Outraged GOP Senator Falls for Russian Propaganda Video and Declares, ‘Not Another Dime for Ukraine’
Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) called for an end to all military aid to Ukraine after falling for a Russian propaganda video on social media on Wednesday.
Lee shared a video purporting to show Ukrainian soldiers burning an effigy of President Donald Trump referring to him as a “bastard” and adding, “You will never be president again.”
The video was a repost from former West Virginia GOP state delegate and convicted Jan. 6 rioter Derrick Evans. The so-called Ukrainians in the video burned Trump’s likeness, to which Evans reacted, “This is DESPICABLE.”
Evans later posted an update declaring he believed the clip might have been a fake, writing:
I’ve seen comments claiming this is an old video that was debunked. I’ve been researching. It does appear to be an old video. I just found this on YouTube from Times of India with 4.7 million subs from 9 months ago. Thousands of views & Google never hit it with a fact check.
After Evans’ original post and his comment warning viewers the video was likely a fake, Lee commented, “Not another dime for Ukraine.”
Mike Lee/X
Mediaite found the original YouTube video Evans cited. A video matching the description of the very one shared by Evans and Lee was fact-checked by the Associated Press in December of last year.
One clip among numerous videos reviewed by the wire service fits the description of the images that outraged Lee. The AP reported:
Since the U.S. election on Nov. 5, the Kremlin has used state-run media and its networks of fake news sites and social media accounts to push divisive narratives about the war and America’s Republican president-elect.
[…]
Recent examples include fake videos supposedly showing Ukrainian soldiers burning effigies of Trump or his supporters. One clip depicts soldiers saying Trump must not be allowed to take office and should “never be president again.” Multiple researchers have debunked the video, noting telltale signs of digital manipulation.
The video described by the AP uses the same language shown in the video that outraged Lee – soldiers declaring Trump would “never be president again.”
He was elected to a second term in the White House last November.
Others who posted the same clip at different points last year were met with a Community Notes message on X, attaching it to a Russian propaganda campaign.
Lee posted the video hours after Trump criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “dictator.”
