By Molly Goddard
12:27pm PST, Feb 20, 2025
After the Republican leader dubbed Zelensky a "
dictator" and slammed how he's run his country, the journalist asked the official, "What is your worry about the president echoing Russian propaganda?"
"Well, the president needs a do-over day – start again. He took a bad turn. I think what he said is wrong. And it's a shame," Bacon explained.
"Many Republicans, know what the president said today was wrong. Putin started this invasion. He is the dictator. He has killed all of his opponents. Zelensky was rightfully elected," the retired military officer pointed out.
"He is under martial law. And they have under their constitution that they can postpone their elections while under martial law.
Ukraine is the victim. And I would ask that our president stand on the side of freedom, the side of democracy, the side of the victim, not the invader and stick up for what's right," Bacon added.
Despite the
backlash he will receive from criticizing
The Apprentice star, he said, "I wanted to be very strong in my words, today, because this Republican does not agree with what the president said."
After the businessman's verbal attack, Zelensky responded by telling the media while at his office in Kyiv that Trump is living in a "web of disinformation."
While Bacon went against the grain, Keilar emphasized how many of his right-wing peers backed Trump. "Should Zelensky have handled this differently, what he said?" she questioned.
"I think he handled it tactfully. You have to push back. He is the victim. Putin is the invader. Putin's bombing of cities. Russians are obliterating the towns that they have taken over and they've assassinated or murdered prisoners of war. They've raped and pillaged. Russia is on the bad side here," the House member explained.
"We need a president that has moral clarity when it comes to this war. And right now, though, today, I had hoped the president would step up and be better than
Joe Biden," Bacon continued of the previous administration.
"I thought
Joe Biden was slow in getting weapons there. He was using rules of engagement that restricted Ukraine. It was really feeding the
gridlock," he emphasized.
"I had hoped that this president would step up and try to finish this war in the right way, not in an un-noble way. And what we see today is not a noble course of action. We're standing on the side of the dictator, not the side of democracy," Bacon claimed.
