Vice President Kamala Harris is sticking to her message about Ukraine, even if it’s not in accordance with the White House script.
Following a trip to Europe, Harris’s personal Twitter account repeated a statement that suggests protecting Ukraine in the face of a Russian invasion is tantamount to defending NATO, despite the White House changing the transcript to make it clear that is not the case.
“When I was in Poland, I met with U.S. and Polish service members, thanking them for standing with our NATO allies for freedom, peace, and security,” Harris said. “The United States stands firmly with the Ukrainian people in defense of the NATO alliance.”
That last sentence repeats a comment Harris made in a speech to Democrats over the weekend but lacks the addition, made by the White House in the official transcript, separating Ukrainian people, who do not live in a NATO country, and the NATO alliance: “I will say what I know we all say, and I will say over and over again: The United States stands firmly with the Ukrainian people [and] in defense of the NATO Alliance.”
On Saturday, Harris said “the U.S. stands firmly with the Ukrainian people in defense of the NATO Alliance.” White House’s transcript added an [and] to make it “the U.S. stands firmly with the Ukrainian people [and] in defense of the NATO Alliance.” But Kamala just repeated it… pic.twitter.com/HFVJtzz0zq
— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) March 15, 2022
The tweet was taken down by Wednesday. Harris’s office said the account is controlled by the Democratic National Committee, according to Fox News. “The ‘and’ was omitted by accident, so we took it down and reposted with the correct remarks,” the DNC told the news outlet in a statement.
Still, the tweet stuck out as a top-ranking official making a public statement in a very tense situation in which U.S. officials have been careful not to provoke further escalation. It also leaves more fuel for Harris’s political rivals, who roasted the vice president for her simplistic “Ukraine is a country” comment on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
