In an interview Sunday on ABC News’ “This Week,” Democratic Sen. Jack Reed decried President Donald Trump’s recent verbal attacks on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and increased alignment with Russia.
“Essentially, this is President Trump surrendering to the Russians,” Reed told co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
“This is not a statesman or a diplomat,” Reed added. “This is just someone who admires Putin, does not believe in the struggle of the Ukrainians and is committed to cozying up to an autocrat.”
Reed said statements Trump made recently about Ukraine were “generally misleading or completely false,” and suggest he has “no real intention to engage the Ukrainian government to find out what they need” in negotiations with Russia.
“I’d be more confident in that suggestion if there was a vigorous dialogue between the Ukrainians and the United States with respect to these negotiations, that we understood where their lines are, et cetera. That apparently has not happened,” he said.
In order to solve the war in Ukraine, Reed said it will be crucial to “communicate to the Russians that we will be very, very serious about their actions in Ukraine.”
“What we have to do is keep the pressure on, and then go into negotiations — negotiations that will include the Ukrainians, not exclude them.” he said “And then with this pressure, hopefully, Putin will decide that the cost is too great to continue this effort.”
Talking to Raddatz later, Republican Rep. Mike Lawler slammed Russian President Vladimir Putin as “a vile dictator and thug” who is “clearly responsible for the war in Ukraine,” despite Trump’s false assertions earlier in the week that Zelenskyy started the war.
“Russia, China and Iran have been working in a coordinated effort to undermine and destabilize the United States, Europe, Israel and the free world,” Lawler said. “They are not our allies or our friends — we must be clear eyed about that.”
Lawler said he “did not agree with the President’s rhetoric about Volodymyr Zelenskyy,” but also said that Zelenskyy “saying that the president is falling for Russian disinformation does not help his cause.”
“What I would say is this, it does not behoove either side to have this public back and forth,” Lawler said. “I think President Zelenskyy needs to work with the administration, especially with respect to economic cooperation.”
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