U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen, a Democrat from Nevada, says it’s “unacceptable” for the U.S. to engage in negotiations without Ukraine at the table. “We wouldn’t have any negotiations with any other countries like this.”
Rosen, who was interviewed Thursday morning on CNN, suggested Putin is using Trump to forward his own agenda. She called on Republicans to stand up against Trump.
“It’s embarrassing that President Trump called (Ukraine President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy a dictator,” Rosen said. “Clearly this war was started by the real dictator Vladimir Putin who attacked a democratic sovereign nation.”
Putin, she said, wants “to put together a Russia from another century. And he’ll stop at nothing to do that. And now he’s working, maybe using the United States in this moment with Donald Trump, and Trump trying to flip the script on what’s happening with this war. Frankly, it’s embarrassing.”
Rosen called for the U.S. to strengthen ties with democratic allies and NATO against dictators.
Asked about Vice President J.D. Vance’s remarks that negotiated peace is the interest of Russia, Ukraine, Europe and the U.S., Rosen said “pushing Vladimir Putin back, not giving in to what he wants” is in the interest of peace.
“You should not be giving in to a bully and I’m going to stand tall for that. I hope my Republican colleagues will recognize the truth and stand with us on the Armed Services Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee,” she said. “We know what they said in the past, before Donald Trump was reelected president. We know what they think. We know what they stood for. I can’t speak for them, but I will say it’s disappointing to see their lack of engagement on this.”
Rosen defended Democratic leadership against critics who contend leaders are floundering in their attempts to counter Trump’s actions and lies.
“Think about all the things that are going on. The President fires all the Inspectors General. He wants transparency in government. You don’t fire the watchdogs to help you do that,” Rosen said. “We have things going on in Europe and Ukraine and the Middle East. You don’t go through and eliminate everything that will make us safer. And so we’re trying to get a handle on what’s going on so that we can move forward in a productive way about going to work.”
Rosen noted Democrats are in the minority, working with “limited tools.”
“What can we do? We can use litigation. We can do some legislation. We can use hearings,” she said, adding Democrats “can do everything we can to push back and show the transparency of what is really going on behind the scenes – maybe what the Trump administration doesn’t want you to see, to push back on, frankly, the lies that Vladimir Putin didn’t start this war, that somehow Ukranians started this war.”
Rosen also discussed Democrats’ antidote to Trump’s efforts to end birthright citizenship – the Born in the U.S.A. bill, which “doesn’t allow for any funding, resources, or manpower for Trump to strip” birth rights from any individual born in the U.S. “We don’t know what he’s going to do, but we’re trying to be proactive. because if you’re born in America, you’re an American citizen.”