Andrew Neil has branded one of Donald Trump’s top officials “a Kremlin stooge” over his comments praising Vladimir Putin.
The veteran broadcaster said US special envoy Steve Witkoff “knows nothing about what he’s talking about” when it comes to the war in Ukraine.
Witkoff said the Russian president was “not a bad guy” during an interview with right-wing US broadcaster Tucker Carlson.
Speaking on Times Radio, Neil said the interview was “what happens when you have two idiots beside a microphone and neither of them know what they’re talking about”.
“One is just a busted flush mad American broadcaster, but the other is the president’s special envoy and he knows nothing about what he’s talking about,” he said.
“I mean this guy’s a property billionaire, he’s never been involved in this level of geopolitics. He doesn’t know anything about it.
“Throughout the interview he repeats Kremlin talking points, and so does Carlson. These are two Kremlin lovers.”
He added: ”[Witkoff] describes Putin as ‘not a bad guy’. He ought to speak to the families of those who’ve been murdered by Putin’s thugs or stuck in the gulag by his thugs.”
Neil also accused the White House and the Kremlin of trying to impose a peace deal to end the war without any contribution from Ukraine or Europe.
“I think it’s very dangerous when you’ve got the leading representative of the president talking as if he’s a Kremlin stooge,” the veteran broadcaster said.
“I am not confident about these peace talks at all, because you can call them peace talks but I think the proper word might end up being surrender.”