Not even close. Yeah. This is unlike anything that has taken place in my entire lifetime uh and you know i'd have to mind my brain i mean i assume there were some tough meetings you know in the civil war um but yeah never never we've never seen anything like it yeah okay well

we'll cut to the chase and start to play you some of that we have a very long clip uh and we're gonna play some excerpts pause and talk about them and play some more because honestly it was just impossible to cut it down it was that much of a fucking train wreck so uh with that here is a clip from zelinski in trump's meeting in the oval office today friday february 28th he

broken this his. He killed our people and he didn't exchange prisoners. We signed the exchange of prisoners, but he didn't do it. What kind of diplomacy, J.D., you are speaking about? What do you mean? I'm talking about the kind of diplomacy that's going to end the destruction of your country. Mr.

President, Mr. President, with respect, I think it's disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media. Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the President for trying to bring it into this conflict. Have you ever

been to Ukraine that you say what problems

we have? I have been to. Count one. I have actually I've actually watched and seen the stories. And I know what happens is you bring people, you bring them on a propaganda tour, Mr. President.

OK, stop. Yeah.

OK, stop. This is the worst OK, stop episode in history. So what you can hear there is Zelensky does this windup where he's talking about how we can't trust Putin to implement a ceasefire because he breaks every agreement he's ever signed. And actually, I was just watching Mike Pompeo on Fox News talking about how the United States pulled out of all these arms control agreements during the first Trump administration because Putin was breaking the terms of the deal. But, you know, it was hard to tell exactly what kind of sets the meeting off here, Ben. But I do think J.D. Vance is kind of the chief arsonist because Zelensky pretty quickly calls him out and is like, OK, you seem to know a lot about my country. Have you ever been there? And obviously, obviously, J.D. Vance has not. And he flips out about it and just, I guess, says that any visit to Ukraine is a propaganda tour now.

Yeah. Two things stand out to me about this. First, just so people know what Zelensky is talking about. He's talking about the Minsk agreement that was reached in the late Obama administration to essentially freeze the conflict and have some kind of process whereby the Ukrainians had autonomous regions in these places where the Russians had invaded in Eastern Ukraine. And what he's saying is Putin broke the ceasefire. The last time someone tried to do what Trump's doing, you know, Putin is the one that violated the agreement and reinvaded the country and dramatically escalated. And that's just a fact. It's not an opinion. You know, so this is going to be a reoccurring theme here that Zelensky is saying facts and J.D. Vance and Trump are just basically offering Kremlin talking points in response. And then, Tommy, I said this to you, but for J.D. Vance to refer to visits that people make to Ukraine as propaganda tours was one of the most triggering things in many that were said today. They often visit Bucha, for instance, where there were war crimes committed, where innocent civilians were massacred, where children were killed. And to call that a propaganda tour is so beyond the pale. It's essentially him calling the truth propaganda. When people go to Ukraine, what they see is the reality of a country that's been invaded and bombarded and had tens of thousands of children kidnapped and tens of thousands of people killed. And J.D. Vance calls that the propaganda. And it's up is down. It's black is white. It's just 180 degrees wrong. And I agree with you, Tommy. It felt like J.D. Vance was setting a trap, like he was trying to provoke Zelensky to say something that would piss off Trump, which is a pretty fucking dark role for him to be playing. But

just to be clear, this meeting was ostensibly about signing some sort of deal between the US and Ukrainians about rare earth minerals. In reality, it seems like it was a setup to get to exactly this moment. So J.D. Vance and Donald Trump could harangue Zelensky in front of the cameras and show what a tough guy they are and, you know, beat their chest on Fox News later. But Ben, I'm glad you mentioned Buccia because, you know, that's another triggering thing for me because you often hear these same conservatives, actually Democrats too, talk about how there were some early peace talks between the Ukrainians and the Russians, but they blew up and they often blame Zelensky for pulling out of those talks. In fact, those talks blew up because the atrocities that occurred at Bucha were revealed and it became impossible for anyone in Ukraine to imagine cutting a deal with Putin and the Russians in that moment. Yeah.

And this context was entirely missing. They seem to be offended by Zelensky pointing out that his country was invaded by Putin. That seemed to offend Trump and J.D. Vance. And I think another piece of context here, Tommy, is Zelensky is a profoundly exhausted person. And you can see it on his face. You can see it on his face. I've heard this from some Europeans. This guy probably barely sleeps at night. He has been besieged by the Trump administration, bullied into trying to sign this absurd deal for critical minerals. And he flies to Washington because he feels this thing slipping away from him, this thing being U.S. support, as kind of a Hail Mary. And then he sits down and they bring the cameras in and he just starts getting insulted to his face by people who can demonstrate no degree of empathy. I mean, not even a perfunctory tribute to what the people of Ukraine have done. And they insulted not just Zelensky, this is important, they insulted the Ukrainian people. He said, the only people you can get to fight are conscripts that you force to the front line. So that's insulting the troops. That's insulting the Ukrainians that have been fighting and saying they don't want to be there. They're only there because Zelensky made them go there. When in fact, Putin is the one that conscripts people. Putin is the one that did the mobilization. And so we can talk later about whether Zelensky aired tactically here, but I

