Donald Trump gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a big gift today by announcing the U.S. withdrawal from the INF Treaty with that country. But the Fox & Friends lapdogs validated Kellyanne Conway’s lies that it’s a tough stance against Russia.

Appearing on MSNBC today, Joseph Cirincione, an expert in nuclear weapons policy, agreed that Russia has been in violation of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which is the U.S. justification for withdrawal. But Cirincione explained how the withdrawal is probably music to Putin’s ears:

CIRINCIONE: There’s no question in my mind that Russia is in violation of this treaty but having Donald Trump pull out of Ronald Reagan’s treaty doesn’t fix that violation. In fact, this is a gift to Vladimir Putin. … This is something that removes the restraints from Vladimir Putin. Now he can deploy as many weapons as he wants wherever he wants …

This does not hurt Russia. This is not standing up to Russia. … Clearly, Putin would like to have these weapons. He never liked this treaty.

Cirincione also questioned whether this may have come up in any of Trump’s secret meetings with Putin, the substance of which Trump has gone to great lengths to conceal.

But appearing on Fox & Friends today, Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway spewed a set of “alternative facts” about Trump’s behavior with Russia, including the withdrawal from the INF Treaty.

For starters, Conway got an assist from cohost Steve Doocy. “It looks like we just got tough on Russia!” he said as a lead-in to Conway's remarks, thus pre-validating her talking points and the lies that went with them:

CONWAY: Yeah, well, he’s been tough on Russia for a while and I’d like to see how they’re going to spin this one. This is a president who has put additional sanctions on Russians, on bad actors, where he and his treasury department have seen fit, he’s expelled 60+ Russians from this country, shut down two of their consulates at last count and I think pushed back on Putin not once but twice when one of his puppets, Assad in Syria, gases his own people! When the president saw that, he took action immediately.

And so that should not be conflated with the fact that when he wants to meet with Vladimir Putin, as they did several months ago, for all the world to see in a joint press conference, they’re discussing issues where these two major countries maybe can work together to defeat ISIS once and forever, that they, of course the territorial caliphate in Syria is all but destroyed …

And so I would like to see how they spin this, that maybe he’s trying to show this because he’s worried about the collusion that doesn’t exist. It’s really silly. People have to start looking at the facts and the figures about how tough this president has been on Russia, at the same time trying to negotiate peace where he can.

While Conway was touting the imposition of sanctions, she dishonestly left out Trump’s recent lifting of sanctions against the business empire of one of Russia’s most influential oligarchs, Oleg Deripaska, a Putin ally and former client of Trump's one-time campaign manager, Paul Manafort, who was sued by Deripaska for almost $25million over a failed business deal.

After the sanctions were lifted, a Trump transition team member got a seat on the board of the holding company that owns Deripaska’s giant aluminum company.

In other words, the whole thing stinks to high heaven. On top of all that, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin smells like part of the stink.

Then, of course, there was Conway’s whitewashing of Trump’s disgraceful summit with Putin in Helsinki as “two major countries” trying to “work together to defeat ISIS once and forever.” Trump has concealed the content of those discussions but openly sided with Putin over U.S. intelligence agencies in a press conference that followed.

Not one of the three Fox cohosts challenged a word of Conway’s BS.

Watch Fox enable and promote the Trump propaganda below, from the February 1, 2019 Fox & Friends. Underneath, is Cirincione on the February 1, 2019 MSNBC Live with Hallie Jackson.