Vice President JD Vance criticized retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Monday for verbally attacking the White House’s efforts to secure peace in Ukraine.
McConnell accused President Donald Trump of playing into Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s hands on the developing peace plan.
“Putin has spent the entire year trying to play President Trump for a fool. If Administration officials are more concerned with appeasing Putin than securing real peace, then the President ought to find new advisors,” McConnell, 83, said in a statement on Friday. “Rewarding Russian butchery would be disastrous to America’s interests. And a capitulation like Biden’s abandonment of Afghanistan would be catastrophic to a legacy of peace through strength.”
Vance did not appreciate his former Senate colleague’s remarks.
“This is a ridiculous attack on the president’s team, which has worked tirelessly to clean up the mess in Ukraine that Mitch—always eager to write blank checks to Biden’s foreign policy—left us,” he wrote on X.
Vance then wondered if the three Republican primary candidates seeking to succeed McConnell in the Senate next year share the same views on Ukraine.
Those candidates are former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY), and pro-Trump businessman Nate Morris, who was the first to respond to Vance’s message on social media.
“Mitch McConnell is 100% wrong on Ukraine. Mitch has offered no plan or vision to find peace between Ukraine and Russia, only more endless war and more attacks on President Trump,” Morris said. “I’m running for Senate because Kentucky deserves an America First Senator, not Mitch McConnell 2.0.”
Afterwards, Barr distinguished himself from his opponent by wholly backing Trump’s “peace through strength” foreign policy agenda.
“I’m the only candidate in [the Kentucky Senate race] who applauded President Trump for securing a mineral deal with Ukraine, for imposing tough sanctions on Russia which mirror legislation I introduced during Biden’s failed presidency, for pushing NATO allies to 5% defense spending to GDP to deter Russia, and for providing military support to Ukraine to dial up pressure on Putin to end the war,” he said later Monday afternoon.
In response, Morris tied Barr to McConnell.
“Even when Mitch McConnell viciously attacks President Trump and his Administration, Andy Barr refuses to say that Mitch is wrong,” the businessman wrote. “Unlike Amnesty Andy, I’m not owned by McConnell and I proudly support President Trump’s push for peace between Ukraine and Russia.”
Donald Trump Jr. also weighed in on McConnell’s comments.
“Mitch is just bitter and lashing out against my father because he’s mad that Republican voters have rejected his globalist agenda on just about everything and want to put America First!” he wrote on X.
The GOP infighting on foreign policy comes as the White House works to negotiate peace between Russia and Ukraine ahead of a Thanksgiving deadline issued by Trump. Critics, such as McConnell, view the proposal as in favor of Russia because it reportedly includes the aggressor’s demands, such as territorial concessions from Ukraine.
Mirroring the 20-point peace plan between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the Ukraine peace plan has not been finalized yet. The initial draft of the plan reportedly totaled 28 points, but it appears that a revised draft now features 19 points.
RUBIO HAILS RUSSIA-UKRAINE PEACE TALKS IN GENEVA AS ‘MOST PRODUCTIVE AND MEANINGFUL’ YET
Despite opposition to his administration’s peace plan from European leaders allied with Ukraine, Trump remains hopeful the deal will come to fruition.
“Is it really possible that big progress is being made in Peace Talks between Russia and Ukraine???” he wrote on Truth Social early Monday. “Don’t believe it until you see it, but something good just may be happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”
