By Molly Goddard
1:01am PDT, Apr 16, 2025
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Co-host
Mika Brzezinski kicked off the conversation by touching upon Volodymyr Zelensky's recent admission that he thinks the American people support him but is unsure about Donald Trump and his administration. The journalist also pointed out how special envoy to Russia
Steve Witkoff has said that Russia claims to want peace with Ukraine but has yet to call for a ceasefire.
"Do you think, politically, Americans will side with [Vladimir] Putin as well if Trump does?" Brzezinski asked.
"No," Chris Matthews staunchly replied. "I think the American people find Ukraine today very much like Britain back in the 1930s and 1940s. We see them as the democracy fighting for itself against a tyrannical challenger, an aggressor nation. The Soviets, the former Soviets, now the Russians, I think they're still nationalists [who] see themselves as [having] the right to rebuild their empire."
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Chris Matthews then directed his attention to Donald Trump buddying up to the wrong leaders around the world.
"If you look around the world, we attack our most friendly country in the world, Canada. We attacked Vietnam, which has become one of our friendliest nations in the world," he said. "If you go to Vietnam, I've been going there every year to teach. And I have to tell you, it's so pro-American and fearful of
China. And what happened today? President
Xi [Jinping] of China is in Vietnam trying to coax his way back to a friendship with them."
"We are taking friends and turning them into enemies. We're turning enemies and making them into friends. It is all 180 craziness in the world. We lash out at our best friends, our people who are becoming our best friends since the Vietnam war," Matthews added.
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Chris Matthews then slammed Donald Trump for continuously claiming he wants to annex Canada as America's 51st state.
"And certainly with
Canada, nobody in America has any animus towards Canada. There is none in America, anywhere. No one has a problem with Canada," he said. "So, we fight with our best friends that we go visit over there and we sometimes get confused. 'Oh, we're not in our country. No, we're in Canada, a friendly country.'"
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With Donald Trump seemingly causing issues with America's longtime allies, Chris Matthews admitted he's confused about why the commander-in-chief is keeping close ties with certain people and parts of the world.
"We go to
Russia. Nobody thinks Russia is on our side! Nobody thinks North Korea is on our side, or Iran or China. We know who our enemies are, they're geopolitical. They're obvious. They're factual," he said. "But Trump has this weird love of Hungary, of Russia, of North Korea. And in the strangest way, he wants to make friends with our enemies. What is he up to? I don't have any conspiracy theories, but I do not get it. I do not get what this guy's love of Russia particularly is. And to always be always forgiving them."
