News
‘Cozying Up to Putin’: VP Scorched for Russia-Promoting Rewrite of World Wars
Vice President JD Vance is facing criticism for reshaping the historical record of the past century of wars in a way seen as aiding Vladimir Putin, and for appearing to defend Russia by refusing to denounce the Russian President over the bombing of a U.S. factory in Ukraine.
Speaking to NBC News’ Kristen Welker on Sunday, the Vice President was asked if he was “enraged” when he learned that Russia had “targeted an American company based in Ukraine?”
“I don’t — I’m — I don’t like it, Kristen, but this is a war, and this is why we want to stop the killing,” was Vance’s response, “The Russians have done a lot of things that we don’t like, a lot of civilians have died. We’ve condemned that stuff from the get-go, and frankly, President Trump has done more to apply pressure and to apply economic leverage to the Russians.”
Some were stunned by Vance’s “this is a war” remark.
READ MORE: ‘Totally Corrupt’: One Word From VP Triggers Political Firestorm
Vance then went on to attack former President Joe Biden’s handling of Putin’s illegal war against Ukraine, while praising President Trump for allegedly ending a half-dozen wars.
Russia is now refusing to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, despite President Trump’s claim to the contrary, the Vice President also said, “I think the Russians have made significant concessions to President Trump for the first time in three and a half years of this conflict.”
“They’ve actually been willing to be flexible on some of their core demands,” Vance added. “They’ve talked about what would be necessary to end the war.”
Critics disputed Vance’s “significant concessions” claim.
Political science Professor Maria Popova, wrote: “For the umpteenth time: asking for a piece of Ukraine they cannot conquer in return for (maybe) pinky promising not to take another piece they cannot conquer is NOT a concession. Ru[ssia] has not made a single concession. Vance is lying through his teeth. He cannot be this obtuse.”
French civil servant Nicolas Tenzer, a senior expert in international and security issues, responded to Vance’s “concessions” claim: “We knew it from the outset. Full ideological alignment. Vance is cozying up to Putin. Period.”
Later, the Vice President was asked, “If Russia is allowed to keep any of the territory that it illegally seized, what message does that send to China? Does it give China a green light to invade Taiwan?”
Vance insisted (video below) that it’s up to Ukraine if it cedes territory to Russia after being illegally invaded, in an effort to end the war, but then added, “this is how wars ultimately get settled.”
“If you go back to World War II, if you go back to World War I, if you go back to every major conflict in human history, they all end with some kind of negotiation,” he claimed.
Critics, including experts on war, corrected the Vice President.
READ MORE: ‘Who’s Gonna Tell Him to Leave the White House?’: George Conway’s Dire Warning on Trump
“This…is not at all how World War II ended,” wrote The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols, a retired U.S. Naval War College
professor and an expert on Russia.
“Fact check,” wrote James Robert Carroll, Washington Bureau Chief of the Capital News Service, “World War II ended with the unconditional surrenders of Germany and Japan.”
“And since Vance also mentioned WWI,” Nichols added, “the Treaty of Versailles was drafted by the victors and handed to the already-defeated Germans as an ultimatim.”
“Everybody remembers that seminal moment in WW2,” snarked The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, “with FDR in his wheelchair rolling out the red carpet for Hitler discussing which portions of France he will get in exchange for peace.”
Professor Larry Sabato, Director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, wrote: “In both Europe and the Pacific, Germany and Japan surrendered unconditionally—no negotiation whatsoever—just as the Allies insisted in 1945.”
“People need to stop thinking that Vance didn’t know he’s wrong. He knows. He’s just assuming that Trump voters are too stupid to know better, and judging from the replies around here, he’s making a good bet,” Nichols observed.
Watch the video below or at this link.
JD Vance: “This is how wars ultimately get settled. If you go back to World War 2, if you go back to every major conflict in human history, they all end with some kind of negotiation.” pic.twitter.com/FB4VJgljG5
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 24, 2025
READ MORE: ‘Pure Mobspeak’: Trump Slammed for Claiming No Role in Bolton Raid but ‘Could Be the One’
Enjoy this piece?
… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.
NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.
Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.
 |
Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
