Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared on ABC’s This Week with Martha Raddatz this morning and schooled her on the negotiations between President Trump, Russia, and Ukraine, which the leftist media is repeatedly attempting to misportray and undermine.
This comes after Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, where the two came to an agreement to secure peace, pending Ukraine and NATO cooperation. As The Gateway Pundit reported, Trump announced early on Saturday that he spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, European leaders, and the NATO Secretary General.
The President also announced on Saturday that he will host Zelensky at the White House on Monday.
However, Raddatz and the left are outraged that President Trump would host Vladimir Putin in Alaska and that the President used a red carpet to welcome him.
President Trump and Vladimir Putin shook hands on the red carpet-lined tarmac at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage and walked to “The Beast” together. Even body language expert Chris Ulrich, who was on CNN following the meeting, said that Trump’s gestures established “dominance” and showed Putin that “he’s in control.”
But Raddatz suggested that “Trump simply lost,” while “Putin gained there just by being on the world stage and walking down a red carpet with the President.”
Asked for his reaction, Rubio nuked her. “Putin is already on the world stage. He’s already on the world stage. The guy’s conducting a full-scale war in Ukraine. He’s already on the world stage,” Rubio said. “He has the world’s largest tactical nuclear arsenal in the world and the second largest strategic nuclear arsenal in the world. He’s already on the world stage.” He further credited the media for elevating Putin by talking about him “all the time for the last four or five years.”
“You’re not going to end a war between Russia and Ukraine without dealing with Putin. That’s just common sense. I shouldn’t even have to say it,” he continued, noting that Trump is “the only leader in the world that could get Putin to a meeting to talk about serious things.”
WATCH:
Raddatz: Critics of President Trump will say the pomp and circumstance, the red carpet, the warm handshake that President Trump simply lost that, that Putin gained there just by being on the world stage and walking down a red carpet with the President. Your reaction to that?
Rubio: I mean, critics of President Trump are always going to find something to criticize. You don’t even pay attention to it anymore. But I will tell you this: Putin is already on the world stage. He’s already on the world stage. The guy’s conducting a full-scale war in Ukraine. He’s already on the world stage. He has the world’s largest tactical nuclear arsenal in the world and the second largest strategic nuclear arsenal in the world. He’s already on the world stage. When I hear people say that, “oh, it elevates him,” well, all we do is talk about Putin all the time. All the media’s done is talk about Putin all the time for the last four or five years. That doesn’t mean he’s right about the war. That doesn’t mean he’s justified about the war. Put all that aside. It means you’re not going to have a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. You’re not going to end a war between Russia and Ukraine without dealing with Putin.
That’s just common sense. I shouldn’t even have to say it. So, people can say whatever they want. Ultimately, at the end of the day, we have to get the Russian side to agree to things that they don’t want to agree to if we’re going to have peace. If not, there will just be a war. They’ll keep killing each other, and life will go on in America and in the rest of the world, but not for Ukraine. So, the President has invested a lot of time in trying to bring an end to this war. He deserves credit for doing that. He gets criticism for doing that. He could have just let this war go on. The President could have just said, this is Biden’s war. It started under him. We’ll do what we can for Ukraine, but we’re going to focus on other things. He could have easily said that, but he’s the only leader in the world that could get Putin to a meeting to talk about serious things.
In another segment of the interview, Rubio again schooled Raddatz on the diplomacy involved and the delicacy of the situation, which could potentially worsen with further sanctions against Russia.
The liberal media’s reporting suggests that Trump is being too soft on Russia and too hard on Ukraine, with some leftist cranks even suggesting that Trump is bullying Zelensky into accepting a bad deal to end the war.
However, Rubio says that Russia is already under sanctions and new sanctions would be a signal from the United States of “walking away from any prospect of a negotiated settlement here.”
“Everyone, including the Ukrainians and all the countries of Europe, are begging the United States to be engaged, engage Putin, and try to get him to agree to a peace agreement. They’re all asking us to do that. They all are,” Rubio said. “And the minute you levy new sanctions, those talks probably stop for the foreseeable future, and that means the war continues for the foreseeable future.”
WATCH:
Rubio: The deadline is as soon as possible. We want this war to end as soon as possible. I mean, that’s why we’re working on it. In terms of sanctions, look, at the end of the day, if we can’t reach a peace agreement here, and this war continues and so forth, then I anticipate you’ll see the President take further action. He’s already made that clear. The problem is this— let’s use our heads here. The problem is this, the minute you levy additional sanctions, strong additional sanctions, the talking stops. Talking stops, and at that point, the war just continues. You’ve probably just added 6, 8, 9, 12, more months to the war, if not longer. More people dead, more people killed, more people maimed, more families destroyed. Okay?
That’s what happens if you do that. Now, we may end up being at a point where we have to do that, where there is no other recourse, and that’s the end. By the way, there already are sanctions on Russia. The President hasn’t lifted any sanctions on Russia. They’re already facing sanctions, severe sanctions, and they’re facing them from the Europeans as well. So we may very well reach a point where everyone concludes no peace is going to happen here, we’re going to have to do more sanctions. But when you do that, you are basically walking away from any prospect of a negotiated settlement here, which is what everyone is asking us to do. Everyone, including the Ukrainians and all the countries of Europe, are begging the United States to be engaged, engage Putin, and try to get him to agree to a peace agreement. They’re all asking us to do that. They all are. And the minute you levy new sanctions, those talks probably stop for the foreseeable future, and that means the war continues for the foreseeable future. I hope that doesn’t happen. We may very well wind up there, but we’re going to try to do everything to prevent it, because we want to reach a peace agreement.
The post WATCH: Marco Rubio Schools Martha Raddatz for Suggesting Trump “Lost” in Putin Meeting, Putin Gained by “Being on the World Stage and Walking Down a Red Carpet” appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.