I made this video shortly after the catastrophic display put on by Donald Trump and JD Vance in the Oval Office on Friday during their meeting with President Volodomyr Zelensky of Ukraine. I was a bit heated at the time and in the moment forgot to mention some of the other entities that are to blame for why we as a country find ourselves in this diminished state. There is, of course, the corporate media, and their spineless insistence on focusing on their both sides approach and their unrelenting, and largely successful attempts to normalize the deviant and depraved criminal who now sits in the Oval Office. Rubert Murdoch and Robert Ailes, entirely unimpeded and unregulated by members of Congress who actually could have done something to curtail their vile project, have been directly injecting their poison into the veins of tens of millions of Americans for decades. As for Merrick Garland, all I’ll say at the moment is that history if there is a history of this benighted era, will not judge him kindly. Nor should it.
It has been erroneously reported that this meeting was a set-up. Instead, it was the purest public example we have to date of Donald Trump’s emotional and psychological deterioration and a reminder that he can no longer be trusted to appear publicly in high-stress situations that require nuance and self-control without a minder.
[This transcript has been edited for flow and clarity.]
Earlier today in the Oval Office, a meeting between president of Ukraine, Volodomyr Zelensky and Donald Trump and JD Vance took place, but before the meeting even began, a man named Brian Glenn, who is connected to a sitting member of the House of Representatives, but has absolutely no place in the United States government at all, decided to ask a question of President Zelensky, perhaps thinking he was being provocative.Instead, of course, he was merely rude because this is what the federal government has been reduced to watch this clip.
Brian Glenn: Question for President Zelensky. Now, do you ever, why don't you wear a suit? Why don't you wear a suit? You're at the highest level in this country's office and you refuse to wear a suit. Just want to see if you do. You own a suit,
Pres. Zelensky: You have problems.
Glenn: A lot of Americans have problems with you not respecting.
Zelensky: I don't have size. I will wear costume after this war will finish. Okay? Yes. Maybe one. Maybe something. Maybe something like yours.
Glenn: Yes, that'd be great.
Zelensky: Maybe something better. I don't know. We'll see. Maybe something cheaper than, yeah.
Before the meeting even began, it became quite clear that the room was full of pro-Trump regime outlets. There were no actual journalists there to ask difficult questions or undoubtedly to report it accurately. Luckily, we have video and this is what happened. [Transcript courtesy of foreignpolicy.com]
JD Vance: You should be thanking the president for trying to bring it into this conflict.
Zelensky: Have you ever been to Ukraine that you say what problems we have?
JD Vance: I have been to …
Zelensky: Count one.
JD Vance: I've actually watched and seen the stories, and I know what happens is you bring people. You bring them on a propaganda tour. Mr. President. Do you disagree that you've had problems bringing people into your military, and do you think that it's respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?
JD Vance: I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country. [Zelensky begins to respond] Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media. Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems—you should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.
Zelensky: Have you ever been to Ukraine to see what problems we have? Come once.
I’ve actually watched and seen the stories, and I know what happens is you bring people on a propaganda tour, Mr. President. Do you disagree that you’ve had problems bringing people in your military, and do you think that it’s respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?
Donald Trump: You don’t know that.
Zelensky: God bless, you will not have war.
Trump: Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel. We’re trying to solve a problem.
Zelensky: I’m not. I’m answering the question that…
Trump: You’re in no position to dictate what we’re going to feel. We’re going to feel very good.
Zelensky: You are going to feel influenced…
Trump: We’re going to feel very good and very strong. You’re, right now, not in a very good position. You’ve allowed yourself to be in a very bad position. You don’t have the cards right now with us. [cross-talk] You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with World War Three. You’re gambling with World War Three, and what you’re doing is very disrespectful to this country that’s backed you far more than a lot of people say they should have.
Vance: Have you said thank you once?
Zelensky: A lot of times.
Vance: No, in this entire meeting, have you said thank you? You went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October. Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the president who’s trying to save your country.
Zelensky: Please, you think that if you will speak very loudly…
Trump: He is not speaking loudly. Your country is in big trouble.
Zelensky: I know. Can I ask…
Trump: No, no, you’ve done a lot of talking. Your country is in big trouble.
Zelensky: I know.
Trump: You’re not winning this. You have a damn good chance of coming out okay because of us.
Zelensky: Mr. President, we are staying strong in our country. From the very beginning of the war we’ve been alone and we are thankful. I said thank you in this cabinet.
