‘What a Coward’: Fox Contributor Blasts J.D. Vance For Refusing to ‘Look Zelensky in the Eye’ While Opposing Aid

AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) received a bevy criticism over the weekend for skipping out on a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Munich Security Conference, where he argued against further U.S. military aid to Ukraine.

Punchbowl Congressional Correspondent Andrew Desiderio reported on Sunday that Vance told him he decided not to join the Zelensky meeting because “he didn’t think he would learn anything new.”

Vance spent his time at the conference hammering against U.S. support for Ukraine in its effort to fend off the brutal Russian invasion. Vance is a major voice in Congress working to tank the foreign aid bill that overwhelmingly passed the U.S. Senate last week.

While on stage Vance said, “I think what’s reasonable to accomplish is some negotiated peace.” The AP reported Vance received strong pushback for his comment as “Ricarda Lang, a co-leader of one of Germany’s governing parties, the Greens, responded that Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown repeatedly ‘that he has no interest in peace at the moment.’”

Vance’s unwillingness to hear out or meet Zelensky, whom he has been highly critical of during wartime, raised eyebrows across the political spectrum.

Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen reacted to Desiderio’s report, writing, “What a coward. Could not sit down and look Zelensky in the eye.”

Former U.S. ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, replied, “Senator Vance had a unique opportunity to meet with President Zelenskyy and discuss his ideas for a negotiated settlement. To state the obvious, a settlement has to be negotiated between Ukraine & Russia, not US & Russia. Odd decision not to go to the meeting. Oh well.”

Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin, added, “Vance says he didn’t attend the meeting with Zelensky because he didn’t think he would learn anything new. I talked to those Senators who bothered to show up. Vance would have learned exactly how his opposition to aid to Ukraine is costing lives on the battlefield and how his perception of the situation on the ground is badly mistaken. His perspective is not “underrepresented,” it’s just uninformed – by his own choosing.”

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