would you expect to see about the operations of our government under that kind of a scenario and what would you expect the news out

of the Oval Office and the White House to look like on a day like today for