Dateline Washington, 1940:
Speaker of The House Sam Rayburn today called on Winston Churchill to resign, demanded the UK cede Scotland to Germany, and the US halt Lend Lease immediately - in the noble pursuit of a lasting peace with Mr Hitler.
Speaker Mike Johnson said Zelenskyy either needs to “come to his senses” or step down to end the war in Ukraine.
Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy might need to resign to bring peace to his country following a contentious meeting between Zelenskyy, President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on Friday.
“Something has to change,” Johnson said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, echoing comments made Friday by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). “Either he needs to come to his senses and come back to the table in gratitude, or someone else needs to lead the country to do that.”
Johnson’s comments on Sunday come on the heels of a heated exchange between Zelenskyy, Trump and Vance in the Oval Office on Friday, where Zelenskyy was accused of not sharing enough gratitude for U.S.’s role in trying to end the war and not wanting to come to a peace agreement.
“The fact that he acted as he did, I think, was a great disappointment,” Johnson said of Zelenskyy’s behavior in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
The meeting was supposed to be followed by the signing of a minerals deal aimed to provide future security guarantees for Ukraine. However, the rest of Zelenskyy’s visit was canceled after the Oval Office argument, with Trump posting to the social media platform Truth Social that Zelenskyy “disrespected the United States in its cherished Oval Office” and can only “come back when he is ready for Peace.”
Zelenskyy was subsequently ejected from the White House, leading to additional criticism of Trump for his rhetoric and behavior that day.
On Saturday, Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski — a sometimes critic of Trump since he returned to office — disparaged Trump’s behavior toward Zelenskyy on Friday in a post to X, saying the U.S. is “walking away from our allies and embracing Putin.”
On CNN, Johnson said the Alaska Republican is “plainly wrong,” adding that “the person who walked away from the table yesterday was President Zelenskyy.”
While Johnson offered support for Trump on blaming Zelenskyy for Friday’s failed meeting, he did criticize Russia and Putin in both interviews — something Trump has shied away from doing, particularly since returning to office.
“I’d like to see Putin defeated, frankly,” Johnson said on NBC. “He is an adversary of the United States. But in this conflict, we’ve got to bring it into this war. It’s in everybody’s interest.”
“Putin is the aggressor,” Johnson said on CNN. “It is an unjust war. We have been crystal clear about that.”
