Vice President JD Vance is facing fire after heaping praise on Russian President Vladimir Putin, a former top KGB spy who is now an accused war criminal wanted by the International Criminal Court, with an arrest warrant for war crimes that is enforceable in 125 countries.
Putin’s illegal war against Ukraine has caused the deaths of tens of thousands, including children, and thousands of children have been forcibly taken to Russia in what some have labeled a campaign of genocide. He is widely believed to have murdered political rivals, while Russian forces under his command are accused of having carried out atrocities including rape and threats of castration of civilians and prisoners of war.
But according to the American Vice President, Vladimir Putin is a “soft-spoken” leader who is simply working to benefit his people.
Acknowledging to Fox News on Wednesday night that he’s “actually never met Putin,” Vance told host Laura Ingraham, “I’ve talked to him on the phone a number of times.”
“You know, it’s interesting,” the Vice President said thoughtfully. “He’s, he’s more soft spoken than you would necessarily expect.”
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“You know, the American media has a particular image of him,” Vance continued. “He’s soft spoken in a certain way. He’s very deliberate, he’s very careful.”
“And I think fundamentally, he’s a person who looks out for the interests as he sees it is of Russia.”
Vance went on to claim that Putin “respects” Donald Trump, “because he knows the President looks out for the interests of the American people.”
“And while they often disagree about issues, and obviously the president has been very critical of Vladimir Putin , the president’s also willing to work with anybody if he thinks it’s gonna accomplish an important goal for America, and we all agree, an important goal is to stop the killing.”
President Putin is among the world leaders whom President Trump has been least critical toward. He has repeatedly threatened sanctions, only to often backtrack later.
Critics were outraged.
“Let’s not forget Putin has killed all his rivals and has made bombing Ukrainian civilians his nightly practice,” charged U.S. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE).
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“He’s a killer. Stalin was soft spoken too,” observed former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul.
“Joseph Stalin was remembered by close comrades such as Nikita Khrushchev as a man who could be jovial in private settings, telling jokes and singing Georgian folk songs late into the night — just before ordering purges that would cost thousands of lives,” noted Mexican journalist León Krauze.
“Not sure how you can come to any other conclusion than that this administration is pro murderous dictator. They literally admire Putin. It’s incredibly abhorrent,” remarked award-winning author Jennifer Erin Valent.
“Today’s Republican Party is utterly compromised by Russia,” wrote former GOP Congressman Joe Walsh.
“This is not really a conclusion that’s consistent with anything US intel agencies or folks who studied Putin for a long time, have articulated, as far as I’m aware …” noted CNN national security reporter Zachary Cohen.
“This may be the most subversive, fifth column statement by a Vice President in history,” charged The Lincoln Project’s Stuart Stevens, referring to an embedded sympathizer or agent of a foreign enemy. “I keep saying this because it’s true and is proven every day. The degree to which the Republican Party is compromised by Russia is one of the great underreported stories of our time. From the NRA Russian funding to a VP slobbering over a mass murderer war criminal, the Republican Party is a functional arm of the Russian Federation.”
“I wonder if @VP would feel the same if his three children had been abducted by Putin’s army and advertised on the internet as available for purchase to Russians,” Stevens later added.
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