On Friday’s broadcast of “MSNBC Live,” co-host Ali Velshi reacted to President Trump’s CPAC speech by saying it was a “truly sprawling, meandering speech by the president. The likes of which…I am used to having heard from Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro or Erdogan.”

Velshi said, “Okay. A sprawling, truly sprawling, meandering speech by the president. The likes of which, I was saying to Stephanie, I am used to having heard from Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro or Erdogan. President Putin gives something like this every year. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used to give speeches like this. By our executive producer’s conservative count, he touched on 31 — at least 31 different topics in this speech. None of which were Russia, by the way. Russia didn’t come up.”

He added that he doesn’t know of any great trade deals the administration has re-negotiated and that leaving TPP hasn’t helped the US or its workers. Velshi continued, “And he keeps talking about NAFTA, which he talked about in the election. They also still haven’t done anything about that. So, remarkable, this was a remarkable speech.”

Later on, Velshi stated, “[I]f we didn’t have to cover the things that aren’t true, I would say — I would harken that we would be able to give the president credit for maintaining that sentiment, maintaining the reduction in unemployment, maintaining the increase in the stock market. Because that’s true. He didn’t wreck something that was already happening. But because he claims that he invented it, we have to stop and say, ‘No, actually, you didn’t. Unemployment was low. Stock market was high. You’re continuing a trend.'”

(h/t NewsBusters)

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett