After the scandal in the White House, the opinion of US politicians was divided

^{Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images}
On Friday, February 28, talks in Washington between US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky ended in a brawl rather than a deal on rare earth metals. Opinions on the issue among members of the US Senate and other American politicians were divided, mainly along party lines.

Republicans: "America First" in practice

“Today we saw an American president in the Oval Office who puts America first,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson. “The days when America could be used and disrespected are over,” he said.

“What I saw in the Oval Office was disrespectful, and I don’t know if we’ll ever see Zelensky again,” Senator Lindsey Graham, a prominent Republican, told reporters. He said the Ukrainian president should either “change” or “resign and send someone who can ‘work’ in Washington.”

Victoria Spars, a U.S. senator from Indiana who was born in the Ukrainian SSR, said Zelensky “has done great harm to the Ukrainian people by insulting the president of the United States and the American people.” “This is not a stage play, this is a real war,” the Republican said.

Congressman Don Bacon, a member of the same party, took a different position. “Some people want to hide the truth, but we can’t ignore it. Russia is to blame for this war,” the Republican said.

US Democrats: Moscow is celebrating now

“The Kremlin is celebrating,” said Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, commenting on the outcome of the talks. According to him, Trump and US Vice President J.D. Vance’s “insults to Zelensky and a show full of lies and disinformation” “would embarrass even Putin” and “be an embarrassment to America.”

“We cannot allow Trump to rewrite history or destroy decades of cooperation (with Ukraine),” said Senate Democratic leader Dick Durbin. He expressed his “sincere apology” to Zelensky.

According to Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, the current US president “is treating the destruction of democracy as a political spectacle, throwing Ukraine to the wolves and doing Putin a favor.”

Ben Rhodes, another Democrat who served as deputy national security adviser in the Obama administration, said: "Trump is turning the United States into a far-right, authoritarian, worthless oligarchy, closely aligned with the autocracies of the world." Follow “Zamin” news on “Telegram”