Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) stated President Trump was “wrong” to name Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator on Wednesday and for showing to be “standing on the side” of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The president needs a do-over day – and start again. He took a bad turn,” Bacon, a average Republican, stated in an interview with CNN’s Brianna Keilar. “I think what he said is wrong, and it’s a shame.”
Trump’s disagreement with Zelensky escalated on Wednesday, when he took to Fact Social and referred to as the Ukrainian president a “dictator without elections” who was doing a “terrible job.”
Bacon, within the interview, pushed again on the declare, noting Zelensky was, in truth, democratically elected and that the nation’s structure permits for elections to be postponed beneath martial regulation, which was invoked due to Russia’s invasion.
Bacon additionally stated the president’s phrases don’t replicate the views of the entire GOP.
“Many Republicans know what the president said today was wrong,” Bacon stated. “Putin started this invasion. He is the dictator. He has killed all of his opponents. Zelensky was rightfully elected.”
“Ukraine is the sufferer,” he added. “And I would ask that our president stand on the side of freedom, the side of democracy, the side of the victim, not the invader, and stick up for what’s right.”
“And so I want to be very strong in my words today,” Bacon stated, “because this Republican does not agree with what the president said.”
The stress between Trump and Zelensky shortly escalated after Ukraine was disregarded of talks between U.S. and Russian officers in Saudi Arabia earlier this week, drawing a rebuke from Zelensky.
Trump responded Tuesday with unfounded allegations that Zelensky “started” the warfare, with the Ukrainian chief responding Wednesday that the U.S. president was residing in a “web of disinformation.” Trump despatched his indignant Fact Social put up hours later.
“I think he handled it tactfully,” Bacon stated, when requested whether or not he thinks Zelensky responded to Trump appropriately. “You have to push back. He is the victim. Putin is the invader. Putin’s bombing of cities. Russians are obliterating the towns that they have taken over and they’ve assassinated or murdered prisoners of war. They’ve raped and pillaged.”
“Russia’s on the unhealthy aspect right here,” he added. “And we’d like a president that has ethical readability in terms of this warfare, and I proper now don’t see that.”
Bacon stated he had hoped President Trump could be stronger on Ukraine than former President Biden, who Bacon stated was too sluggish to ship weapons to the war-torn democracy.
“I had hoped that this president would step up and try to finish this war in the right way, not in an un-noble way. And what we see today is not a noble course of action,” Bacon stated. “We’re standing on the side of the dictator, not the side of democracy.”
