MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski suggested on Wednesday that President Trump could have pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in an effort to deflect from scandals he faces in the U.S.
“It was a campaign promise. It does appeal, possibly, to his base, but the totality of this president’s behavior and his decisions does lead me to question why he does anything and whether it’s to deflect from something else,” Brzezinski, who is a frequent critic of Trump, said on “Morning Joe.”
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“I don’t think he has the moral compass to make a decision based on our own national security,” she continued.
Brzezinski’s remarks come less than a day after the president announced the U.S. would be leaving the multination deal, which provided Tehran with sanctions relief in return for accepting limits on its nuclear program.
“Today’s action sends a critical message: The United States no longer makes empty threats,” Trump said during a televised address Tuesday from the White House.
Trump has long railed against the agreement, calling it “a horrible one-sided deal” in 2015 before regularly attacking the pact while on the campaign trail in 2016.
The president had extended the sanctions relief for Iran multiple times since taking office, but warned last October and again in January that he would pull the U.S. from the deal if changes were not made.
The president continues to grapple with the ongoing federal probe into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia’s election meddling, as well as fallout from his personal attorney Michael Cohen’s payment to adult-film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Daniels’s attorney Michael Avenatti revealed on Tuesday that Cohen received $500,000 in the months after the 2016 election from a company run by a Russian oligarch with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.