WOW: Mike Pence CRUSHES TRUMP over latest failure

All right. I love this. Mike Pence went on TV to comment to Jake Tapper about Donald Trump's farcical and humiliating summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska. And Pence made it pretty damn clear that Putin is not a guy to be trusted, that we need to be much tougher with Vladimir Putin and really sort of nudging Trump, even though Pence can't. Trump hates Pence at this point in time, that a complete and total falling out because Pence wasn't willing to be an active participant. He was willing to be a passive participant, but not an active participant in Trump trying

to steal the 2020 election from Joe Biden. So Pence, Pence has just been criticizing Trump sometimes more directly, sometimes more implicitly. Here he is speaking to Jake Tapper and Pence says, you got to be tougher. You got to be tougher. You got to be doing sanctions on Putin. This approach of trying to play a placate him will never work. And this stuff just infuriates

Donald Trump. You thought President Trump was beginning to realize, quote, Vladimir Putin doesn't want peace. Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine, unquote. As you noted, there was no ceasefire agreed to. President Trump seemed to indicate before the summit that that had to happen, or he said there would be very severe consequences. Since the summit, he's dropped demands

for an immediate ceasefire. Five Ukrainians were killed overnight. He's telling people you heard Whitkoff say a peace deal, a larger peace deal can be reached quickly if Putin's demands, which include Ukraine's seating control of the entire Donbass region to Russia, are met.

Yeah, we can end this quickly if we just give Putin everything.

What do you make of all that? I mean, there are observers out there, people who like Trump, people who are rooting for Trump who think that Trump got played.

Well, look, I, you know, I served alongside the president for four years. I know his style in dealing with these dictators. It's the velvet glove. But I think the hammer needs to come and it needs to come immediately. I think the president, as he welcomes President Zelensky to the Oval Office tomorrow and and a whole cast of our allies in Europe that are going

to be joining him, I think at the same time he ought to pick up the phone and ask Majority Leader John Thune to immediately pass the secondary sanctions bill that is supported by virtually everyone in the United States Senate. I think the combination of engagement, but also making it clear to Putin that we are prepared to take actions

that would literally break his economy, even yet Trump's not going to do that while we redouble our commitment to the security of Ukraine and to working closely with our European allies is important.

So listen, that is Mike Pence suggesting that Donald Trump do things that he would never, ever, ever, ever do, because you only do those things if you don't care about your personal friendship with Vladimir Putin. You would only get tough with Putin if you, number one, weren't terrified of him the way Donald Trump clearly seems to be. But also if you weren't seeking his approval constantly and endlessly.

And so Pence is actually right on this. There's only really one way to go about this with Vladimir Putin. But Trump's not willing to do that. And of course, that's implicit in Mike Pence's commentary here. Pence later said to Jake Tapper, Putin has made his intentions clear. Putin wants to reconstruct the old Soviet sphere of influence.

And someone needs to stop Putin because Putin's not going to stop until he gets what he wants or until someone stops him. And, of course, the context here is Trump would never be the guy to show that sort of backbone ever. I said it before. I'll say it

again. And the long history of the last 25 years, Putin has made it clear he launched an attack into Georgia when President Bush was in office. He attacked Crimea and Ukraine when Obama was in office. After that disastrous withdrawal in Afghanistan, he crossed the border and started this war three years ago.

Putin's made it no secret of the fact that he wants to reassert the old Soviet sphere of influence, what we used to call the evil empire in Eastern Europe. And I think Putin only understands strength. So while the president and his diplomatic team engage in this re-approach with Putin,

and there seems to be interest, in my judgment, Putin's not going to stop until he's stopped, until he understands that there's going to be enormous cost to Russia. And there's an unflagging commitment to defending Ukraine's sovereignty by the United States and our allies.

None of that is ever going to happen on this particular issue. Pence is correct. Pence has correctly assessed Putin's personality. Pence has correctly assessed Putin's personality. Pence has correctly assessed Putin's goals. Pence has correctly assessed that Putin is not going to say to himself, you know what? I think I'll give up on these ambitions just for kicks. Someone needs to

stop Putin. Do any of us believe that Donald Trump is the guy that's going to be able to do that? And then finally, Mike Pence saying Putin can end the violence immediately. That is just it's that simple. All of this talk, the equivocation and what can we get to it? The violence could end today if Putin ends the violence. Is there any way I mean, can you explain or understand you understand at all how the summit could end without a ceasefire agreed to? And that would be acceptable. mean there are five Ukrainians who are now dead. I'm not blaming it on

President Trump, it's obviously President Putin's fault, but if the

ceasefire had happened on Friday those five Ukrainians would be alive. Well I

just, your question in the last segment was relevant. There's a way that Putin can end the violence immediately, and that's with a ceasefire, but then move to negotiations. But look, when it ended and we all watched that press conference and it was clear there was no ceasefire, I must tell you that I was not surprised. I mean, there was an agreement by President Zelensky

to cease fire back in February. Putin refused it. He's managed to delay the game. All the while, his military has continued its brutal assault on civilian populations in Ukraine. I think that's the reason why. Look, let's have the dialogue tomorrow at the White House. I'm also going to be praying that it's a productive time and a unifying time among all the leaders in the West and the president and President Zelensky. But at the same time, I've always said the United States posture on the world ought to be, you know, one hand extended in friendship and diplomacy and the other hand resting comfortably on the holster of the arsenal of democracy.

I think Putin is only going to understand that there are going to be severe consequences

as there are not.

The president promised if there is no progress from here, the last thing we want to see is for Putin to use this latest delay as a reason to continue this war all the way until the winter hits and the fighting season essentially passes in that part of the world.

Let me add one other thing to this, because Pence is making a lot of sense on this issue. I still find it to be a deplorable and disgusting person. There are some people on the left. They call themselves the I don't know what they call themselves. I call it the revolutionary left. Sometimes they're pejoratively called tankies.

They often love Russia. They love North Korea. They love Venezuela. Anyway, they're saying neocons want more war. Of course, Mike Pence is saying you got to be tough. You got to do this. You got to do that because neocons love going to war. I can't speak to what neocons want. Maybe Mike Pence wants a hot war with Russia. Maybe he doesn't. But I don't know of

anyone, anyone on the left that realizes really simple stuff, Russia's the aggressor. Ukraine is defending itself. Trump doesn't seem positioned to really fight Putin diplomatically and economically. We're not talking about boots on the ground. I have not heard from a single person even the suggestion of a possibility of thinking about considering going to war against Russia.

I don't know anyone who wants that. And so I think it's really important as we think about who is the aggressor. Does Trump have what it takes constitutionally or is he just so smitten with Putin that it'll when we're thinking about that, the context is not that we want war with Russia. We're just recognizing that as an arbiter here between Russia and Ukraine, if that's what Trump is going to be and that's what Trump wants to do and that's the role the

U.S. will have. We don't want a war, but you're going to have to be tougher with Putin than continually continually delaying sanctions and taking anything Putin tells you and accepting it continually delaying sanctions and taking anything Putin tells you and accepting it as if it's unquestionably true.