Ben Rhodes: United States Has Switched Sides in This War, the U.S. Is on the Side of Russia

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
Zelenskyy the way they did, I think, again, it’s appalling.
>> I mean, there are so many things that struck me, Ben. Just the optics of this red faced old man whose brains are absolutely cooked, berating and basically saying, beg like a dog, beg, beg, be grateful, get on your knees. But but that’s just sort of the optics to John’s point. I mean, what do you think about the, the substance, the meaning, the force of what that spectacle meant today? I think the us is no longer a part of the free world, Chris. And what we saw is not like a shift in us policy. What we saw was not a disagreement in the Oval Office. What we saw was not political theatrics. What we saw is that the United States has switched sides in this war. the United States is on the side of Russia. the United States will brook no criticism of Vladimir Putin in the Oval Office of the United States. The American president is only interested in dictating to Ukraine the terms of its surrender to Russia. And oh, by the way, give us half of your mineral rights on the way out. And what this means for Europe and Ukraine is that they are now on the other side of the negotiating table from the United States and Russia. They are going to have to figure out what Ukraine is going to try to live with. They’re going to have to figure out what European troops might be a part of a security guarantee for Ukraine. But more broadly, Chris, as you were alluding to very accurately in your lead in the United States is now a part of the club. Russia, China, the gulf Arab autocrats. Donald Trump wants to live in a world of pure transactionalism in which might makes right and big and powerful and rich countries make deals over the heads of democracies, over the heads of vulnerable people. It’s the mirror image of what he does at home. He’s a bully. He doesn’t pick on people his own size. He picks on people who are smaller than him, because he’s that kind of weak person who lacks that kind of self-confidence. But it’s the world we’re in. And I think what is so dangerous, Chris, is the reason we built alliances, the reason that we built international laws, the reason that we built international systems, the reason that there are principles like state sovereignty not being violated by a country invading another country, is because we had two world wars that got us there. We had tens and tens of millions of people killed, just like there have been tens of thousands of Ukrainians killed because Russia invaded their country, just like there are tens of thousands of Ukrainian children who’ve been stolen from their homes and taken into Russia. That’s what Vladimir Zelenskyy is dealing with. He’s dealing with reality, not the fiction that he has to come in there and kiss the ring of Mr. Trump in front of the world so he can look like a tough guy to his MAGA base. Zelenskyy has to live in reality. He’s going to go home to a country that’s been invaded, and he’s no longer going to have the United States as a friend. And