The White House's Russia policy was roundly mocked this morning on MSNBC by Morning Joe panelists Joe Scarborough, Cokie Roberts, and Dan Senor.
Scarborough said he found it hard to imagine the Clinton or H.W. Bush administrations being as negligent as today's White House with respect to uniting Western Europe on tougher sanctions against Russia.
"I find it hard to believe [...] they wouldn't have sent somebody over to be working with Angela Merkel's top leaders to figure something out," he said.
NPR correspondent Cokie Roberts agreed, adding the Obama administration should have been working with top European officials the moment demonstrations started in Kiev.
Roberts also lamented that the Obama administration lacks many of the effective diplomats the United States enjoyed during the Cold War.
"Who would that person be? I mean there is no Clark Clifford around these days," she said.
The Huffington Post's Sam Stein jumped in to defend President Barack Obama, noting Secretary of State John Kerry has been in meetings with European leaders and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov over the Ukrainian crisis.
Dan Senor of the Foreign Policy Institute mocked the suggestion Kerry has been at all effective in his negotiations with Lavrov, especially considering Russian President Vladimir Putin would not take Lavrov's call when Kerry was present in a meeting with the Russian foreign minister.
"Literally, Putin wouldn’t take the call, he’s like 'I got John Kerry here,'" Senor said, prompting laughter from the panel.
Full exchange:
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Let's go back to the president again. I find it hard to believe, and I'll be bipartisan here, that if Bill Clinton were president of the United States or George H.W. Bush were president of the United States, they wouldn't have already sent somebody, James Baker, or somebody over to be working with Angela Merkel's top leaders to figure this thing out, they don't have those relationships.
COKIE ROBERTS: At the moment when the demonstrations started in Ukraine, that should have happened. Who would that person be? I mean there is no Clark Clifford around these days, you know, who would that person be?
SAM STEIN: Hasn't John Kerry been talking with officials across Europe and Russian officials?
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Didn’t he go meet with Lavrov? Hasn’t he sat for three hours in a meeting with Lavrov?
DAN SENOR: Lavrov, who when meeting with Kerry, tried to call Putin to talk about some deal, Putin wouldn’t take his call. Let me say one thing [laughter] Literally, Putin wouldn’t take the call, he’s like "I got John Kerry here."