Zelenskyy’s visit to Pennsylvania weapons factory upsets speaker as Trump continues attacks on Ukrainian president

The US House speaker, Mike Johnson, has demanded that Ukraine fire its ambassador to Washington as the feud between Donald Trump and Volodymr Zelenskyy escalated and Republicans accused the Ukrainian leader of election interference.

In a public letter, Johnson demanded that Zelenskyy fire the Ukrainian ambassador, Oksana Markarova, over a visit to a munitions factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania, last week where the Ukrainian president thanked workers for providing desperately needed shells to his outgunned forces.

Johnson complained that Markarova had organised the visit to the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant as a “partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats”. The event was attended by the Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who has campaigned in support of Kamala Harris.

  • Erasmus
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    13524 hours ago

    Being a kid of the 80s and living on the tail end of the Cold War this is just so weird.

    The Republicans then, under Reagan, really viewed the Russians with disdain. We were constantly told - both by them, school, and the media, how Russia and Communism was the greatest evil on this planet.

    Now all I see every time I turn on the news is some shadow of a Republican, gargling the balls of a Russian leader or representative.

    It’s WEIRD I tell you, it’s like that movie The Manchurian Candidate is playing out only they’ve replaced the whole party.

    • @Olhonestjim
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      2216 hours ago

      I remember Republicans warning in the 80s that the Russians would attack America from within. Made sense, the way the KGB operated.

    • @WhatYouNeed
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      2118 hours ago

      Republicans now see how much money the leaders of modern Russian are siphoning out of the countries coffers, and realise they can do that too in the US.

    • @[email protected]
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      fedilink
      516 hours ago

      Well you say the communist evil was defeated by Reagan in the Nineties. History ended there, according to one asian dude. It was clearly the Communist thing that made Russia evil. The other co-word, corruption is actually a good thing.

      • Some Republicans
    • @mineralfellow
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      522 hours ago

      The documentary “The Family” offers the explanation that Russia has a strong traditional family values contingent that appeals to the right-wing idealogy.

      • @takeda
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        819 hours ago

        this guy and family values???

        In 20s we had Jews, now this position was taken by gays and trans. Fascists always need an enemy to rile up others.

        • @[email protected]
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          1219 hours ago

          Well they’re voting for a rapist who cheated on all of his 4 wifes, in case you still thought they actually cared for family values.

        • @mineralfellow
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          115 hours ago

          Yes, because “family values” means anti gay and anti abortion.

      • The Snark Urge
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        920 hours ago

        And here I was thinking the source of their appeal was all the political corruption and fascistic tendencies