Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie launched into former President Trump with dismay over his comments describing Vladimir Putin as ‘very savvy’ and a ‘genius.’
Christie, a former close advisor to Trump who trained him for his debates in 2020, wrote on Twitter: ‘How can anyone with any understanding of the world call Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine “genius” and “very savvy” as we watch him unite the rest of the world against Russia in nearly an instant?’
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has triggered aggressive sanctions the world over – even typically neutral nations like Sweden and Switzerland have joined the European Union’s sanctions plan to starve and isolate the Russian president.
‘President Putin has been one of the greatest unifiers of NATO in modern history. So I guess that is one thing we can thank him for,’ White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday.
‘Putin has two choices now: an unwinnable occupation of Ukraine after leveling the country and murdering its hero President (if that is even achievable) or a humiliating retreat. Yeah, that’s ‘genius’ and ‘very savvy’ alright. No walking that back. History is watching,’ Christie continued.
Christie, a former close advisor to Trump who trained him for his debates in 2020, wrote on Twitter: ‘How can anyone with any understanding of the world call Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine “genius” and “very savvy” as we watch him unite the rest of the world against Russia in nearly an instant?’
Speaking with conservative podcaster Buck Sexton last week, the former president said: ‘I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius.’
‘Putin declares a big portion of of Ukraine, Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful.
‘So, Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent,’ a large section of Ukraine. I said, ‘How smart is that?”
‘He used the word ‘independent’ and ‘we’re gonna go out and we’re gonna go in and we’re gonna help keep peace.’ You gotta say that’s pretty savvy.’
Trump hit the theme again on Wednesday, during a fundraiser at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
‘I mean, he’s taking over a country for $2 worth of sanctions. I’d say that’s pretty smart,’ he said.
And again, the former president insisted that Putin was smart during his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
‘The problem is not that Putin is smart, of course he’s smart, but the real problem is that our leaders are dumb,’ Trump said.
‘I have no doubt Putin made his decision to ruthlessly invade Ukraine after watching pathetic withdrawal from Afghanistan.’
‘I was with Putin a lot, I spent a lot of time with him, I got along with him,’ Trump also offered. ‘It’s a good thing to get along with people, it’s not a bad thing,’ the ex-president protested.
‘It would have been so easy for me to stop this travesty from happening,’ Trump continued. ‘He understood me, he understood I didn’t play games.’
The ex-president knocked Biden for being ‘grossly incompetent’ and poked fun at Biden’s threat of sanctions, saying Putin’s been getting sanctioned for the past 25 years.
Trump then wafted between saying the Ukrainian invasion never would have happened on his watch and questioning why Americans cared so much.
‘Ukraine is a catastrophic disaster, but [it’s] really interesting that so many Democrat politicians in Washington seem to be rushing to microphones to declare, ‘Ukraine’s borders are sacred, we feel for Ukraine … Ukraine’s sovereignty must be protected at all costs,” he noted. ‘Even though they’re destroying our own borders and our own sovereignty.’
‘The Biden administration has spent months obsessing about how to stop an invasion of a country thousands of miles away,’ Trump said. ‘I believe Americans deserve a president who will stop an invasion of our country.’
He added that the Biden White House ‘cares more about helping citizens of a distant foreign nation than it does our own citizens.’
Trump also suggested that if Democrats were interested in fighting for democracy, ‘they should start with the democracy that is under threat right next door – a place called Canada.’
Democrats hit out at Trump’s comments, President Biden saying: ‘I put as much stock in Trump saying that Putin’s a genius as I do when he called himself a stable genius,’ in an interview with political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen.
Ukraine’s president accused Russia of war crimes on Monday after Vladimir Putin’s forces launched what were believed to be cluster and vacuum bomb attacks on the fifth day of their invasion.
Christie, once a trusted Trump advisor, has publicly broken with the president on a number of issues in recent weeks
‘Putin has two choices now: an unwinnable occupation of Ukraine after leveling the country and murdering its hero President (if that is even achievable) or a humiliating retreat. Yeah, that’s ‘genius’ and ‘very savvy’ alright. No walking that back. History is watching,’ Christie said mockingly
In a late night address directed at Russia, Volodymyr Zelensky said there would ‘definitely be an international tribunal’ for what he said was a ‘violation of all conventions’ and added that ‘no one in the world will forgive you for killing peaceful Ukrainian people.’
In a panicked bid to reignite his stalled military onslaught, Vladimir Putin had launched an indiscriminate bombing campaign on the eastern city of Kharkiv just 24 hours after local resistance had sent his troops packing from its streets.
Weapons rained down on the most Russia-friendly city in Ukraine – which sits 25 miles from the border and is home to 1.5million people – in a bid to break its will to resist.
The hail of bombs, shells and rockets which began falling at lunchtime left at least 11 dead, including three children, with homes and even a school reduced to rubble.
