Former Rep. David Jolly (R-Fla.) on Monday offered a critical take on the GOP’s shift in stance on Russia.

“I don’t believe the Republican Party today sees Russia as an adversary. I don’t believe they see [Russia President] Vladimir Putin as uniquely evil,” Jolly told MSNBC’s Alicia Menendez.

“Today’s Republican Party has embraced American weakness,” he said. “They are OK looking the other way and giving equity to Vladimir Putin and Russia, and that’s not just a pivot of orthodox. That’s a new chapter of Republicanism.”

Republicans are willing to run on “American weakness,” he added.

Jolly’s criticism of his former party — which he quit in 2018 over its capitulation to then-President Donald Trump — comes amid Trump’s encouragement of Russia to attack NATO allies and the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a Russian prison, which has been widely blamed on the Kremlin.

At the weekend, Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) claimed Trump’s inflammatory and controversial comments at campaign rallies — such as his Russia rhetoric— “don’t really translate” into his actual policies.

“Except the problem is, David, often they do,” Menendez told Jolly.

“Yea because the leader has followers,” he agreed. “I think there is a unique shamefulness to see Mike Turner, Tim Scott, Lindsey Graham and others engage in this type of apologism, if you will, for their own political interest, to faceplant on the knee of Donald Trump. They do it very well, from Graham to Scott to Mike Turner to Elise Stefanik. Name them. There is a unique shamefulness to it.”

Watch the commentary here: