What Putin Got Out of It ‘Was Essentially a Free Pass to Continue the War:’ Peter Baker on the Alaska Summit

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
WITT: “So, Peter, you’re still there in Alaska. You’re wrapping up the reporting beyond learning. President Zelenskyy is expected in D.C. on Monday. What more have we learned about the actual meeting between Trump and Putin and anything verifiable or behind the scenes to report from either side?”

BAKER: “Well, look what we’ve learned, especially in the hours this morning, is that the president gave up his demand for a cease fire. Remember what we’re talking about now. We’re talking about security guarantees and so forth. Meeting with Zelenskyy. This is for a broader peace agreement that would be more enduring down the road. But that’s not going to happen overnight. That’s going to take a long time. You heard president Putin say I was in the room with him yesterday. He said we have to address the root causes. When president Putin used the word, the phrase root causes. What he means by that is NATO retreating back to its 1997 borders before its expansion. What it means is Kyiv giving up a lot of its military. What it means is keep giving up a lot of its territory. These are not things that are going to happen overnight. What President Trump came into Alaska saying he wanted was an immediate cease fire to halt the killing right away. And then he left Alaska not only without that cease fire, but giving up on it, a complete reversal in just a few hours of time, the kind of which we don’t normally see in international diplomacy. And that means that what Vladimir Putin got out of this summit meeting is not only the nice photo op on the red carpet and in the presidential limousine. What he got out of it was essentially a free pass to continue the war for an indefinite amount of time, without the severe consequences that Trump said he would impose if there wasn’t a ceasefire.”