NBC News’ “Meet the Press” anchor Chuck Todd put Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) on blast after the Republican pushed yet another unhinged conspiracy theory about Ukraine election interference on Sunday.
During his interview with Todd, Kennedy admitted he was wrong to argue last week that Ukraine, not Russia, may have hacked the DNC’s email server in 2016; one of President Donald Trump’s debunked conspiracy theories that allegedly originated from the Kremlin itself.
However, Kennedy still insisted that Russia and Ukraine had both meddled in the 2016 elections–and then he made the astounding claim that former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had “actively worked for” Hillary Clinton.
“Russia was very aggressive and they are much more sophisticated,” the Republican senator said. “But the fact that Russia was so aggressive does not exclude the fact that President Poroshenko actively worked for Secretary Clinton.”
Todd was visibly flabbergasted.
“‘Actively worked for Secretary’–I mean, my goodness, wait a minute Senator Kennedy, you now have the president of Ukraine saying he actively worked for the Democratic nominee for president. I mean, now come on,” he said. “I mean, I gotta put up–you realize the only other person selling this argument outside the United States is this man, Vladimir Putin?”
The NBC News host then read aloud a recent quote from Russian President Vladmir Putin applauding the spread of the Ukraine election hacking conspiracy theory among U.S. lawmakers.
“You just accused a former president of Ukraine. You’ve done exactly what the Russian operation is trying to get American politicians to do,” Todd told Kennedy. “Are you at all concerned that you’ve been duped?”
“No, because you–just read the articles,” the Republican said without specifying exactly which articles he was referring to.
Watch Todd and Kennedy below:
WATCH: @ChuckTodd asks @SenJohnKennedy if he is "at all concerned that he has been duped" into believing that former Ukraine president worked for the Clinton campaign in 2016 #MTP #IfItsSunday@SenJohnKennedy: "No, just read the articles." pic.twitter.com/A0rLu03F8j
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) December 1, 2019
