Speaking on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, J.D. Vance said he doesn’t “really care what happens to Ukraine,” arguing instead that President Biden should focus on “fentanyl coming across the Mexican border.” (Note: according to the Drug Enforcement Agency, China is the primary source of illicit fentanyl trafficked to America.)
Four days later, on February 24, 2022, Russian forces invaded Ukraine, kicking off a deadly spree of violence, needless death and destruction that the International Criminal Court has stated are war crimes.
Vance continued carrying water for Russia and Putin after this interview. As Marty Schladen writes in Ohio Capitol Journal in 2024, the junior senator from Ohio and current Vice Presidential candidate is “repeating Kremlin talking points”:
“Vance said the consequences of the REPO Act threatened to ‘upend the global financial order.’ Speaking about it in such hyperbolic terms sounds a bit like Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who said it was ‘nothing less than the demolition of all the foundations of the economic system.'”
Sir William Browder, frequent Putin critic and head of the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign, said on Twitter: “J.D. Vance is now parroting Putin’s exact words claiming that seizing Russian frozen assets would lead to catastrophe. Not only is he plain wrong, but we have to question his motivations. I sincerely hope that no one gives him any currency in advance of the vote on the REPO Act on Saturday.”
SOURCES
- Grabien
- Business Insider
- Ohio Capitol Journal
- Bill Browder on Twitter
- Tim Ryan on Twitter (hat tip @leesgirl9)
