"For four years, the United States of America, we had a president who stood up at press conferences and talked tough about Vladimir Putin, and then Putin invaded Ukraine and destroyed a significant chunk of the country. The path to peace and the path to prosperity is, maybe, engaging in diplomacy. We tried the pathway of Joe Biden, of thumping our chest and pretending that the president of the United States’ words mattered more than the president of the United States’ actions. What makes America a good country is America engaging in diplomacy. That’s what President Trump is doing"
Vance (or whatever his name is) was attempting, in his ass-kissing, Putin-loving way, to denigrate a previous president, making it look like Biden's approach caused the invasion -- Trump often says that the invasion wouldn't have taken place if he had been president at the time. Zelenskyy kept his cool, but he wasn't about to allow this guy school him on the reality of the war. He replied with these words:
“OK. So he (Putin) occupied it, our parts, big parts of Ukraine, parts of east and Crimea. So he occupied it in 2014. So during a lot of years — I’m not speaking about just Biden, but those times was...President Obama, then President Trump, then President Biden, now President Trump. And God bless, now, President Trump will stop him. But during 2014, nobody stopped him. He just occupied and took. He killed people. You know what the –” (Trump and Vance both interrupted him at this point.)
Zelenskyy was making the point that the invasion started, albeit a low-key, not a full scale invasion, in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea. That same year separatists in eastern Ukraine received support from Russian forces. His point was that the Russian war had begun eleven years ago, and had included Trump's first term. (Trump occasionally makes the point that Obama donated "pillows and blankets" [actually, non-lethal aid and support] while he donated javelin missiles - so he's very aware that the war was going on then)
Zelenskyy continues:
“Yes, but during 2014 ’til 2022, the situation is the same, that people have been dying on the contact line. Nobody stopped him. You know that we had conversations with him, a lot of conversations, my bilateral conversation. And we signed with him, me, like, you, president, in 2019, I signed with him the deal. I signed with him, (French President Emmanuel) Macron and (former German Chancellor Angela) Merkel. We signed ceasefire. Ceasefire. All of them told me that he will never go … But after that, he broke the ceasefire, he killed our people, and he didn’t exchange prisoners. We signed the exchange of prisoners. But he didn’t do it. What kind of diplomacy, JD, you are speaking about? What do you mean?”
Zelenskyy is hammering home his rebuttal to Trump and Vance that he has tried diplomacy, that there was a ceasefire that Putin violated. He's asking rhetorically about what type of diplomacy they think will work with Putin. Vance (or whatever his name is) responds:
“I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country..."
Well, that's specific. He goes on:
"Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media. Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.”
This is where Vance (or whatever his name is) starts in with his insistence that Zelenskyy should be groveling more. They go back and forth about this; Zelenskyy then gets a word in:
“First of all, during the war, everybody has problems, even you. But you have nice ocean and don’t feel now. But you will feel it in the future. God bless –”
Trump jumps in here. Zelenskyy made the point that we in the United States are safe behind our oceans, but that there will come a day when Putin even comes for us. It looks to me like Zelenskyy is using the word "feel" in the sense of feeling a punch, not feelings in the sense of emotions. (Remember that just a few years ago Zelenskyy needed an interpreter -- English is not his first language.) But Trump apparently thinks he is referring to his feelings, his emotions and lashes out at Zelenskyy, insisting that he not "tell us how we're going to feel". Trump is really triggered here, and it seems like he's mad that Zelenskyy is expressing anger at and distrust of, Putin.
It really goes off the rails after this. Trump talking over and interrupting Zelenskyy, with Vance (or whatever his name is) jumping in to offer support. Finally, a reporter breaks in to ask a question:
"What if Russia breaks the ceasefire?”
And it ends up with Trump, who lives in his own fantasy world where everyone loves and respects him, answers:
“What, if anything? What if the bomb drops on your head right now? OK, what if they broke it? I don’t know, they broke it with Biden because Biden, they didn’t respect him. They didn’t respect Obama. They respect me. Let me tell you, Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch hunt … All I can say is this. He might have broken deals with Obama and Bush, and he might have broken them with Biden. He did, maybe. Maybe he did. I don’t know what happened, but he didn’t break them with me. He wants to make a deal. I don’t know if you can make a deal.”
And there it is folks...
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