House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said during an interview over the weekend that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky needed to “come to his senses” and turn around his country’s relationship with the United States after the disastrous Oval Office meeting he had with President Donald Trump last week.
Johnson made the remarks during a Sunday interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” with Kristen Welker when asked if Russian President Vladimir Putin was the “winner” of the Oval Office debacle.
“No, he wasn’t,” Johnson said. “I’ve never seen anything like President Zelensky’s behavior there. He berated and interrupted his host instead of expressing gratitude for the extraordinary help that the U.S. has provided his country, and effectively helped him stay alive and stay in power.”
“So the way that that went down was very disappointing,” he continued. “I hope and pray, frankly, that President Zelensky will come to his senses, come back to President Trump, express gratitude as he should, you know, apologize for his behavior there, and accept this mineral rights deal. Because that is the best way for us to get to a point of peace over there in that region. And it’s in the interest of both countries.”
Johnson also reiterated that the United States does not believe that Russia is the good guy and Ukraine is the bad guy in this conflict.
“It’s pretty absurd for anyone in the media or Democrats to somehow proclaim that President Trump, the White House, or Republicans in Congress are on Putin’s side,” he said. “It’s a joke. We understand that he is a dangerous adversary and he is the one that provoked the war. When we did the aid to Ukraine a year ago, the entire of that – and I was consistent from that moment until today — the whole point was to position Ukraine for peace talks. To make sure that they could hold the line until President Trump returned to the White House, which we knew was going to happen.”
“President Trump is the only figure on the entire globe who is powerful enough to bring both of these parties to the table,” he continued. “And he was in the process of doing that. And he was very, I think, excited about the deal that was going to be consummated yesterday. But President Zelensky went in and blew it up. And it is such a great disappointment for everyone. We need to get him back to the table, we need to get Ukraine to express gratitude, of course, for all that we’ve done for them. But to bring it into this conflict, it is in America’s interest to get this done. And it is certainly, obviously in Ukraine’s interest, and all of our allies in Europe and around the world.”
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