Posted on 02/24/2025 3:40:44 PM PST by bimboeruption
Former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday suggested President Trump’s refusal to blame Russia as the sole aggressor who provoked the war in Ukraine “reflects a gross misunderstanding of the nature of negotiations and leverage.”
McConnell declared in a statement marking the three-year anniversary of the war that the “human catastrophe rests solely on Vladimir Putin” and that if Ukrainian forces laid down their arms, “Putin’s aims would not stop with Kyiv.”
“Mistaking this fact is as embarrassing as it is costly,” McConnell said.
He also criticized what he called the Biden administration’s “shameful hesitation and half-measures” in responding to Russian aggression but, without naming Trump specifically, he warned that refusing to recognize the United States’s interest in defeating Russian aggression would be “even more disgraceful.”
“Refusing to acknowledge Russia as the undeniable and unprovoked aggressor is more than an unseemly moral equivalency — it reflects a gross misunderstanding of the nature of negotiations and leverage,” he said.
McConnell, the chairman of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, issued his statement a few days after Trump suggested that Ukraine started the war with Russia and called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “a dictator without elections.”
Russia’s army invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, after Putin said he needed to protect the Russian-speaking population in eastern Ukraine and contain NATO expansion.
Trump refused to call Putin a “dictator” when asked by a reporter whether he would use the same words for the Russian president.
“I don’t use those words lightly,” Trump responded during a joint press appearance with French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday at the White House.
Trump and Macron discussed their efforts to bring an end to the three-year war.
Those comments came on the same day the United States voted against a U.N. resolution condemning Russia as the aggressor in the war, joining Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Israel and Hungary in voting no.
McConnell, who has devoted his final two years in the Senate to pushing back against the isolationists in his party, said that hoping that “appeasement will check the ambitions” of Putin is “as naïve today as it was in 1939,” referring to Western Europe’s initial hesitancy in standing up to Nazi Germany.
“America is right to seek an end to this war, but an end that fails to constrain Russian ambition, ensure Ukrainian sovereignty, or strengthen American credibility with both allies and adversaries is no end at all,” he warned.
“Instead, such a hollow peace would invite further aggression,” he said.
McConnell said the “axis of aggressors from Beijing to Moscow,” which includes Iran and North Korea, is seeking an outcome in Ukraine that “undermines the credibility of American deterrence and leaves U.S. interests more vulnerable.”
“Without a clear and resolute commitment to the leadership and order that underpins our prosperity and security, America’s adversaries will receive exactly what they hope for,” he declared.
Oh go die already, Mitch.
Turtle needs to just get out of the way.
And his state needs to replace him.
“a gross misunderstanding “
Isn’t that Mitch McComical’s middle name?
At least Trump doesn’t drool when he talks.
Generals gathered in their masses
Just like witches at black masses
Evil minds that plot destruction
Sorcerer of death’s construction
In the fields, the bodies burning
As the war machine keeps turning
Death and hatred to mankind
Poisoning their brainwashed minds
This is just silly. I’m sure these skunks know that Trump is a prefect negotiator. They are playing this game strictly to undermine Trump in public.
Otherwise he’d have to be drunk or insane to believe Trump needs his advice.
You channeling Ozzie by chance? :)
Must hurt to lose your leadership position, health, and money laundering gold mine. The leadership position and money laundering gold mine thanks to one man who his own side couldn’t even assassinate. That in and of itself must have taken the extra toll on his health.
Who woke up the brain-dead fossil?
Trump likely understands the long-term graft culture of Ukraine and how that graft infects the hierarchy of the US Senate [and the office of Linda Grahmnasty...].
In Mitch’s case I hope so. A Lot!
FOAD Turtle. The guy is 100x up on what Ukraine is all about than you.
USAID Mitch.
McConnell can’t even walk or talk without crashing and burning. How the frig would he know what’s going on in the Ukraine talks.
What does McConnell know about international negotiations? Seems to me that Donald Trump has done pretty well in that regard.
This worthless rino has no idea what negotiations have taken place or what is or is not on the table. What a fool and a bad joke he has become
Maybe between The Pope and China Mitch, we can get a two-fer this week.
Mitch must get a kick out of all those people dying on the battlefield. Also, all those civilians getting killed. Hey Mitch, how many more people do you want to see die?
Turtle talks just like McCain now.
Hopefully it won’t be too much longer....
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