On CNN's “sources” on Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on Ukrainian President Voldymi Zelensky to apologise early in the day for the dust between him and President Donald Trump.
Rubio said that the very public moments made Zelensky's entire visit a “waste of time.”
“[W]Does President Zelensky especially want to apologize? asked Kaitlin Collins, CNN host.
“Well, I apologize for turning this into a huge failure for him,” replied Rubio. “There was no need to be that he went there and be hostile. Come on, this thing got off the rail. You were there, I believe. When he said, it got off the rail, let me ask you the Vice President. What diplomacy are you talking about? Well, this is serious. I mean, thousands of people were killed. And he talks about the war and all these horrible things that happened to the children. This is what we're dealing with here. It needs to be over.”
“We're trying to finish it,” he continued. “The way you can finish it is for you to take Russia to the table. And he understands that you will attack Putin, that even if everyone feels personally about him, force the President to be in a position to attack Putin, calling him by name, the biggest demands about Russia having to pay for rebuilding, everything to talk in negotiations. Well, when you start talking about it actively and the president is a deal maker, he has dealt with his whole life, You're not going to take people to the table. And you start to realize that Zelensky probably doesn't want a peace deal. He says he does, but maybe he won't. And that active, open-minded effort to bring peace is very frustrating for everyone who has been involved in communication with them to this day. And I think we should apologise for wasting time for meetings that end as it is.”
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