Remember When Senator Heidi Heitkamp Said "We're Trusting The Russians"

Back in September of last year, Senator Heidi Heitkamp’s love of attention from the media put the first-term Senate freshman with zero foreign policy experience in front of MSNBC’s cameras talking about the crisis in Syria (video here). Heitkamp beclowned herself, and surprised host Andrea Mitchell, when she blithely said we were trusting the Russians for a resolution in that country.

ANDREA MITCHELL: Let me ask both of you, Senator Heitkamp, let me ask both of you, why would you trust Assad? Assad has until this initiative denied there was an attack, denied he was part of it, denied he has chemical weapons. Why on earth would we trust this man to tell us he’s turned them all over to international monitoring and that he is signing a treaty that he’s never [recognized]?

HEIDI HEITKAMP: We’re not trusting Assad. We’re trusting the Russians to come to the table.

ANDREA MITCHELL: Whoa, you’re trusting the Russians?

HEIDI HEITKAMP: We’re trusting Russia’s intent at this point to actually deliver the right set of circumstances. I’ve said all along we’re waiting of words are not enough. We have to see action. So it is the combination of Russia with Syria and understanding that there is this threat. That we’re very serious in this country about enforcing the ban on chemical weapons one way or the other and they need to bring this country into compliance.

Valley News Live’s Chris Berg had a pretty good segment about this (video above) pointing out that, given the circumstances in Ukraine, maybe this whole “trust the Russians” thing wasn’t such a great move.