Former President Donald Trump Saturday praised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and called him "brave" for remaining in Kyiv while it remains under attack by Russia.
"The Russian attack on Ukraine is appalling," Trump said in his address at the CPAC conservative gathering in Orlando."We are praying for the proud people of Ukraine. God bless them all."
His comment on Zelenskyy came while he was speaking out against the biggest lying scum" of politicians such as Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., referring to him as "Shifty Schiff."
"He made up a story about my phone call with the president of Ukraine, who, by the way, is a brave man … during that ridiculous impeachment, a waste of time, and the Republicans stood by us."
Trump's conversation with Zelenskyy was at the center of his first impeachment, when Democrats accused him of improperly seeking help from Zelenskyy during a phone call for information about now-President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.
Saturday, he pointed out that Zelenskyy had said he did nothing wrong during the call.
"He could have said he did something or thought I wasn't appropriate … I called him up to congratulate him on his victory. He said he did nothing wrong, absolutely nothing wrong."
But such things are "what we're dealing with," Trump said. "We're dealing with. We're dealing with some people that are truly evil, truly bad people."
Trump's comments came after he was criticized by Democrats for his past praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and he insisted Saturday that he was correct about Putin being smart, because he could outwit other world leaders.
"The real problem is that our leaders are dumb, dumb. So dumb," Trump said.
Such leaders, said Trump, allowed Putin to get away "with this travesty and assault on humanity. That's what it is. This is an assault on humanity."
Putin is also "playing Biden like a drum," said Trump, "and it's not a pretty thing as somebody that loves our country to watch."
Trump also told the audience that he "got along" with Putin, as well as with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and with North Korea's Kim Jong Un.
"It's a good thing to get along with people, not a bad thing," he said. "You can be very tough and get along. You know, I'm the one that ended [Putin's] pipeline … no president was ever as tough on Russia as I was. And the fake news would say Trump loves Russia."
He also insisted that if he was still president, "it would have been so easy for me to stop" the attack on Ukraine.
"[Putin] understood me and he understood that I didn't play games," said Trump. "This would not have happened. Someday I'll tell you exactly what we talked about. But we talked about it and he did have an affinity there's no question about it for Ukraine. I said, never let it happen. You better not let it happen."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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