'Not gonna happen': Retired colonel warns Trump apologist to not put 'words in my mouth'

16 October 2024

A recent exchange on CNN became heated as a retired U.S. Air Force colonel sparred with a Republican lobbyist over former President Donald Trump's conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On Wednesday, Colonel Cedric Leighton (Ret.) and pro-Trump commentator David Urban locked horns during a segment hosted by Jim Acosta. The two were in the middle of responding to journalist Bob Woodward's reporting in his new book, "War," in which the ex-president supposedly had private calls with Putin at his Mar-a-Lago residence while he was a private citizen (which is a violation of the Logan Act).

Early in the segment, Urban asserted that "there is no one tougher on Russia than Donald Trump." He argued that Trump sent American M1 tanks and U.S. Marine Corps units to NATO countries like Norway and Poland, and that the ex-president's administration kept Putin in line given that there was no incursion into Ukrainian territory between Putin's 2014 annexation of Crimea and the 2022 invasion of the Donbas region.

However, when Leighton attempted to interject and correct the record, Urban began to shout over him. The retired colonel then told the GOP lobbyist: "You're putting words in my mouth. That's not gonna happen."

"Under the Obama administration, the Russians invaded Crimea and they invaded the Donbas region. That is true. And when you look at what Woodward wrote in 'War,' it's very clear that the Biden administration — or at least Biden himself — agrees that was a mistake. And I agree with that assessment," he said. "What happened during the Trump administration was that the Russians were prepared to do this invasion. And nobody did anything to stop this invasion."

"They key thing to keep in mind is that Putin has been preparing for this operation since before 2014. And he continued his preparations for this entire time period, and he found an opportunity to go after the rest of Ukraine in February of 2022," he continued. "And you saw him amass everything. He amassed their troops, he prepared the Russian military over a period of decades for this kind of thing... Don't tell me, don't tell anybody in America that this wasn't going on during the Trump administration, because it was."

As Leighton pointed out, the invasion of Ukraine technically began 10 years ago under former President Barack Obama. And in the time between the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and the failed attempt to capture the Ukrainian capital city of Kiev, Putin amassed troops and resources to prepare for the 2022 invasion using the Sebastopol base near Crimea. His military leaders also got help from Russian separatists in the Donbas region to prepare for an assault on Ukraine's eastern border.

So far, Trump has not corroborated Woodward's reporting. However, he did make a revealing statement earlier this week alluding to secret conversations with the Russian leader.

"I don't comment on that, but I will tell you that if I did, it's a smart thing," Trump told Bloomberg Editor-In-Chief John Micklethwait during a live Q&A session at the Chicago Economic Club. "If I'm friendly with people, if I have a relationship with people, that's a good thing, not a bad thing."

Watch the segment below, or by clicking this link.

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