Ukrainian President Zelensky has chosen sides in this election, and now Speaker Johnson (R-LA) demands accountability.
After what can only be interpreted as foreign election interference, Johnson is now calling on Zelensky to fire his ambassador to the United States.
Talking Points…
- Zelensky critical of Trump and Vance
- Johnson demands firing
- Analysis
When this war broke out, the United States stood firmly behind Ukraine, but since then, the situation has changed. There has been significant fraud, and the GOP and conservatives have started to push back regarding the amount of aid being supplied as well as Ukraine being held accountable where the aid is used.
Vance has been at the forefront of this issue, saying the United States cannot sustain the level of aid we are providing to Russia. He also brought up the concern that at what point does defending Ukraine no longer serve this country's interests? Zelensky did not like his comments, calling Vance "too radical" and suggesting that he read up on World War II. The Ukrainian president stated:
"Let Mr. Vance read up on the history of the Second World War, when a country was forced to give part of its territory to one particular person.
"What did that man do? Was he appeased or did he deal a devastating blow to the continent of Europe — to many nations, broadly, and to the Jewish nation in particular? Let him do some reading."
On Trump, who has promised to be able to end this war before taking office, Zelensky also took a shot. He stated:
"My feeling is that Trump doesn't really know how to stop the war even if he might think he knows how.
"With this war, oftentimes, the deeper you look at it the less you understand. I've seen many leaders who were convinced they knew how to end it tomorrow, and as they waded deeper into it, they realized it's not that simple."
Those comments were already deemed to be Zelensky campaigning for Harris, so the GOP had its ears up regarding Zelensky. Then, it was revealed that Zelensky traveled to a munitions plant in a battleground state at the expense of the American taxpayer. All the while, Zelensky was talking smack about Trump and Vance. That trip was apparently organized by Ukraine's ambassador to the United States, and now Johnson wants her fired.
Ukraine's ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova, knew what she was doing here. She brings in a controversial figure to visit a battleground state on one of the most contentious issues between the GOP and Democrats heading into this election. Not only that, but Republicans, according to Johnson, were excluded from attending. Johnson demanded that she be fired, then continued:
"As you have said, Ukrainians have tried to avoid being 'captured by American domestic politics,' and 'influencing the choices of the American people' ahead of the November election. Clearly, that objective was abandoned this week when Ambassador Markarova organized an event in which you toured an American manufacturing site.
"The facility was in a politically contested battleground state, was led by a top political surrogate for Kamala Harris, and failed to include a single Republican because – on purpose – no Republicans were invited."
Johnson continued, saying that the trip was "clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference." I happen to agree, as this little trip and his comments were completely out of bounds. Johnson concluded his letter, stating:
"Support for ending Russia's war against Ukraine continues to be bipartisan, but our relationship is unnecessarily tested and needlessly tarnished when the candidates at the top of the Republican presidential ticket are targeted in the media by officials in your government.
"These incidents cannot be repeated."
The fact that Zelensky met with only Democrats is not a good look. The man has clearly taken a side in this election, which is a dangerous thing to do when you rely on the United States for the majority of your munitions and equipment. While I have no problem helping Ukraine, the rest of NATO needs to pony up more supplies and aid, but, above all else, there must be accountability, something our government does not seem to require when we hand out billions of taxpayer dollars. I fully support Johnson on this issue.
