{"id":1988447,"date":"2023-08-02T06:19:01","date_gmt":"2023-08-02T10:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/perplexed-ukrainians-mock-us-presidential-candidates-debating-their-future-just-stupid\/"},"modified":"2023-08-02T06:21:52","modified_gmt":"2023-08-02T10:21:52","slug":"perplexed-ukrainians-mock-us-presidential-candidates-debating-their-future-just-stupid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/perplexed-ukrainians-mock-us-presidential-candidates-debating-their-future-just-stupid\/","title":{"rendered":"Confused Ukrainians mock US candidates&#8217; future debates: &#8216;Simply dumb&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fperplexed-ukrainians-mock-us-presidential-candidates-debating-their-future-just-stupid%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1988447&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Sometimes, for a Ukrainian lawmaker who takes time between <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fourth-round-of-ukraine-russia-peace-talks-paused\/\" title=\"Fourth Round of Ukraine-Russia Peace Talks Paused\">air raid alerts<\/a> \u2063to monitor U.S.\u200b political \u200ddebates about \u2064Russia\u2019s invasion \u2063of its smaller neighbor, there\u2019s nothing to \u2063do but\u200b laugh.<\/h2>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThis guy \u2014 he is really weird,\u201d Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Chairman Oleksandr Merezhko\u200c told the \u200bWashington\u2064 Examiner\u200c in between chuckles. \u201cHe\u2019s really weird, and \u200cwhat he \u200csays\u2064 is stupid. It&#8217;s just stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>Merezhko was referring to Vivek Ramaswamy,\u200b the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/perplexed-ukrainians-mock-us-presidential-candidates-debating-their-future-just-stupid\/\" title=\"Confused Ukrainians mock US candidates' future debates: 'Simply dumb'\">smooth-talking biotech entrepreneur<\/a> whose rhetorical \u2064talent\u2063 and knack for channeling the preferences of \u2062conservative voters\u200c has propelled his long-shot candidacy\u2063 into an early third-place showing in some polls.<\/h3>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Only moments earlier, Merezhko had \u200boutlined\u2064 in dutifully\u2062 respectful terms the reasons why\u2063 Ukrainian officials must refrain\u200d from commenting on internal American debates \u200d\u2014 but he\u2064 broke \u2063character\u2064 at the mention of Ramaswamy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOK, there can be all kinds of strange candidates for \u200bpresident, \u200dyes, but &#8230; \u2062he is not \u200da serious candidate to me,\u201d Merezhko said. &#8220;But, \u200dwhat he \u2064says, it&#8217;s just a <strong>blatantly stupid thing<\/strong>, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Ramaswamy drew \u200bthat derisive response through his promise, if elected, to cut off aid\u2063 and compel \u200bthe Ukrainian government to abandon its hope\u2063 of liberating Russian-occupied territory. The United States would also abandon its promise to support Ukraine\u2019s eventual entry\u2064 into NATO,\u200b all on the theory that Russian\u2063 President Vladimir Putin would cut \u2062ties with \u2064China\u2062 in exchange for those U.S.\u200b concessions.<\/p>\n<p>The typically mild-mannered Merezhko, by training an expert in international \u2063law, tweeted recently that \u201csuch stupid\u200d appeasers\u2063 should be kicked out of the U.S. politics,\u201d \u2062and he\u2064 defended the comment\u2062 as an exception that proves the rule.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cYou\u200b know, to tell you the truth, I even didn&#8217;t know that \u200dhe&#8217;s a candidate for [the] presidency,\u201d \u2064he said when\u2062 reminded of the tweet. \u201cI didn&#8217;t know who he was. \u200bI thought\u200b he is a\u2062 pundit or \u2064a local politician, but he&#8217;s not important.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Merezhko isn\u2019t the only Ukrainian policymaker\u200d or official to indulge in \u200cthrowing an occasional barb at upstart presidential aspirants. \u2064Ukrainian Ambassador Olexander Scherba,\u2064 who came out of retirement to \u200bspearhead the Ukrainian \u200bForeign Affairs Ministry\u2019s strategic communications, has \u200ddescribed \u200cRobert\u2063 F. Kennedy, Jr., the\u200d anti-vaccine scion of Democratic Party royalty who launched a primary \u2063challenge against President Joe \u2062Biden, as a \u201cdude \u2063 [who] really\u2064 sees Ukrainians as\u2064 some\u200c kind \u2062of inferior race, good only \u2063as\u200d instrument in the Russia-America fight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the kind of\u2063 provocative commentary on a presidential election\u200b cycle that\u2063 might \u200donce \u2062have been verboten, if\u2064 not impossible. Yet it has been enabled, \u200cif not \u2062necessitated, by\u200b the unprecedented combination of a war \u2063in Europe during the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mike-gonzalez-democrats-are-in-denial-about-why-they-are-losing-hispanic-voters\/\" title=\"Mike Gonzalez: Democrats Are in Denial About Why They Are Losing Hispanic Voters\">social media age<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe see the\u2062 war in\u200d real time; you know, basically, \u2062the next moment after a missile strikes, there is already information \u200bfrom\u200d photos and\u2064 videos,\u201d Center for European Policy Analysis nonresident senior fellow Olga Tokariuk,\u2062 an independent journalist, \u200dtold the \u200cWashington Examiner in an interview from her country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd on the other hand, of course, [there\u2019s] all that reporting and\u200d debate on what is happening behind the\u2064 scenes in countries [debating] \u2063 \u2018How should we modify this support? Should we do more, should we do less, should we do different things,&#8217;\u201d she continued. \u201cIt\u2019s probably unprecedented, in modern times, to see how the decision-making and debate \u200bis \u200bunfolding in real time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Most Ukrainian citizens, Tokariuk\u200b noted, are not on X (the Elon\u200b Musk-owned social media \u200capp formerly known as Twitter), but they have enough awareness of the U.S. presidential cycle to\u200c feel \u201ca certain degree of worry that the policy might\u200c change\u200d for the worst.