Fox News Hosts Blame Zelensky For Trump Meeting Breakdown. The Video Disproves That.

Following a combative Oval Office press event with President Donald Trump and  Volodymyr Zelensky, a parade of Fox News pundits have been calling for the Ukrainian President to apologize publicly. But a close inspection of precisely where the meeting went off the rails reveals that Zelensky has nothing to apologize for, apart from reminding his hosts exactly why Russian President Vladimir Putin is not to be trusted.

The stunning back-and-forth, which ultimately devolved into yelling and pointed recriminations about not saying “Thank You” for the foreign aid. Shortly after, Trump announced on social media that further negotiations with Ukraine were ended as he felt the United States had been “disrespected” by Zelensky, and canceled a planned joint press conference.

But lost in all of this is that the contentious moment only came at the end of a roughly 50-minute press conference in which a number of individuals spoke and took questions from assembled domestic and international reporters. It was standard fare that mostly went off without incident until Vice President JD Vance jumped in to defend Trump’s diplomatic efforts and blame the previous administration.

In the immediate aftermath, Fox News featured a slew of talking heads that, nearly to a person, all reflected Trump’s framing of the incident (shocker!), many of whom insisted that the only way to get peace negotiations back on track was for Zelensky to apologize for his behavior in the Oval Office.

Senator Lindsey Graham blamed him for taking the “bait,” curiously giving a pass to the bait takers, Trump and Vance. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also expressed anger and disappointment with Zelenskyy’s behavior. Several other GOP Congressmen came on with Bill Hemmer and Sandra Smith to make sure the viewers knew that it wasn’t Trump at fault here, but the Ukrainian, which the anchors seemed eager to promote.

So what exactly did Zelensky do wrong in the eyes of these Trump sycophants, and why should he apologize? Well, the answer might surprise you. Mediaite’s Isaac Schorr explains in great detail why the argument that Zelenksy is to blame is embarrassing for the Trump Toadies amplifying such bunk. But if you look at the video and identify where things went off the rails, you will likely be left scratching your head.

“We tried the pathway of Joe Biden thumping our chest and pretending that the words of the president of the United States mattered more than the president of the United States’ actions,” Vance said about 40 minutes into the press avail.  “What makes America a good country? Is America engaging in diplomacy? That’s what President Trump is doing.”

Zelensky politely followed with a simple “Can I ask you?” in somewhat broken English, to which Vance agreed. He then laid out the history of Putin’s military expansion into Ukraine starting in 2014, under Obama.

“So he occupied it our parts, big parts of Ukraine, parts of East and Crimea. So he occupied it on 2014,” Zelensky noted. “So during a lot of years, I’m not speaking about just Biden, but those times was Obama, then President Obama, then President Trump, then President Biden, and now the President Trump and God bless. Now President Trump will stop him. But during 2014, nobody stopped him. He just occupied and took. He killed people. ”

After a brief interruption, Zelensky continued, explaining how a 2019 cease-fire agreement, broken by Putin, was ostensibly a big reason why he felt the Russian President, alleged war criminal accused of war atrocities, is not to be trusted.

“We had conversations with him, a lot of conversation, bilateral conversation,” Zelensky explained. “And we signed with him. Me? Like a new president. In 2019, I signed with him the deal I signed with him. [Emmanuel] Macron and [Angela] Merkel was signed. Cease fire, cease fire. All of them told me that he will never go. We signed him — gas contract, gas country?”

“But after that, he broke the ceasefire,” the Ukrainian leader said. “He killed our people. And he didn’t exchange prisoners. We signed the exchange of prisoners. But he didn’t do it. What kind of diplomacy?”

All of that is an accurate portrayal of what happened. And yet the temerity to share facts in defense of a country invaded by Putin’s army, to world leaders defending Putin on a global stage, was too much for Trump and Vance. And that’s when the meeting devolved in to shouting and anger and where the peace talks, in their current iteration at least, appeared to end.

Zelenksy wasn’t angry as he laid out the facts, nor was he willing to play the same game that French President Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer played in their performatively convivial press event with Trump. Then again, neither France nor Great Britain are currently at war on their own territories fighting invading Russian soldiers.

The Oval Office fight may have been “great television” as Trump closed the event noting. But it was also an enormous historic moment in which the United States openly shifted its support for its nearly century-old nemesis, Russia, and probably lost a ton of international standing as a foreign diplomacy leader willing to stand up for the victims of global aggression.

The United States has long fought to protect the little guy. Under Trump, American foreign policy has evolved into a “might makes right” ethos and it’s a stunning thing to witness occur right before our eyes.

Watch above via Fox News.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.