Trump: We gave you, through this stupid president, $350 billion. We gave you military equipment. Your men are brave but they have used our military equipment. If you didn’t have our military equipment, this war would have been over in two weeks.
Zelensky: In three days, yes. I heard it from Putin.
Trump: It’s going to be a very hard thing to do business like this.
Vance: Just say thank you.
Zelensky: I said thank you—I say thank you to the American people.
Vance: Accept that there are disagreements, and let’s go litigate those disagreements, rather than trying to fight it out in the American media, when you’re wrong. We know that you’re wrong.
Trump: You see, I think it’s good for the American people to see what’s going on. I think it’s very important. That’s why I kept this going so long. You have to be thankful. You don’t have the cards. You’re buried there. You people are dying. You’re running low on soldiers. Listen, you’re running low on soldiers. It would be a damn good thing. Then you tell us, “I don’t want to cease fire. I don’t want to cease fire.” If you could get a cease-fire right now, I tell you, you take it so the bullets stop flying and your men stop getting killed.
Zelensky: Yes, of course I want to stop the war. But, as I’ve said to you, with guarantees. Ask our people about the cease-fire, what do they think.
Trump: That wasn’t me. That was with a guy named Biden, who was not a smart person. That was with Obama, who gave you sheets. I gave you javelins. I gave you the javelins to take out all those tanks. Obama gave you sheets. In fact, the statement is Obama gave sheets and Trump gave javelins. You got to be more thankful, because, let me tell you, you don’t have the cards. With us, you have the cards, but without us, you don’t have any cards. It’ll be a tough deal to make because the attitudes have to change.
There are not words to describe what a grotesque display that was. The utter lack of diplomacy or statecraft or the ability to recognize the seriousness of the situation Ukraine is facing on the part of Donald Trump or JD Vance. The contempt, the contemptuousness, the disrespect, the arrogance just dripped from the two people who are ostensibly the leaders of this country.
President Zelensky did his best, but quite frankly under their circumstances, how could he possibly withstand or put up with such behavior?
I'm going to take one second before I get to the rest of what I have to say and just tell Donald that it's very obvious what's going on here. You are sitting next to a man of real bravery, decency, and humanity, and because he had the audacity to stand up to you, which sadly few people ever do, you couldn't take it. And you couldn't take it because Zelensky just held up a mirror to you, and the mirror reflected back nothing.
You, Donald are an empty, very small man who has no real self and no self-worth whatsoever, which is why you are so grasping and so acquisitive. It’s why the only times in your small life that you can feel anything human is when you have people in your power who are dependent upon you or weaker than you, and you make their lives miserable.
Now, as to those who were responsible for having allowed this travesty of a presidency to happen, how dare you. To the corrupt, illegitimate super-majority on the Supreme Court, who has given this man, of all people, a pass; who is placed upon him so much immunity that he is indeed above the law in this country. To the Democratic Party, which continually failed to recognize the threats we were facing, or, in the event that you did recognize them, you failed to act accordingly.
There are many, many people and parties and entities to blame, but above all, let's not forget that the largest share of the blame rests with Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party, which for decades now has been undermining what makes this country a democracy. They have been weakening our institutions and breaking our norms to the point where they have been able to use over the last four decades or more the rules of our democracy, the rules of the Senate against us, to the point where it became almost logically inevitable that we would end up with a miscreant, a thug, a criminal, a rapist, a fraudster, and a traitor sitting in the Oval Office.
Some of you who are to blame are completely beyond redemption, but perhaps some of you are not. To you, I will say this: Stand up. The idea of allowing that brave man to withstand all of this alone is beyond comprehension. Democrats, any Republicans who have any sense of shame or decency left or who recognize where we are heading, stand up. To American citizens who mistakenly voted for this, wake up and stand up. You don't like being proven wrong? Too fucking bad. Grow up. This is real. This is only going to get worse. The only way we get through this is if everybody with any sense of shame or decency or possibility or hope stands with President Volodymyr Zelensky. That includes every single one of our former European allies and NATO allies; that includes every single person in this country who is not so far gone or so deluded that you think this is okay.
Stand up. If we stand together and continue to punch the bully in the face, to show Donald Trump that we see him, we know what he is, and we will no longer put up with it, there is hope. If we do nothing nothing is going to change and everything will get worse.
So everybody, take President Zelensky’s appearance today as an example, and take it as permission. Stand the fuck up.
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