Republican Iowa Senator Joni Ernst lectured her House North Carolina GOP colleague Madison Cawthorn after a video emerged of him calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “thug” and his government “evil”.
“Remember that Zelensky is a thug,” Mr Cawthorn told supporters, a video obtained by WRAL shows. “Remember that the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt and is incredibly evil and has been pushing woke ideologies.”
On Thursday, Ms Ernst addressed Mr Cawthorn’s comments on the floor of the Senate, remembering her time in Ukraine in 1989, two years before the country gained its independence from the collapsing Soviet Union.
She noted that she had met with a number of Ukrainian farmers.
“The first question they asked [was] ‘what is [it] like to be American’ and ‘what is [it] like to be free?’ They wanted to be free at that time. They were a fledgling democracy. They became a free nation in 1991 and they have been fighting ever since,” she said.
She added that anyone who thinks any country is entirely corruption-free is “kidding” themselves.
“The Ukrainians want to be free, they have been fighting for this for the past 30 years and to just hand them over to an actual murderous thug called Vladimir Putin, is the wrong thing to do,” she said. “So to my colleague in the house, I would push back and say it’s not Ukraine that is invading Russia, it is Russia that is invading Ukraine.”
Anti-Trump House Republicans Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Liz Cheney of Wyoming also criticised Mr Cawthorn.
“This is the sad but successful impact of Russia’s cyber operation that we’ve seen pushed and promoted on conservative outlets. The threat is real and it’s dangerous. Case in point: a sitting US Congressman is echoing Putin propaganda,” Mr Kinzinger tweeted on Thursday.
Ms Cheney wrote that Mr Cawthorn was “another member of the Putin wing of the GOP”.
On 25 February, Ms Cheney tweeted that “as Russian forces invade Ukraine, Russian TV features Donald Trump, Mike Pompeo and Tucker Carlson praising Putin”.
“Putin is evil. Every American watching what’s happening in Ukraine should know that,” she added.
California Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell tweeted that “100 per cent of Democrats are Zelensky Democrats. 50 per cent of Republicans are Putin Republicans”.
Mr Cawthorn is running for re-election in his western North Carolina district. One of his opponents, Michele Woodhouse, told WRAL that Mr Cawthorn’s remarks were “boorish”, out of touch, and that Mr Zelensky is a “hero”.
Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served as the White House Director of Strategic Communications under former President Donald Trump, tweeted, “I try not to criticize Madison because he’s my former intern and I think he genuinely doesn’t know how little he knows. But this is disgraceful and not how a sitting lawmaker should speak about a US ally. [Mr Cawthorn] is echoing Russian propaganda”.
Democratic Arizona Representative Ruben Gallego tweeted that it’s “disturbing that he sits in our classified briefings on [the Russia-Ukraine war]. Not sure now that is a good idea”.
The chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Jaime Harrison, tweeted that it was “yet another ‘dim-witted’ statement from the delinquents that run the GOP aka the Party of Putin. Zelensky is fighting for freedom and the lives of his people and this guy is driving around with a revoked license and beating up dead trees”.
Former Republican congressman Joe Walsh tweeted that Mr Cawthorn “is not alone in supporting Putin. Hell, the leader of the GOP supports Putin. The anti-democracy, pro-authoritarian wing of the GOP is not fringe. Not fringe at all. It’s alive and well and growing”.
“Maddy Cawcaw has some sketchy Russian ties. Dude is also dumb as a bag of socks. No offense to socks,” one Twitter user quipped.
Karl Rove, who served as President George W Bush’s deputy chief of staff, wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that Mr Cawthorn made the comments over the weekend during an event in Asheville. Mr Rove said he believed that the comments “didn’t reflect Republican opinion”.
Conservative commentator Bill Kristol, who served as Chief of Staff to Republican Vice President Dan Quayle, tweeted, “about [Mr Cawthorn] one really has to say: In the confederacy of Trumpist lowlifes, he’s the lowest. In the confederacy of Trumpist lowlifes, he’s the lowest”.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki declined to comment on Mr Cawthorn’s remarks.
When reached by The Independent on Thursday, Mr Cawthorn’s Communications Director Luke Ball pointed to Twitter statements that “explains what his point was in those remarks”.
“Propaganda is being used to entice America into another war,” Mr Cawthorn tweeted. “I do not want Americans dying because emotions pushed us into a conflict.”
“The actions of Putin and Russia are disgusting. But leaders, including Zelensky, should NOT push misinformation on America,” he added. “I am praying for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. Pray also we are not drawn into conflict based on foreign leaders pushing misinformation.”
Mr Cawthorn linked to a Substack post by Pedro Gonzalez, who wrote that “Ukrainian misinformation is pointed largely at the West, with outright propaganda promoted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky himself. Ukraine’s efforts are designed to bring the United States and NATO into the war. Sometimes it is subtle; other times, it is as unsubtle as a hammer hitting an anvil”.
Mr Ball added to Newsweek that Mr Cawthorn “was expressing his displeasure at how foreign leaders, including Zelensky, had recently used false propaganda to entice America into becoming involved in an overseas conflict. He supports Ukraine and the Ukrainian president’s efforts to defend their country against Russian aggression, but does not want America drawn into another conflict through emotional manipulation”.
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