have a great deal of empathy for what he had to go through. Yeah. I mean, look, Trump being offended by reality and people insulting Zelensky is going to be a theme of this thing. The press corps even gets in on the action, but we'll get to that in a minute. But So let's keep rolling that clip. Do you disagree that you've had problems bringing people into your military? And do you think that it's respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country? A

lot of questions. Let's start from the beginning. First of all, during the war, everybody has problems, even you. But you have nice ocean and don't feel now, but you will feel it in the future. let's bless you don't know that god bless you don't know don't tell us what we're going to feel we're trying to solve a problem don't tell us what we're going to feel i'm not telling you because you're in no position to dictate that remember this you're in no position to dictate what we're going to feel. We're going to feel very good. We're going to feel very good and very strong. You're right now not in a very good position. You've allowed yourself to be in a very bad position. And it happens to be right about it. You're not in a good position. You don't have the cards right now. us you start having all kinds right now you don't know you're playing you're playing you're gambling with the lives of millions of people you're gambling with world war three you're gambling with world war three and what you're doing is very disrespectful to the country this country that's back to you far more than a lot of people said they should have. Have

you said thank you once this entire meeting? No, in this entire meeting, have you said thank you? You went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October. Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America. Okay, stop. J.D. Vance just gave up the whole game there. They are offended by a campaign period visit by Zelensky to Pennsylvania, which was perceived as an endorsement or support for Joe Biden. Jeez, Ben, I wonder why Zelensky might have thought he'd be better off if Joe Biden was president or Kamala Harris was president and not Donald Trump as he's lecturing him in the Oval Office about how he's gambling and about to start World War Three.

Yeah, there's a lot in that one too, Tommy. I mean, first of all, boy, to say that Zelensky is the one that's gambling with World War III when Putin is the one that invaded the country. I mean, the Ukrainians didn't want – they don't want to be in this war. And Trump is pulling out support for NATO,

which has prevented World War III.

Yeah. Like what's so fucking bonkers about this is like the – all the things that Trump and Vance say presuppose that Zelensky somehow wants this war and wanted this war when he was just invaded by Russia. They're the ones that raised the risks of World War III. Then to hear them lecture him about needing to thank Mr. Trump, you know, first of all, Zelensky always thanks the United States repeatedly. He's done it, by the way, since Trump has been president, expressed gratitude for the support of the United States supplies, even though, by the way, Donald Trump is not the one that provided that support. It was Joe Biden and the United States Congress on a bipartisan basis. But they want Zelensky to behave like, you know, a Trump staffer there. Thank you, Mr. Trump, for being such a great president. And they don't do this to other leaders. You know, they don't hector other leaders like this in the Oval Office. They're picking on him. They're like schoolyard bullies picking on a small, injured person to

impress their friends. And it's like three on one. You can hear all of them chiding and being like, yes, you were mean. Yes, you did say that. It literally sounds like a schoolyard taunting. And he didn't insult. When

did he insult? Do you know what they're referring to? Because he shouldn't insult the U.S. He just explained facts. Facts are insulting to Trump. Trump

is mad. It's earlier on in this Oval Office meeting because this was a very, very long pool spray. And just to give folks a little context, what usually happens is the two leaders go into the Oval Office. They sit down. You bring the pool, the White House press pool in for like a minute or two. Sometimes there's a shouted question. They take photos and then they get them the hell out of there. They have the real meeting. There was supposed to be a lunch and then there was supposed to be a press conference. Trump has started doing this thing where he takes like 45 minutes worth of questions during the pool spray and then they do the press conference just because he needs to be on TV all the time. So what you didn't hear that happened earlier was, you know, Trump's entire shtick about Ukraine is the war never would have happened if he was president. But Zelensky, when he was walking through all the times the Russians broke ceasefire agreements, talks about how the Russians were occupying Ukraine throughout the duration of the Trump presidency. And people were getting killed during the Trump presidency. And Trump really didn't like that because it undercut his whole fucking argument that none of this would have happened if I were in charge he acts like he wasn't actually the president for four years and isn't responsible for anything. Yeah.

And he needs everything to be about himself and not about the reality of what is happening in the world, particularly a reality that is counter to his narrative and inconvenient to him in any way, shape or form. And Zelensky is this guy who's only trying to share facts, you know, and each time he does, they act as if he has personally offended them and come down even harder on the guy. And by this point in the clip, they're just picking on him. And to say that because he's not kissing Trump's ass, he's insulting the whole country, just shows you what Donald Trump's view of this country is, that he is the only thing that matters. He, the leader, he, der Fuhrer, is the only guy, he's the symbol of the nation or something. It's absolutely grotesque. And what we can see here is little Marco Rubio on the couch, like shrinking deeper and deeper into his seat. J.D.

Vance is like sitting on the edge of his seat. He's the happiest little boy in town because he was allowed to go to the big boy meeting and say something. And Marco Rubio, every photo of Marco Rubio that I've seen in the context of these Russia-Ukraine talks, he looks like his soul is drifting out of his body in that moment. He He looks like he's dead inside. He knows what is happening, is so profoundly wrong, but he just sits there fucking silently and then afterwards tweets an attaboy at the boss. And look, there's all these reports that Rubio is like the Secretary of State in name only and actually has a bunch of little kind of MAGA supplicants who work for him on the org chart but are actually running the show over at state. So who knows? Yeah. Well, let's listen to the rest of this clip. And who's trying to save your country? It's going to be a very

hard thing to do business like this.