Trump in recent days has seemingly turned on Zelensky, calling him a dictator and falsely claiming that Ukraine started the war three years ago. Tensions boiled over Friday at what was intended to be a meeting to secure the U.S. with a supply of rare earth minerals in exchange for millions of dollars to Ukraine.
Speaking with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Rubio said Zelensky should “apologize for turning this thing into the fiasco for him that it became.”
“We are trying to bring it to an end — the way you bring it to an end is you get Russia to the table to talk. [Trump] understands that attacking Putin, no matter how anyone may feel about him personally, forces the president into a position where you’re trying to goad him into attacking Putin, calling him names, maximalist demands,” Rubio said.
“When you start talking about that aggressively, the president’s a deal maker. He’s made deals his entire life. You’re not going to get people to the table. And so you start to perceive that maybe Zelensky doesn’t want a peace deal,” Rubio added.
Rubio’s demeanor in the interview was a change from his stance during the exchange at the White House, where he looked visibly uncomfortable sitting next to the vice president during the heated exchange.
Trump scolded Zelensky, and Vance said the Ukrainian president was being “disrespectful.” The meeting resulted in the cancellation of a sit-down lunch, a scheduled joint press conference, and Zelensky’s early exit from the White House. Zelensky is heading to London this evening.
Zelensky said he would not apologize for the interaction.
“I respect [the] president and I respect American people. And I’m not sure that we did something bad,” Zelensky told Fox News’s Bret Baier hours after the White House spectacle.
The Oval Office meeting began derailing when a Polish reporter posed a question about Putin being a dictator. Rubio, who in the Senate was staunchly anti-Putin, reiterated to CNN that calling Putin names would not bode well in peace negotiations.
“The president, who’s the ultimate deal maker, knows you don’t get people to a negotiating table when you’re calling them names and you’re accusing them of things because at the end of the day, this is not a political campaign, OK?” Rubio added later.
IS PUTIN WILLING TO END OR PAUSE THE UKRAINE WAR?
When additionally pressed by Collins about previously calling Putin a “butcher,” Rubio said, “At this moment, as secretary of state, my job, working for the president, is to deliver peace, to end this conflict and end this war. Ultimately, that is the job of the State Department.”
“The State Department doesn’t fight wars,” Rubio said. “It ends them.”
