White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was having none of Fox White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich’s nonsense, helping Republicans attack Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Pennsylvania arms factory this week.
As CNN reported: Republicans follow Trump’s lead of icing out Zelensky:
Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday criticized Volodymyr Zelensky and claimed the Ukrainian president “refuses to make a deal” amid Russia’s war in Ukraine, marking Trump’s most explicit criticism of Zelensky’s handling of the war to date.
“Those cities are gone, they’re gone, and we continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refused to make a deal, Zelensky. There was no deal that he could have made that wouldn’t have been better than the situation you have right now. You have a country that has been obliterated, not possible to be rebuilt,” Trump said during a campaign speech in Mint Hill, North Carolina.
The comments come at the same time as a rising furor on Capitol Hill over the Ukrainian president among Republicans. In the House, GOP lawmakers are attempting to investigate what US taxpayer resources went toward supporting Zelensky’s security as he traveled to Pennsylvania while GOP senators are warning the Ukrainian to stay out of American politics after he called Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s vice presidential running mate, “too radical” in an interview that published over the weekend.
The latest line of Republican attacks speaks to the broader political divisions over US involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war. Republican leaders are declining to meet Zelensky while he is in Washington, DC, while Democrats are embracing the opportunity. Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson are not currently scheduled to meet with the Ukrainian president, sources told CNN. In contrast, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Vice President Kamala Harris are scheduled to have meetings.
MAGA Mike Johnson posted this to Xitter this Wednesday:
And of course Fox was ready to help with the attack during the White House press briefing this Thursday, with Heinrich parroting the Republicans’ line of attack:
Jean-Pierre answered that by reminding everyone that Zelenskyy made a similar visit to Utah with Republican Gov. Spencer Cox back in July. No investigation was announced following that trip. She also said that contrary to what critics were saying, the investigation was the “political stunt,” not the Pennsylvania trip, and it should be dropped:
Heinrich: Critics have said that Zelenskyy’s trip to Pennsylvania was a political stunt. Did the administration communicate at all with Ukraine on who would be attending that trip or make any effort to make it a bipartisan event?
Jean-Pierre: So, let me just lay this down, because I know that there’s been a lot of talk about this. So, the Ukrainians asked to visit the facility, which employs American workers, as you know, who are manufacturing critical supplies that the Ukrainian military is using every day on the front lines of freedom. Because of its centrality to their country’s continued existence, this came from Ukraine, not us. This is something that they wanted to do. After they made that request, DOD did what it has done for years — figure out how to provide transportation for foreign leaders traveling on U.S. soil, which is common, which happens when they come to the U.S. And the whole world knows this is someone [Vladimir Putin] wants dead. He’s made very clear when it comes to President Zelenskyy.
And also just two months ago, President Zelenskyy traveled to Utah and held an event with a Republican governor, a very similar event. And Republican officials were there at that event in Utah. And there wasn’t a single demand, not one, not one single demand for an investigation when that occurred a couple of months ago in Utah. So, this was business as usual for a Ukrainian request during wartime. During wartime. And so I would encourage, we would encourage the House Republicans to drop this. This is a political stunt. They need to drop this.
Republicans can’t govern, so this is what we’re left with, and Jean-Pierre is precisely right about who is politicizing this.
