Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) told Secretary of State Marco Rubio to “grow a pair” after the former senator defended President Trump after his heated meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington.
After Friday’s public spat between Zelensky, Trump and Vice President Vance, Rubio thanked the commander-in-chief for “standing up for America in a way that no President has ever had the courage to do before. Thank you for putting America First. America is with you!”
Swalwell, a frequent Trump critic, called out Rubio over his response to the huddle that quickly went off the rails.
“Bro, did you write this? We all saw you,” Swalwell wrote in a Friday post on the social platform X. “You tried to shrink in your chair. You looked at Trump like he was some crazy ass pops who was embarrassing you on your first date. Don’t bulls— us. Grow a pair.”
The secretary of state sat relatively expressionless next to Vance during the Friday Oval Office as the meeting spiraled in a contentious back-and-forth.
Vance was critical of Zelensky, who expressed skepticism toward the assertion that a peace deal can be reached with Russia and its President Vladimir Putin.
The vice president said Ukraine’s leader was “disrespectful” for coming to the White House “to try to litigate this in front of the American media.”
“Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems, you should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to his conflict,” Vance told Zelensky.
Vance, a former Ohio senator, accused Zelensky of being ungrateful for the military assistance the U.S. has given to Kyiv since Russia’s invasion of the country just over three years ago.
The commander-in-chief said after the meeting that Zelensky is not ready to make an agreement that would end the war, that he “disrespected” the U.S. and should return to the White House when he is “ready” for peace.
Zelensky thanked Trump after and added that Kyiv “needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that.”
