BREAKING NEWS: Trump, Zelensky, And JD Vance Have Shocking Explosive Argument In The Oval Office (youtube.com) is the last 10 minutes of a 45 minute conference youtube.com
Whoa, breakdown from a public meeting to what would be a real backroom argument. Was this planned by the White House? or was it that Zelensky didn't speak politely. Certainly Zelenzky loses authority as seen by his citizens. Vance acted like your friend at the bar who just, fixatedly perhaps, pushes for what he maybe even sees as a just or favorable (for his side) admission (which is not possible to give), but really just pushes the other his the two guys into a fight. It seems like it was not planned, though, because Trump also lost his cool a bit and said things just in passion. President Trump winds up yelling to a journalist about past greivances, appearing not presidential, the first time I've seen him slide out of being really presidential in months.
One thing that might demonstrate that it was a set-up is that Vance spoke forcefully pretty suddenly. I'm not sure he would have done so without the president's OK beforehand.
‘With us you have the cards, but without us you don’t have any cards.'
‘It'll be a tough deal to make, because the attitudes have to change.'
At one point Trump says 'I empowered you to be a tough guy,
Trump spoke for a while making a point about how Putin went through a lot of garbage, accused of all kinds of things by Democrats and their media, and he did go through it and bore it, and it turns out that it was all a scam, it all came from Hunter Biden's (disgusting) bedroom and laptop. The ‘Russia Hoax,’
‘[Putin] might’ve broken deals with Obama and Biden, but he didn't it with me. He wants to make a deal. I don't know if he can make a deal. The problem is I've empowered you [Zelensky] to be a tough guy, and I don't think you'd be a tough guy without the United States. Your people are very brave, but you're either going to make a deal, or we're out. And if we're out, you'll fight it out, I don't think it's going to be pretty. You don't have the cards. But once we sign that deal, you're in a much better position. But you're not acting at all thankful, and that's not a nice thing.'
A commenter: ‘Instead of fake smiles and phony handshakes actually getting a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes’
Another: ‘This is the first time in history that the public has been able to listen in on a real conversation that usually takes place behind closed doors.’
Forbes is getting a lot of credit as a news source for just publishing raw footage. #Journalism . I see people commenting on this. Note, this is acclaim for what they're doing on raw material, not for their journalism.
Zelensky did make a point that if Ukriane didn't fight as they did, Russia would have taken more.
Trump said ‘my whole life that’s all I do, I make deals.' ‘I do it pretty good.’