JD Vance Claims He Tried to ‘Defuse’ Tense Meeting Where He and Trump Berated Zelensky
Vice President JD Vance told Fox News he was actually trying to “defuse” Friday’s infamous meeting where he and President Donald Trump scolded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Sitting in the Oval Office in front of reporters, the three men spoke cordially for about 40 minutes. Trump has said he is trying to broker an end to the war in Ukraine, which Russia invaded in February 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the action, aiming to remove Zelensky from power and demilitarize Ukraine. The war has not gone well for Russia, though it does occupy swaths of eastern Ukraine.
During the meeting, Zelensky asked Vance how the White House could be sure Putin would keep his word if he were to agree to any peace deal. After some back and forth, Vance accused Zelensky of being “disrespectful,” and the scene devolved from there, with Trump piling on and telling his counterpart, “You’re gambling with World War III!”
In an interview with Sean Hannity that aired on Monday night, Vance insisted he was trying to ease the tension. The vice president said Trump – who last month called Zelensky a “dictator” – “tried to be diplomatic” for most of the meeting.
“Even when Zelensky was kind of needling [Trump], even when Zelensky was saying things that I thought were untrue, the president just tried to be diplomatic,” Vance said. “And then when it really went off the rails, of course, is when… a Polish journalist asked a question, the president answered it. And then I answered it. And then, something about my answer just really set Zelensky off. So, then came at me, and then I went back at him. And what I tried to do originally was actually try to defuse the situation a little bit.”
The vice president went on to say that as the contentious exchange continued, Trump appeared to want to have it out with Zelensky in public. Vance added, “There was a lack of respect. There was a certain sense of entitlement.”
A couple of hours before Vance’s interview aired, Trump announced he is pausing aid to Ukraine that was approved by Congress.
Watch above via Fox News.
