Leland Vittert Confronts Byron Donalds Over Trump ‘Parroting’ Russia: ‘Exactly the Same Things That Vladimir Putin Says!’
NewsNation’s Leland Vittert pressed Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) over his defense of President Donald Trump’s recent controversial remarks about the Russia-Ukraine war on Wednesday, even going so far as to accuse the president of “parroting” Russian talking points.
Trump has earned some bipartisan pushback over his recent statements about Ukraine and Russia, including his claim that Ukraine “started” the war after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed concern about not being involved enough in negotiations to end the war. Trump also recently referred to Zelensky a “dictator.”
Donalds defended Trump during a Wednesday appearance on NewsNation’s On Balance and Vittert confronted him with Donalds’s past comments in support of Ukraine. Vittert argued Donalds has long been making the case that “not giving Vladimir Putin a win in any way was in America’s best interest.”
In the various media clips, Donalds warned about the potential of World War III, called Russia “adversaries,” and said they cannot be allowed to take Ukraine.
Check out the exchange below:
BYRON DONALDS: Here’s the deal. He’s not parroting anything that Vladimir Putin has said. That’s not the case at all. But there has to be a legitimate deal for the United States as this conflict comes to a close. And rest assured, Donald Trump wants to bring this conflict to a close. And if you look at this just with clear eyes and not trying to pick sides, if you think that Ukraine is going to get everything they want out of this conflict, that’s simply not the case.
LELAND VITTERT: Totally, totally agree. We did we did a segment. We did the segment last night. We said it’s important that the war end, number one. Number two, it matters how it ends. And number three, the idea that Ukraine is getting all their territory back is laughable. And we put the map up and showed everybody that. But words matter. And you said Donald Trump isn’t parroting Putin’s talking points. And that’s where I have to question because he is because Putin is the one who says over and over again, this was Ukraine starting the war over and over again. Zelensky is a legitimate leader of Ukraine. Those are exactly the same things that Vladimir Putin says that Donald Trump is saying. How does that not weaken our ally, who you’ve said over and over again needs to be protected?
DONALDS: No, it doesn’t weaken them. What we’re trying to do right now is get the necessary conditions to bring this conflict to an end, and I want to be clear on that. Second thing is, I think part of the reason that Vladimir Zelensky was upset is because he didn’t have a seat at the table in these initial conversations. Well, guess what? If they had an ability to negotiate an end to the conflict, they would have done that already without our assistance. They haven’t been able to do that. So Donald Trump is going to do whatever he thinks is best in order to bring this conflict to a close. This is one of the reasons he was elected to be president of the United States because we saw was happening the other way when when we were just sending billions and billions of dollars over to Ukraine. There was no end in sight.
VITTERT: Didn’t work.
DONALDS: The American people don’t have patience for that. President Trump doesn’t have any patience for that. And so the process to ending this conflict is going to be a little bumpy, but the conflict must end.
Watch above via NewsNation.
