
Stephen A. Smith on Monday slammed President Trump for not securing a peace deal with Russia and Ukraine despite his promises on the campaign trail.
“The reality is, and excuse my language, he opened his mouth and deposited checks his a‑‑ can’t cash. That’s really what it comes down to,” Smith said during a Monday evening appearance on NewsNation’s “Cuomo.”
“You got to be able to end this war. You talked a lot of stuff about ending this war and how you would end it in one day. Now, we recognize that that’s hyperbole. We understand that something like that is not going to end in one day,” he added.
Smith noted that Trump failed to punish Russia for not advancing peace talks as outlined ahead of his Friday summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“What I care about is the fact that you promised a ceasefire or severe consequences before the meeting, and in the immediate aftermath of a meeting, there was no ceasefire agreement,” Smith told anchor Chris Cuomo.
“And a matter of fact, you seem damn near friendly towards him, acting like the meeting was productive. Well, where’s the evidence? We don’t see any,” he added.
“As of yet, there hasn’t been a ceasefire that’s been achieved … it’s going to take some time to accomplish that. We understand that too, but in the time that it takes to accomplish that, what is Putin going to do? Chances are he’s going to bomb Ukraine even more, so chances are he’s going to try to gain more territory,” Smith said.
“He’s going to continue to kill more Ukrainians. That’s the likelihood,” he added.
He told Cuomo that Putin “got a photo-op, he got a chance to be on American soil, and he avoided to agree to a ceasefire or anything else.”
“So it was a pretty damn good day for Putin as far as we can tell, good day for an authoritarian leader.”
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