Former Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday that President Donald Trump needs to bring the “hammer” down on Russian President Vladimir Putin with additional secondary sanctions.
After meeting with Putin at a high-stakes summit in Alaska, Trump shifted from advocating for an immediate ceasefire deal to a broader “peace agreement” between Ukraine and Russia.
In an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Pence described Trump’s style in dealing with dictators as the “velvet glove” approach but said he thinks “the hammer needs to come, and it needs to come immediately.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to meet with Trump in the Oval Office on Monday, joined by United Kingdom and European leaders. Pence said Trump, at the same time, needs to “pick up the phone and ask” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., “to immediately pass the secondary sanctions bill that is supported virtually by everybody in the United States Senate.”
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“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 while we redouble our commitment to the security of Ukraine,” Pence said.
“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,” he added later on. “We can’t allow Vladimir to run out the clock on the war in this year and this season. We literally have to do both things, and that is: the sanctions ought to be on the president’s desk, available for his signature while negotiations begin. That’s the most important way that we will ensure that there’s real progress toward the peace agreement.”
Pence, who served as Trump’s vice president during his first term, reiterated how Putin attacked Georgia under President George W. Bush, attacked Crimea under President Barack Obama, and invaded Ukraine after “that disastrous withdrawal” from Afghanistan under President Joe Biden.
“Putin’s made it no secret to the fact that he wants to reassert the old Soviet sphere of influence, what we used to call the evil empire in Eastern Europe,” Pence told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “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 is not going to stop until he’s stopped.”
Pence said Trump “should be commended for pursuing peace in Ukraine,” noting that the president has already secured peace agreements in Africa, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“I think he deserves credit as leader of the free world for not giving up on Ukraine,” Pence said, claiming “there are many voices in and around the administration that would have cut Ukraine loose months ago.”
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Pence said he wanted to commend the president for “trying to make progress,” but said he would have liked to have seen a ceasefire deal. Still, he said that “no deal is better than a bad deal.”
Based on U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff’s description of the talks, Pence said it appeared there “was at least an ascent in Putin and Trump’s meeting to the United States providing security guarantees, and clearly, the president didn’t forfeit anything having to do with America’s national security or with the security of our allies in Eastern Europe in the midst of this war.”
Witkoff told CNN that the Trump administration is “intent on trying to hammer out a peace deal that ends the fighting permanently – very, very quickly, quicker than a ceasefire.” He also said that Trump could not agree to “any sort of land swap” on behalf of the Ukrainians. At the summit, Putin pushed for the Ukrainians to withdraw from Donetsk and Luhansk in exchange for Russian forces freezing the fronts in other areas.
“At the end of the day, it’s important to remember the bad guy here is Putin. Putin launched an unprovoked brutal invasion more than three years ago,” Pence said. “Now more than ever, America and our allies need to stand strongly with Ukraine and create the conditions for a just and lasting peace.”
Minutes before Pence spoke to CNN on Sunday morning, Trump posted to TRUTH Social, teasing: “BIG PROGRESS ON RUSSIA. STAY TUNED!”
Trump also criticized the media’s reporting about his meeting with Putin.
“It’s incredible how the Fake News violently distorts the TRUTH when it comes to me,” Trump wrote on social media earlier Sunday. “There is NOTHING I can say or do that would lead them to write or report honestly about me. I had a great meeting in Alaska on Biden’s stupid War, a war that should have never happened!!!”
“If I got Russia to give up Moscow as part of the Deal, the Fake News, and their PARTNER, the Radical Left Democrats, would say I made a terrible mistake and a very bad deal,” Trump added. “That’s why they are the FAKE NEWS! Also, they should talk about the 6 WARS, etc., I JUST STOPPED!!! MAGA.”