Vice President JD Vance blasted Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky for campaigning for Kamala Harris during an Oval Office beatdown Zelensky might never forget.
“You went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition…” Vance told Zelensky during the meeting in the Oval Office. “Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the president who’s trying to save your country.”
In September 2024, Zelensky toured an ammunition factory in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.
The trip was hosted by Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), one of Harris’s top surrogates in her campaign for the presidency.
The Ukrainian president reportedly arrived in Pennsylvania at American taxpayers’ expense on an Air Force jet.
Zelensky’s visit to America at that time, during which he signed ammunition to be sent to the European battlefront, earned quick condemnation from Republicans as foreign election interference.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) called for Zelenksy to fire the Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States, who organized the event, over Zelensky’s “partisan campaign event.”
He said the Pennsylvania event “failed to include a single Republican because – on purpose – no Republicans were invited. The tour was clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference.”
Zelensky often criticized the Republican ticket before Trump’s massive Election Day victory.
“With this war, oftentimes, the deeper you look at it the less you understand. I’ve seen many leaders who were convinced they knew how to end it tomorrow, and as they waded deeper into it, they realized it’s not that simple,” Zelensky told the New Yorker at the time of his Pennsylvania visit, ripping Trump’s running mate, Vance, as “too radical.”
Zelensky’s Oval Office appearance with Trump and Vance escalated after Zelensky challenged the American leaders for seeking peace in Ukraine’s long war with Russia, which led to tough words from Vance and Trump.
Bradley Jaye is Deputy Political Editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter and Instagram @BradleyAJaye
