GOP piles on Trump's Zelensky hostility
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President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meet in the Oval Office at the White House on Feb. 28 in Washington, DC. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and others in the GOP chided Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday following a heated Oval Office meeting with President Trump and Vice President Vance on Friday.
The big picture: The tense exchange between the three leaders has further soured an already strained relationship between the U.S. and Ukraine and led to at least one GOP member — South Carolina's Lindsey Graham — to suggest Zelensky leave office.
Driving the news: Johnson said on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday that Zelensky needs to "come to his senses" and return to the negotiating table "in gratitude, or someone else needs to lead the country to do that."
- Asked if Russian President Vladimir Putin also needed to step down, Johnson said he'd like to see him "defeated."
- He argued the U.S. is not abandoning Ukraine but criticized the country's leader for appearing "rather stiff-necked in the Oval Office instead of being gracious and saying, 'Thank you,' and looking for a way out of this mess."
Reality check: Zelensky was accused by Vance of not saying "thank you" during the Oval Office showdown, but the Ukrainian leader has thanked the U.S. — and both Presidents Biden and Trump — for its support dozens of times.
- When the leaders gathered in the White House Friday, they were slated to sign a minerals deal. But the talks exploded before the press, prompting the deal to be scratched.
- After Zelensky publicly questioned Vance's definition of "diplomacy," the barbs started to fly: The vice president accused the Ukrainian leader of disrespect and argued he led "propaganda tours."
- Trump, who described Zelensky as an unelected dictator last month, told his visitor he was "not in a good position," saying, "you don't have the cards."
Zoom in: White House national security adviser Mike Waltz, who Axios reported directed Zelensky to leave the White House on Friday alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" that "it wasn't clear to us" that Zelensky "was ready to negotiate in good faith."
- Asked if Trump wants to see Zelensky resign from his post, Waltz replied, "if it becomes apparent that President Zelensky's either personal motivations or political motivations are divergent from ending the fighting in his country, then ... I think we have a real issue on our hands."
- Responding to his past characterization of Zelensky as a modern-day Winston Churchill, Waltz said the former UK prime minister was "a man for a moment."
The other side: Not all Republicans are on board with calls for Zelensky to step aside.
- "I'm not interested in calling on the resignation of other world leaders," Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said on NBC's "Meet the Press" in response to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) suggesting Zelensky needed to pass the reins.
- "I think that would spiral Ukraine into chaos right now, trying to find who is the negotiator to bring an issue to peace," he added.
Meanwhile, Democrats and others admonished the administration and its Republican chorus Sunday, with Sen Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) slamming calls for Zelensky to resign as a "horrific suggestion."
- "I think millions of Americans are embarrassed, are ashamed, that you have a President of the United States who says that Ukraine started the war, that Zelenskyy is a dictator — he's got it exactly backwards," Sanders told NBC's Kristen Welker.
- Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) condemned the White House's softening approach to Moscow and recent tendency to echo Russian talking points, contending on CNN that "the White House has become an arm of the Kremlin."
Go deeper: Zelensky says he doesn't think he did anything wrong after public spat with Trump
