SEN JD VANCE: This is 'the most disgraceful charade' in my year in the Senate
Sen. JD Vance sounds off on 'The Ingraham Angle' as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy returns to the United States to request more funding for war.
Sen. JD Vance says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's return to the United States to urge more taxpayer billions for the war against Russia is the "most disgraceful charade" of his first year in the Senate.
Vance told "The Ingraham Angle" Monday the entire choreography of Zelenskyy's latest visit is "utterly disgraceful," which he noted will result in an "undignified process" featuring the Ukrainian leader demanding American legislators sign off on $61 billion more taxpayer dollars, lest they be identified as "puppets" of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Vance and "Ingraham Angle" host Laura Ingraham contrasted Zelenskyy's suggestion that critics of further funding are aligned with Putin with calls for help in rural America where residents are most affected by rampant inflation and job outsourcing.
"If you want to secure your border first, you are actually a Putin puppet: He said this publicly today," Vance said of Zelenskyy. "I think it's disgraceful. I think it's grotesque."
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Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelenskyy greets U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken before a meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool via AP)
He said Zelenskyy's rhetoric is a ploy to apply pressure on reticent Republicans to give up on their border security fight to instead allow another "blank check" for Kyiv.
"I'm not doing it, and I don't think Republicans should go for it," he said, with both the lawmaker and host noting that Zelenskyy has not been as confrontational with his own European neighbors for financial aid.
Vance later added that both Ukraine supporters and skeptics on the right have been clear that President Biden should sign off on substantive border control funding before another check is cut for Zelenskyy.
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"And this gives lie to the idea that Zelenskyy is just a totally admirable figure who's defending his own country. He's coming to the United States lecturing us and demanding more American taxpayer dollars … while he throws priests and other figures in jail," Vance said.
"I think it's disgraceful. I've been in the Senate for almost a year now. This is the most disgraceful charade I've seen in my year here."
Ingraham responded by reporting on Zelenskyy's speech in Washington earlier Monday evening in which he said anyone "inspired by unresolved issues on Capitol Hill" is aligned with "Putin and his sick clique."
Vance concluded that the Ukrainian "summer offensive" was not as successful as the press or Ukrainians let on: with "minimal" territorial gains.
"[T]he only thing that's going to accomplish is turning Ukraine into a permanent client state of the United States," he said. "They're going to be unable to pay their pensioners. They're going to be unable to pay their basic functions of civil government --That is where this policy has led us..."
"Right now, people in Ohio can't afford food. Young people can't afford to buy homes. We're paying for [Ukraine's] government… We've got to focus on our own problems."
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