After CNN Reports About Trump-Zelenskyy Deal, Chris Murphy Opens Interview with ‘I Have a Lot of Respect for Your Reporters, But... ‘

BLITZER: “Tonight, the U.S. and Ukraine reaching a deal over natural resources and reconstruction for the war-torn nation. CNN‘s Nick Paton Walsh is joining us live now from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. Nick, break down this deal for us.”
PATON Walsh: “Yeah. Look, I mean, it‘s important to point out we don‘t have full transparency as to what the White House say they‘ve agreed to at this point, but a Ukrainian official is saying that they have agreed terms with the United States, and the U.S. has agreed back, according to them, about this deal. They framed it, as they described it to us yesterday, as a reconstruction deal for Ukraine, saying that the finalized draft yesterday that was sent didn‘t contain the security guarantees that Ukraine wanted, but had also taken out some of the thornier items that had been asked for them by the Trump Administration, leaving some of those uglier details for later discussions, later paperwork. Now, we understand that another draft has now been something that they say has been agreed to, and some further evidence that we‘re moving forwards is that a Ukrainian official here says they‘ve accepted a White House proposal for Zelenskyy to go to the White House on Friday. Asked about that, President Donald Trump said that he‘d heard that Zelenskyy liked to come and see him. He said he was okay with that, and he said that Zelenskyy would like to sign the deal, saying it was a very big deal. That‘s not what you’d traditionally expect from a U.S. President in terms of confirming something of this nature, or even a meeting like that, so let‘s just accept the possibility things could still potentially go awry prior to this meeting. But it‘s a phenomenal change from a matter of days ago where they were involved, basically, in a war of words, a litany of falsehoods against the Ukrainian president from Trump. We‘ve seen the French president, Emmanuel Macron, yesterday in the Oval Office, clearly able to bring Trump closer towards European ideas of a need for security for Ukraine and for the need for American support for security on that continent itself. And indeed, after that meeting, Trump said that he would be signing this rare earth deal and would be inviting Zelenskyy to the Oval Office. It does appear that the intervention of key European leaders — another, on Thursday, the U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, after announcing a huge boost to U.K. defense spending, will be meeting in the White House with Trump as well — that the Europeans are trying to remind Trump of the vitality of the United States’ role in European security and indeed in supporting Ukraine here, as well. But a lot is going to rest on the interpersonal relations between Trump and Zelenskyy, if indeed they do finally meet, as Zelenskyy clearly wants, and Trump seems to be open to. These two men have been, frankly, in an acrimonious freefall for about a week or so. Clearly, Trump drawn more close to some of the thinking coming out of Moscow, and their narratives about this war. He‘s at times reeled back on that. Whether or not he and Zelenskyy hit it off, though, is really going to be key, not only for that rare earth deal, which is really vital for continued U.S. support here generally, but for the perception of how firmly Trump is behind Ukraine as they deal with continued Russian advances and indeed, an improving U.S.-Russia relationship.”
BLITZER: “We‘ll see if that meeting does take place at the White House this Friday between Zelenskyy and Trump. We‘ll watch it all unfold. Nick Paton Walsh reporting from Ukraine in Kyiv. Thank you very much. Let‘s discuss what‘s going on with Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut. Senator, thanks so much for joining us. What‘s your reaction, first of all, to this apparent deal between the Trump Administration and Ukraine that would grant the U.S. access to its rare earth minerals in return for U.S. involvement in a reconstruction fund for Ukraine?”
MURPHY: “Wolf, I have a lot of respect for your reporters, but this notion that we don‘t know what Trump is doing is nonsense. Donald Trump has been very consistent for years. He does not want to support Ukraine‘s bid for independence, and he and the people that work for him increasingly are literally just spinning Kremlin propaganda. Today, in one of our hearings, a nominee for the Department of Defense refused to say whether Russia had invaded Ukraine. Why? Because that is now the line of the Trump Administration, to blame Ukraine for the war with Russia. This is an administration that every day is more and more consistently in bed with Kremlin interests. I don‘t know why, but it is making us a laughingstock all across the globe. I don‘t know anything about this deal over minerals, but I know that it will likely benefit U.S. oligarchs, U.S. mineral interests, and that seems to maybe be the defining ethos of our foreign policy today: what makes Donald Trump and his billionaire friends richer? So I think sometimes we think or pretend that this is normal international relations, that this is normal foreign policy, that Trump‘s playing one off against another. No, this is likely just more of the kleptocracy we‘re seeing here at home. This is likely just more of Donald Trump trying to make money for his billionaire friends, and Russia and Ukraine policy has now just fit into that frame.”