WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator JD Vance (R-OH) joined Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast to discuss President Zelensky’s visit to Washington, the war in Ukraine, and funding for America’s southern border.
Watch the full interview here and read excerpts below.
Senator Vance on Zelensky’s latest visit to lobby for funding:
“Zelensky is parachuting into this domestic political debate about prioritizing our own border. He’s not here to tell us anything we haven’t heard before, he’s here to badger and browbeat Speaker Johnson and Senate Republicans into forgoing our negotiations on border security in order to write him another blank check. I’ve never seen anything like this. This is not Churchill coming in the midst of World War II, this is literally a guy begging for a handout and telling Republicans to stop negotiating over your own border security. I’m offended by it. As a United States senator, I’m offended by it. We should be focused on our own border, be having that debate, we don’t need Zelensky to parachute and tell us how to run our country.”
Senator Vance on the status of the Ukraine war:
“It is a fantasy land these people are living in to think that you’re going to go back to the 1991 borders of Ukraine. There is no chance, there is no military possibility that will be happening…When you talk to people in Europe, when you talk to diplomats, we’ve had diplomats and heads of state come and visit our Senate office, you hear five different things from five different people. One person will say it’s time for negotiation. One person will say, ‘we’ve got to push it back to the 1991 borders.’ One person will say, ‘we’ve got to retake the land bridge to Crimea.’ These people have no idea what the hell they’re trying to accomplish, so why are we going to write them $61 billion when they don’t even know what it’s for?”
Senator Vance on domestic damage of endless Ukraine funding:
“We’re going to be asked to rebuild their entire country. That’s after funding another $100 or $200 billion in military conflict. There’s $300 billion on top of that to rebuild the country and then we’ve got to pay for their pensioners. We’re getting easily half a trillion dollars in the hole for the Ukraine conflict by the time this is done, and Steve, at the very same time, you have people in this town saying we need to cut Social Security. There are people who would cut Social Security, throw our grandparents into poverty. Why? So that one of the Zelensky’s ministers can buy a bigger yacht? Kiss my ass, Steve, it’s not happening.”
Senator Vance on the lack of tough questions toward Ukraine:
“We should be asking, why is your own government, why are the leaders of your military, the leaders of your parliamentary party, saying you need to negotiate? Why are you throwing priests in prison? Why are you saying that this is a war for democracy when you guys have suspended your presidential election basically indefinitely in Ukraine? We should be asking tough questions here, but that that doesn’t happen when Zelensky comes to town, Steve. It’s really sick. Look, I don’t mind him coming to America and making his case. What really bothers me is that American political leaders, I hate to say it, way too many Republicans are unwilling to actually hold this guy’s feet to the fire and ask him the tough questions. If we’re going to write you more money, which of course, I don’t think that we should, what are you trying to do with it? Are you going to let some of those priests out of prison? Are you going to not arrest American journalists, because right now they have an American journalist in a Ukrainian jail. None of the tough questions get asked, which is why I don’t think this is fundamentally about America reevaluating or asking tough questions about the Ukraine policy. This is about a guy coming to beg and to guilt trip the United States Senate. I don’t like it.”
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