\u201d \u200dAnd \u200cthere was no missing former President Donald \u2062Trump\u2019s recent boast that he could \u201chave that\u200d war settled in one day,\u201d which\u200c drew a censorious\u200b rebuttal from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are\u2064 aware of Trump, \u2063and Trump is a worry,\u201d said former Ambassador Kurt Volker, who was the State Department\u2019s point man\u2064 for Ukraine for the two years\u2063 before Trump\u2019s first\u200d impeachment scandal. \u201cAnd you get\u2063 that not only from Ukraine but from everybody in Europe? They\u2019re \u2062focused on Trump. I keep pointing out that &#8230; it&#8217;s a long\u200b time from \u2064now \u2014 as long as it has been since\u2064 Russia launched this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-war-as-it-unravels\/\" title=\"The Unraveling War\">full-scale \u2064invasion<\/a>, till now, \u200dis as \u200dlong as \u2063it will be\u2062 to our next inauguration \u200d\u2014 so a lot of things happen in reality before \u200dwe get there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In Tokariuk\u2019s telling, \u2063the persistent \u2063U.S. misgiving that\u2064 some \u200bforms of aid to Ukraine \u200dwill provoke Russia to use nuclear weapons\u200d or\u2063 escalate against the West feels \u201csurreal\u201d to Ukrainians who \u2063are\u2063 convinced that\u2063 American policymakers misunderstand how to\u200b manage threats from the\u200c Kremlin.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis kind of logic, which is \u2063driven more by fear of \u200ban escalation than by the resolve of actually acting forcefully, maybe taking the initiative and\u200b making Russia face this\u200d strength and force, it is \u2063really something that Ukrainians, I think, really \u2062struggle with accepting,\u201d she said.\u2063 \u201cVery\u200b often Western policy, and \u2062American policy, is driven by this fear\u2064 of escalation, rather than \u200bby the\u200d understanding that, actually, escalation comes if\u200c we do not act, not if we act. Escalation comes\u2063 if we show \u2062weakness, not if we show strength.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Merezhko, for \u200dhis part, wants \u2063Ukrainian officials to reach out to \u201cright-wing Republicans to try to bring \u2062them \u200con our side,\u200d to\u2064 try to\u200c persuade them to be our friends.\u201d Ukraine\u2019s victory in \u2062the\u2063 war, he argues, is a matter of honor and prudence for the U.S., which helped\u200b to persuade Ukraine to relinquish its\u200c <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republicans-drawing-new-battle-lines-in-heated-defense-budget-fight\/\" title=\"Republicans Drawing New Battle Lines in Heated Defense Budget Fight\">nuclear weapons stockpile<\/a> in 1994 in exchange\u200d for international security assurances.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cAnd to break this \u200btrust, it would mean undermining U.S. credibility in the whole world,\u201d Merezhko warned,\u2063 predicting that other\u2064 countries would feel an incentive to\u200b acquire nuclear weapons\u2063 of their own. \u201cSo if \u2062Ukraine\u200d is defeated by Russia &#8230;\u200c it&#8217;s not in the interest of the United States because it \u2062might\u2064 lead \u200bto chaos. Nuclear weapons will not be under control. And the more countries [that] will have new bombs, the more chances are that\u200c they will be using these nuclear bombs. And\u200b there will be more chances that there will be conflicts with the use of nuclear\u2062 bombs.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Ukrainian officials sometimes seem perplexed that \u2063the \u2062\u201cparty of Reagan\u201d has\u200b so \u2064many constituents resistant to such an\u200b argument. \u201cJust found out Kyiv \u200chas a Ronald Reagan\u200b street,\u201d \u200bScherba tweeted\u2062 on Tuesday.\u2064 \u201cDoes Washington have one?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To succeed in making that argument, \u2062Merezhko\u2062 allowed, they\u2064 need\u2063 to avoid antagonizing\u2063 \u201cserious\u2064 candidates, heavyweights\u201d in the Republican primary field \u200c\u2014 a list that includes Trump, in his judgment, but not\u2062 Ramaswamy.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cEven Trump doesn&#8217;t \u2064allow himself\u200d to say\u200b such\u2062 stupid \u200cthings,\u201d Merezhko\u2063 said. \u201cEven Trump, \u200dyou know?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes, amidst air raid alerts, a Ukrainian lawmaker finds amusement in monitoring U.S. political debates on Russia&#8217;s invasion of their smaller neighbor. Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Chairman Oleksandr Merezhko chuckled, describing the &#8220;weird&#8221; nature of one particular individual.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1988448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1988447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1988447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1988448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1988447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1988447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1988447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}