War Correspondent Tim Mak on Russia and Ukraine

The Al Franken Podcast

ASF Productions

Government, Progressive, Politics, Senate, Liberal, Senator, Minnesota, Franken, News, Saturday Night Live, Comedy, Snl

4.6 • 7.7K Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As Trump and his administration try to rewrite history and say that Ukraine started the war with Russia, we're joined by Tim Mak, war correspondent and founder of The Counteroffensive. Tim has been living in Kyiv since the beginning of Russia’s invasion and discusses the toll that the war has taken on the people of Ukraine. He examines what kind of leader Donald Trump is - will he exploit America’s longstanding friendships or choose to abandon them? We also discuss the future of President Zelensky and how Ukranians view his leadership.

Read Tim's work in The Counteroffensive: https://www.counteroffensive.news/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can listen to the El Franken podcast, ad free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today.
0:12.9	Hey, everybody, we got a great one today. You know, for a change, we have Tim Mack, who's been reporting from Ukraine for the last three years.
0:22.8	He arrived in Kiev the day the war started in 2022 on one of the last flights into the country.
0:32.0	And Tim has been reporting on the war through his substack,, the counteroffensive with Tim Mack.
0:38.7	Now, we recorded this on Wednesday night, so before the depressing exchange in the Oval
0:44.2	office, and to be frank, I'm depressed.
0:48.8	Last week in the monologue, I talked about how this was all about that first phone call between Trump
0:55.2	and Zelensky, where Zelensky wouldn't go along with Trump and say Ukraine was investigating
1:02.3	corruption by Joe Biden and Hunter Biden. This was revenge for that phone call. Revenge served cold.
1:10.5	And when I talked to Tim on Wednesday, he kind of called it.
1:14.6	Here's Tim on how Trump treats allies.
1:18.6	The way that Trump has been, if you want to even call it negotiating,
1:22.9	is that he's been using historical bonds of affection and alliances and friendships as if they were
1:32.0	currency, as if they were leverage, right? That's not how you treat friends and partners and neighbors,
1:38.2	but all around the world, Trump has been taking these relationships, which have been built many times on shared sacrifices and even blood during wars and exploiting these relationships for extracting either personal or national resources and concessions only to turn around after there, there have been some concessions,
2:05.7	to demand more. It's an evil way to think about friendship and partnerships, I think.
2:11.9	And of course, in the Oval Office, Trump references that whole thing.
2:16.0	Let me tell you, Putin went through a hell of a lot with
2:18.3	me. He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him in Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia.
2:24.2	You ever hear of that deal? That was a phony, that was a phony Hunter Biden, Joe Biden scam.
2:30.1	Hillary Clinton, Shifty Adam Schiff, it was a Democrat scam.
2:35.4	And he had to go through that.
	...

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