Senator JD Vance (R-OH) silenced CNN anchor Jake Tapper by pointing to former President Donald Trump’s foreign policy record during an appearance on “State of the Union” on Sunday.
Tapper began by referencing the long-running “Russian collusion” hoax while framing Trump as sympathetic to Vladimir Putin and Russia’s territorial ambitions. In addition to the fact that Russia invaded Ukraine under Biden, Trump took a number of hardline stances against Russia, including an incident in Syria where U.S. forces attacked Russian Wagner Group contractors for encroaching on their base along the Syrian-Jordanian border.
Tapper pointed to an interview he held with Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) earlier in the day, who portrayed both Trump and Vance as pro-Russia over their stances on Ukraine. “You know, when I was growing up, we all agreed that Russia is the evil empire and we got to stand with that. We’re all in that same fight and we all need to stand with all these democracies, Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan as well too. And I understand my colleague is coming up after me and I don’t understand where my colleague Vance has about Ukraine as well too,” Fetterman told Tapper.
“In fact, he owns, in my opinion, the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard about Ukraine where he claims to some effect that he doesn’t care what happens in Ukraine and that, that’s astonishing to me,” he continued. “And I don’t understand the motivation to that as well too. But all I can conclude is that, that aligns with what Donald Trump says and I don’t understand why Donald Trump seems to love Putin as well too, but it’s a disgrace if we don’t deliver this aid.”
Vance responded to Fetterman’s “absurd” comments by detailing former President Trump’s foreign policy achievements and “peace through strength” approach.
“First, Jake, the idea that Putin loves Donald Trump or Donald Trump loves Putin is absolutely absurd. Putin was actually pretty well behaved during the Trump administration. He invaded another country during the Biden administration,” Vance said. “So for these guys to say that Putin prefers Donald Trump, it completely ignores the underlying realities on the ground here. We actually had some real security deterrence when Donald Trump was president.”
“And of course, it’s not just in Ukraine. So again, what Fetterman’s saying is preposterous. Reality shows Putin didn’t like when Donald Trump was president and was a lot better behaved. And I think to accuse Donald Trump of being pro-Putin completely ignores the reality on the ground,” the freshman senator went on to say.
Tapper then jumped in to argue that Trump was overtly friendly to Putin during his time in office. “Well, what Fetterman might say, were he here, is that Putin was getting a lot of things that he wanted out of Donald Trump, so he didn’t need to be as hostile. Donald Trump was clearly more friendly to him than other presidents have been one way or the other but also Donald Trump was more hostile to NATO,” the CNN host said.
“I don’t think that’s right Jake. What I think Donald Trump does is he engaged in strategic deterrence. You have to negotiate sometimes even with bad people, even with your enemies, but you have to deter those people,” Vance responded. “And if you engage in smart deterrence like Donald Trump did, he doesn’t invade countries like Ukraine,” he continued, adding “so I don’t buy that argument.”
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