Kinzinger hits Trump over clash with Zelensky: US 'not the good guys in this'

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) hammered President Trump and Vice President Vance late Friday over their joint clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.

Kinzinger, who has emerged one of Trump's most vocal critics, said after the exchange that the U.S. is "not the good guys" in the ongoing discussion about how to end the war in Eastern Europe.

“I’m sorry, I hate to say this ... But the United States right now is not the good guys in this. We have been clear. Donald Trump has said everything nice about Russia," he told CNN in an interview. "I can’t think of a single time he said something bad about Vladimir Putin, and it’s very rare."

“We were so shocked yesterday when he said that, ‘Oh, did I really say Zelensky was a dictator?’ This is the moment we’re in, and this should be an embarrassment to all Americans,” he told host Dana Bash, referring to Trump seemingly backtracking Thursday on his pointed criticism of Zelensky in recent weeks.

Friday's meeting between the U.S. and Ukraine delegations kicked off on a warm tone that was eventually upended after a contentious back-and-forth. Vance told the Ukrainian president that Trump was working on a peace agreement with Russia. Zelensky pushed back, arguing that Russian President Vladimir Putin has broken many ceasefires before.

In response, Vance called Zelensky “disrespectful” for “litigating the discussions in front of the American media" and said he should be thankful the president is “trying to bring an end to his conflict.”

“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 an end to this conflict,” the vice president said.

Zelensky claimed Washington had not felt the direct implications of the three-year conflict since the U.S. is far away from Eastern Europe — a point that prompted a strong rebuttal from Trump, who reiterated his argument that the Ukrainian leader doesn't "have the cards" to negotiate peace and ended with Zelensky being asked to leave the White House.

In a post on Truth Social following the tense forum, the president said his Ukrainian counterpart wasn't ready for a peace deal and had "overplayed" his hand.

Zelensky said during an interview with Fox News's Bret Baier late Friday that he would not apologize for the heated discussion. On Saturday morning, however, he sought to clarify some of his remarks, writing in a lengthy thread on social platform X that a long-term peace in Eastern Europe will be “difficult” to broker without Washington’s backing.

Trump and Vance endured criticism from Democrats while Western Europe’s top officials stood firmly behind Zelensky.

European Union’s (EU) foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Friday that after the intense sparing between U.S. and Ukraine’s leaders, “the free world needs a new leader.”

Kinzinger was asked about Kallas’s remarks, to which he said a foreign leader should not “bow” to the U.S. president, especially those that are leading a country during an active conflict.

“If he comes here and grovels to a toddler that needs to be groveled to, like, what is that sending — what message is that sending to his troops in the trench?" the former lawmaker asked.

"It's sending a message that, boy, our future really depends not on your ability to stay and fight, but on whether or not I can grovel to a toddler that wants to be — that wants to be held and coddled,” he said.

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