David Edwards
March 23, 2025
RAW STORY
Fox News/screen grab
Fox News/screen grab
Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump's special envoy, argued that it "doesn't matter" whether or not Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to take over Europe.
During an interview on Fox News Sunday, Witkoff told host Shannon Bream that Putin "wants peace" in Ukraine despite overnight attacks that killed at least seven people.
"You're convinced that he's not going to go further or have aspirations towards Europe," Bream noted. "Why are you convinced that he won't press further? If he's given some reward or some territory this time around?"
"This is not me taking sides," Witkoff insisted. "Now, I've been asked my my opinion about what President Putin's motives are on a larger scale. And I simply have said that I just don't see that he wants to take all of Europe. This is a much different situation than it was in World War Two."
"To me, it just — it just — I take him at his word in this sense," he continued. "So, and I think the Europeans are beginning to come to that belief, too. But it sort of doesn't matter."
"The real issue here, the agenda set forth by President Trump, he is my boss. And I adhere to that fact that the agenda is stop the killing, stop the carnage. Let's end this thing."
Watch the video below from Fox News.
Putin not a 'bad guy,' Trump envoy says
Agence France-Presse
March 23, 2025
Longtime Donald Trump friend, golf buddy and investor Steven Witkoff speaks at the RNC (Photo: Screen capture via PBS video)
White House envoy Steve Witkoff has praised Vladimir Putin in glowing terms as trustworthy and said the Russian leader told him he had prayed for his "friend" US President Donald Trump when he was shot.
Witkoff met with Putin over multiple hours last week in Moscow and told US media the talks -- which involved discussions about forging a path towards ending Russia's war in Ukraine -- were constructive and "solution-based."
In an interview with right-wing podcast host Tucker Carlson, the envoy said he has come to regard Putin as not a "bad guy," and that the Russian president was a "great" leader seeking to end Moscow's deadly three-year conflict with Kyiv.
"I liked him. I thought he was straight up with me," Witkoff said in the interview aired Friday.
"I don't regard Putin as a bad guy. That is a complicated situation, that war, and all the ingredients that led up to it."
He also described a "personal" element of the discussion in which Putin recalled his reaction to the assassination attempt on Trump in July 2024 as the Republican held a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Putin "told me a story... about how when the president was shot, he went to his local church and met with his priest and prayed for the president," Witkoff said.
"Not because... he could become the president of the United States, but because he had a friendship with him and he was praying for his friend."
Putin had commissioned a "beautiful portrait of President Trump from a leading Russian artist," and asked the envoy to take it home to Trump, Witkoff added.
"It was such a gracious moment."
Witkoff's gushing praise of a president long seen by the United States as an autocratic adversary highlights the dramatic turn in Washington's approach to dealings with the Kremlin since Trump took office for a second presidential term.
Witkoff also said Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky was facing tough choices ahead and that the president should recognize it is time for him to "get a deal done" with Moscow.
Zelensky is "in a very, very difficult situation, but he's up against a nuclear nation," Witkoff said. "So he's got to know that he's going to get ground down. Now is the best time for him to get a deal done."
Witkoff's comments essentially were delivered on friendly ground. Carlson is a controversial former Fox News star who conducted what was widely considered to be a rare but soft interview with Putin last year.
Carlson has also been a leading propagator of pro-Kremlin narratives in the United States.
Agence France-Presse
March 23, 2025
Longtime Donald Trump friend, golf buddy and investor Steven Witkoff speaks at the RNC (Photo: Screen capture via PBS video)
White House envoy Steve Witkoff has praised Vladimir Putin in glowing terms as trustworthy and said the Russian leader told him he had prayed for his "friend" US President Donald Trump when he was shot.
Witkoff met with Putin over multiple hours last week in Moscow and told US media the talks -- which involved discussions about forging a path towards ending Russia's war in Ukraine -- were constructive and "solution-based."
In an interview with right-wing podcast host Tucker Carlson, the envoy said he has come to regard Putin as not a "bad guy," and that the Russian president was a "great" leader seeking to end Moscow's deadly three-year conflict with Kyiv.
"I liked him. I thought he was straight up with me," Witkoff said in the interview aired Friday.
"I don't regard Putin as a bad guy. That is a complicated situation, that war, and all the ingredients that led up to it."
He also described a "personal" element of the discussion in which Putin recalled his reaction to the assassination attempt on Trump in July 2024 as the Republican held a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Putin "told me a story... about how when the president was shot, he went to his local church and met with his priest and prayed for the president," Witkoff said.
"Not because... he could become the president of the United States, but because he had a friendship with him and he was praying for his friend."
Putin had commissioned a "beautiful portrait of President Trump from a leading Russian artist," and asked the envoy to take it home to Trump, Witkoff added.
"It was such a gracious moment."
Witkoff's gushing praise of a president long seen by the United States as an autocratic adversary highlights the dramatic turn in Washington's approach to dealings with the Kremlin since Trump took office for a second presidential term.
Witkoff also said Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky was facing tough choices ahead and that the president should recognize it is time for him to "get a deal done" with Moscow.
Zelensky is "in a very, very difficult situation, but he's up against a nuclear nation," Witkoff said. "So he's got to know that he's going to get ground down. Now is the best time for him to get a deal done."
Witkoff's comments essentially were delivered on friendly ground. Carlson is a controversial former Fox News star who conducted what was widely considered to be a rare but soft interview with Putin last year.
Carlson has also been a leading propagator of pro-Kremlin narratives in the United States.
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