Sen. Lisa Murkowski slept on it overnight and came to the conclusion that President Donald Trump was once again wrong, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was right.
Murkowski commented on the 40-minute meeting between the president of the United States and the president of Ukraine, which ended with a few unpleasantries.
She avoided using the names of either Trump or Zelenskyy in her remarks:
“This week started with administration officials refusing to acknowledge that Russia started the war in Ukraine. It ends with a tense, shocking conversation in the Oval Office and whispers from the White House that they may try to end all U.S. support for Ukraine. I know foreign policy is not for the faint of heart, but right now, I am sick to my stomach as the administration appears to be walking away from our allies and embracing Putin, a threat to democracy and U.S. values around the world,” Murkowski wrote on X on Saturday.
She is typically critical of President Trump, and her position on the meeting was not unexpected, as she is upping her public profile in advance of the release of her memoirs in June.
It’s unclear if Murkowski watched the entire meeting, which was televised, or if she just saw the final few minutes. At one point in the meeting, Zelenskyy could be heard uttering the word “bitch” in Russian while Vice President Vance was making a point.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina came to a different conclusion than Murkowski: “To the hand-wringing Europeans who felt offended by President Trump rejecting being lectured by President Zelensky: Be my guest to defend Ukraine from Putin. It is long past time for the Europeans to show they are capable of defending their own continent. They’ve allowed their militaries to be hollowed out and when Europe speaks, no bad guy listens. I say this with great sadness: The last group of people that I would count on to defend freedom are the Europeans.”
Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska decided to not pour gasoline on the fire, saying instead, ““The meeting with President Zelenskyy was a missed opportunity for the people of Ukraine. After the meeting, President Trump left the door open to continue to work with Zelenskyy on a peace agreement. I am hopeful that will happen.”
Trump, on the other hand, simply said that Zelenskyy overplayed his hand: “We want peace. We’re not looking to go into a 10-year war and play games,” Trump said.
According to the federal government, since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Congress has appropriated or otherwise made available nearly $183 billion for Operation Atlantic Resolve and the broader Ukraine response.
“Additionally, the United States provided $20 billion in loans as part of the G7 nations extraordinary revenue acceleration loans initiative. The Special IG for OAR has collected funding data from all 14 Federal agencies that were authorized to receive funds through the Ukraine supplemental appropriation acts, including the Department of Defense (DoD), Department of State (State), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), according to the “Ukraine Oversight’s Special Inspector General for Operation Atlantic Resolve, Promoting Whole of Government Oversight of the U.S. Ukraine Response.”
