House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says “it’s stunning to see” Russian President Vladimir Putin “roll into” Ukraine.
During her press conference Wednesday, Pelosi told reporters, “This is the same tyrant who attacked our democracy in 2016.”
She continued, “This is the same tyrant who is opposed to democracy and wants to trivialize it, to downgrade it, in the eyes of the Russian people.”
Pelosi then suggested that “one thing that we’ve all agreed upon is an attack on Ukraine by the Russians is an attack on democracy.”
Watch part of her press conference below:
.@SpeakerPelosi: "It's stunning to see in this day and age a tyrant roll into a country. This is the same tyrant who attacked our democracy in 2016." pic.twitter.com/94o9jBjPa0
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 23, 2022
While Pelosi and others have been critical of Putin, former President Donald Trump has criticized President Joe Biden’s handling of the situation, as IJR reported.
“If properly handled, there was absolutely no reason that the situation currently happening in Ukraine should have happened at all. I know Vladimir Putin very well, and he would have never done during the Trump Administration what he is doing now, no way!” Trump said in a statement.
He added, “The weak sanctions are insignificant relative to taking over a country and a massive piece of strategically located land. Now it has begun, oil prices are going higher and higher, and Putin is not only getting what he always wanted, but getting, because of the oil and gas surge, richer and richer.”
Additionally, Trump argued, “The U.S. was energy independent under the Trump Administration, an independence that we had never obtained before, and oil prices would have remained low. Now, what a mess our Country is in!”
During an interview Tuesday on the “Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show,” Trump praised Putin.
“I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion … of Ukraine, Putin declares it as independent,” Trump said.
He continued, “So, Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent,’ a large section of Ukraine. I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s [the] strongest peace force.”
Biden announced sanctions against Russia on Tuesday.
“We still believe that Russia is poised to go much further and launch a massive military attack against Ukraine,” Biden said while delivering remarks.
He warned Russia “will pay an even steeper price if it continues its aggression, including additional sanctions.”