Mika Brzezinski, co-host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," responded "100 percent" to a question from fellow host and husband Joe Scarborough about whether Trump was a Russian asset.
The comment came Tuesday morning as the hosts discussed a New York Times report that President Donald Trump discussed pulling the United States from NATO with administration officials.
"I think, you know, it's not I think sometimes helpful to discuss the notion of Trump as a Russian agent, only because I think people think that makes him somehow an undercover spy or something," MSNBC analyst John Heilemann said. "I do think that the notion he's an asset, unwittting or witting ... I just think agent, doing the work of the Soviets technically could be true, but I do just think asset is probably the word that doesn't cause people to immediately shut their ears sometimes. Whether it's witting, whether it's unwitting, it's the big question that's on the table right now, about him."
"John is right. It is asset and not agent. That's me at 6:03 in the morning," Scarbourough said in reference to his use of the word "agent" earlier in the conversation. "But let's just state what's obvious: Donald Trump could never be an agent for Russia. I'm serious. He doesn't have the bandwidth to do it. He doesn't have the discipline to do it. He blurts out everything that's in his mind. But is he an asset? You know what?"
"One-hundred percent," Brzezinski said.
"One-hundred percent he might be. Let's put it that way, Mika," Scarborough responded. "But again, you judge a tree by its fruits. You look at what Donald Trump has been trying to do on the international stage, and there is not a Republican on Capitol Hill today that wouldn't say that what he has been doing is trying to help Putin, praising Putin. Willie, his words and deeds leave no doubt that this guy is trying to help Russia any way he can."
The New York Times reported last Friday that the FBI began to investigate if Trump was a threat to national security and was working with Russia in 2017 after he fired then-FBI director James Comey.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the notion Trump is a threat to national security "absolutely ludicrous."