Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that President Donald Trump’s Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was “a dumpster fire of diplomacy.”
Partial transcript as follows:
MARGARET BRENNAN: You were one of the lawmakers who met with President Zelensky prior to that Oval Office meltdown. Senator Lindsey Graham later told reporters he had warned Zelensky, “don’t take the bait.” Do you think Zelensky took the bait? Is that how you understand what happened?
KELLY: He was cornered and he was bullied in the Oval Office. And Margaret, that just makes us look weak. You know, I think Donald Trump was trying to look tough. JD Vance was trying to look tough. The only winner in that exchange is Putin- who’s a criminal, who’s killing, you know, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians. So, it was a sad day for our country. It was a dumpster fire of diplomacy. It should not have been done that kind of negotiation should not be done in public, in front of cameras. When we had our meeting earlier in the day with Zelensky. He- he, you know, he has this like habitual gratitude. He was very thankful, and the Chairman of the Armed Services Committee kicked the cameras out of the room before we started to talk. That’s the way this should be handled, not what- not what Donald Trump did. I think JD Vance, the Vice President, with all due respect. It sounds like he’s watching videos on the internet. And to say to Zelensky, you’re not being thankful enough, I mean- Zelensky, thanks the American people all the time-
BRENNAN: — Yeah–
KELLY: And I got to say, Margaret, if- if we can end this, and I want this to end as much as anybody, but it has to end in a way that the Russians are going to respect. And what was in the Oval Office yesterday was a demonstration of weakness. And I could tell you, Putin does not respect weakness.
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