Zelensky stumbles into partisan battle with Vance remarks, Pennsylvania trip

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has stumbled into the partisan fray weeks ahead of the U.S. presidential election, with Republicans ramping up attacks over his trip to Pennsylvania.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) called for Zelensky to fire his ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova, for organizing the visit with Democrats to a Keystone State weapons factory, while Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chair of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, opened a formal investigation into the tour.  

Johnson refused to meet Zelensky during the Ukrainian leader’s visit this week. Former President Trump said he will meet with Zelensky on Friday.

Zelensky came under criticism from Republicans for calling Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), “too radical” in a New Yorker article, because the senator would give up Ukrainian territory to Russia and stop supporting Ukraine in the war. Zelensky also cast doubt on Trump’s plan to end the war before he takes office.   

Zelensky has yet to respond to the criticism, which is unlikely to help his efforts this week to secure support for his country in the war with Ukraine.

“Who the hell is Zelensky to be trying to interfere in our election? the arrogance of this guy,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Wednesday in his “Verdict” podcast. “And the guy, I’ve got to say, is an absolute moron for coming to the U.S. six weeks before the election and attacking Trump and Vance. 

“This is just dumb on his part, because if Trump wins, he’s got a huge problem that just got bigger,” Cruz added. “And if Trump loses, you know, good luck trying to get Republicans to listen to what he has to say if he just behaves like a Democrat campaign activist.”  

A number of Republicans, particularly in the Senate, have supported Ukraine in its war with Russia and signaled they would do so going forward, regardless of the political fight.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters Thursday that “what happened in Pennsylvania was a mistake,” but made it clear he would continue to support Ukraine.  

Graham was among the lawmakers who met with Zelensky on Thursday as he visited Capitol Hill. At a meeting with about 20 senators, the issues of Zelensky’s Vance comments or Pennsylvania visit did not come up, according to several senators. 

“No, it didn’t come up,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told The Hill.  “I think he got some bad advice, and Ukraine needs all the friends it can get.” 

Zelensky also met Thursday with President Biden and Vice President Harris at the White House, where he presented a victory plan.

Zelensky has not addressed the Pennsylvania and Vance controversies but said in a press conference after the meeting with Biden and Harris that he was thankful for bipartisan support after his meetings on Capitol Hill. 

He added that it was “crucial for us to be fully understandable and to work in full coordination with the United States.” 

Harris in her remarks took a veiled swipe at Trump and Vance, saying “some in my country” would “force Ukraine to give up large parts of its sovereign territory.” 

“These proposals are the same of those of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” she said. “And let us be clear: They are not proposals for peace. Instead, they are proposals for surrender, which is dangerous and unacceptable.” 

Pressure has been building for days since Zelensky toured the Pennsylvania factory producing critical 155 mm artillery shells for Ukraine in Scranton on Sunday. 

He appeared only alongside Democrats, including the state’s governor, Josh Shapiro, and Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey and Rep. Matt Cartwright. 

Republicans criticized the visit for not including any GOP lawmakers and for using taxpayer funds, because Zelensky flew to the state on a C-17 Air Force transport plane.

In a letter to Zelensky, Johnson said the visit was in a “politically contested battleground state, was led by a top political surrogate for Kamala Harris, and failed to include a single Republican because on purpose no Republicans were invited.” 

“The tour was clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference,” he wrote, calling it a “shortsighted and intentionally political move” that should “not be repeated” and demanding the resignation of Markarova, the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S. 

Comer sent letters to the White House, Department of Defense and Justice Department demanding information about the visit, and said his investigation would get to the bottom of whether there was a “misuse of government resources that allowed Zelensky to interfere in the 2024 presidential election.” 

A U.S. defense official told The Hill that the “flight was a U.S. Department of Defense-funded mission.” 

“The DoD requested Military Airlift (MILAIR) support to facilitate travel for senior U.S. government officials from both the Department of State and the Department of Defense,” the official said. 

“These officials were conducting official business related to U.S. security assistance to Ukraine. This included a stop at Newark Liberty International Airport, where they linked up with President Zelensky before continuing to Wilkes-Barre International Airport in Pennsylvania.”

At a Wednesday rally in North Carolina, Trump responded to Zelensky with some of his more pointed comments yet. 

“The president of Ukraine is in our country and he’s making little nasty aspersions toward your favorite president, me,” Trump said, also hitting Zelensky for what he claimed was the Ukrainian leader refusing to make a deal with Russia.

Trump also posted on his social media site, Truth Social, what he claimed was a message from Zelensky to Trump requesting a meeting in New York on Friday. 

“Days ago, we requested a meeting with you, and I really want to hear your thoughts directly, and firsthand. You know I always speak with great respect about everything connected to you, and that’s how it should be,” Zelensky wrote, according to Trump’s shared picture of the message.  

“I believe it’s important for us to have a personal contact and to understand each other 100%. Let me know if you are in the city at that time – I would really like for our meeting to take place, as part of our efforts to help us end this war in a just way.” 

The Hill has reached out to the Ukrainian Embassy to verify the message that Trump shared.

The criticism of Zelensky, who has generally avoided getting involved in U.S. politics, has reached its highest point since war broke out between Russia and Ukraine in 2022.  

Until now, Zelensky has avoided attracting too much scrutiny for his personal actions in U.S. politics, even when he pushed Congress to pass a security aid bill earlier this year after far-right Republicans held it up for months.

But some Democrats this week sought to defend Zelensky from the piling GOP criticism. 

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) told CNN that it was “absurd” and “insulting” to Pennsylvania workers to accuse Zelensky of a political stunt when he was thanking munition workers for their work producing artillery shells.

“I can’t say that I’m shocked, but it’s just absolutely pathetic,” he said, accusing Johnson of “trying to turn this into an issue.”

Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), the co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, defended Ukraine’s ambassador in a social media post, writing that “support for Ukraine has historically been a bipartisan effort.” 

“I encourage our country’s leadership to resist scoring cheap political points and instead help Ukraine defeat Vladimir Putin,” he added.