Speaker Johnson Suggests ‘Stiff-Necked’ Zelensky — But Not Putin — Should Step Down, In Stunning Exchange On ‘Meet the Press’
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) suggested Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky may need to step down, but made no such call for Russia’s Vladimir Putin to do the same — when asked directly by NBC’s Kristen Welker.
In a stunning exchange on Sunday’s Meet the Press, Johnson took umbrage with the notion that President Donald Trump and others on the Right are “on Putin’s side” in the wake of the chaotic Oval Office meeting with Zelensky on Friday
“It’s pretty absurd for anyone in the media or Democrats to somehow proclaim that President Trump, the White House, or Republicans in Congress are on Putin’s side,” Johnson said. “It’s a joke. We understand that he is a dangerous adversary and he is the one that provoked the war.”
Of course, Trump expressed the exact opposite sentiment in a Feb. 18 statement — making clear he believes Ukraine, not Russia, was the aggressor which sparked the war.
“You should’ve never started it,” Trump said of Ukraine.
Welker promptly referenced Trump’s comment.
“But Mr. Speaker, you’re saying that we all know that Putin provoked the war,” Welker said. “Actually, President Trump said that President Zelensky provoked the war. The week started with the U.S. siding with Russia and North Korea at the UN, refusing to condemn Russian aggression in Ukraine. It ended with this Oval Office confrontation with Zelensky. Is President Trump realigning the United States with Russia here?”
“No,” Johnson said. “President Trump is trying to get these two parties to a point of peace. And it takes certain maneuvers and certain strategies to do that. You have two parties who, to this point, have not shown any interest apparently in getting to peace. What President Zelensky did in the White House was effectively signal to us that he’s not ready for that yet. And I think that’s a great disappointment. We have to get this settled. And we stand with our allies, we always do. But they have to be reasonable.”
The Meet the Press moderator asked Johnson point-blank: “Is the United States abandoning Ukraine?
“No, they’re not abandoning Ukraine,” Johnson replied. “I was with the President a day before that meeting, and he was excited about this mineral rights deal. He believed it, and we all believed it to be in the best interest of both countries. It is not the President and the Vice President that berated Zelensky.
I saw it the other way around. I saw Zelensky rather stiff-necked in the Oval Office instead of being gracious and saying, ‘Thank you,’ and looking for a way out of this mess. He did quite the opposite.”
The Speaker went on to say that if Zelensky doesn’t “come back to the table in gratitude,” someone else should take his place.
“Either he needs to come to his senses and come back to the table in gratitude, or someone else needs to lead the country to do that,” Johnson said. “I mean, it’s up to the Ukrainians to figure that out, but I can tell you that we are re-exerting peace through strength. President Trump has brought back strength to the White House. We knew that this moment would come. We worked hard for it to come, and now it’s here. But we need these parties to go along with this, and we need President Zelensky to do what is necessary. This war has drug on far too long. He’s lost hundreds of thousands of people, including women and children. We’ve got to bring an end to it. And I think our European allies are hoping that that is the case, and we are as well.”
Welker proceeded to ask Johnson if he believes Putin should also leave office.
“So just to put a fine point on that, you are saying that it might be necessary for President Zelenskyy to step down and not Putin,” Welker said. “Do you want to see Putin step down?”
“I’d like to see Putin defeated, frankly,” Johnson said. “He is an adversary of the United States. But in this conflict, we’ve got to bring it into this war. It’s in everybody’s interest.”
Watch above, via NBC.
