Trump Gets Caught by his Own Party for Impeachable Offense

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2:27Ben Meiselas:So Donald Trump, you've been busted by your own party. Yep, the Republicans in the Senate actually working with Democrats. Get this, on a bipartisan basis on serious foreign affairs issues. uncovered that the Trump regime essentially used Google Translate to turn a Russian demand for Ukraine to surrender into an American proposal for Ukraine to surrender to Russia, for Ukraine to give up all of its eastern territory, to completely essentially disarm, and to never join NATO. So let me explain to you what went down here. So you had this MAGA Republican Senator, Mike Rounds from South Dakota. He was at this Halifax International Security Forum, along with some Democrats as well.

3:25Ben Meiselas:And while they were there, they learned about this 28-point plan, which the Trump regime called a peace plan, but it was terms of surrender to be handed to Zelensky. It literally looked like it was written in Russian, just the syntax, the way the words were phrased. It looked like Trump took a Russian plan, ran it through Google Translate, and then said, Zelensky, you have into Thanksgiving to accept this or else we're not going to provide any support to Ukraine anymore. So Republican Senator Mike Rounds in a bipartisan fashion with Democrats then reached out to Marco Rubio, his former Republican colleague in the Senate, who is now the secretary of state and started screaming at him, Rubio, what the hell is going on here?

4:16Ben Meiselas:This looks like the Russian demand that Ukraine give up essentially all of its eastern territory and disarm. And then Rubio was like, oh, no, no, no, no. That was just the Russian proposal. That's not our proposal at all. Rubio told the Republican Senator Mike Rounds that this somehow leaked to the press. And it was probably just the fault of the press and that Russia leaked it and that this is not the American proposal. This was purely the Russian proposal. So let me show you what Senator Mike Rounds says at this Halifax conference yesterday. But then I'm going to show you how he smoked out the Trump regime along with Democrats that actually what seems to have transpired is that the Russians gave the U.S.

5:03Ben Meiselas:the proposal, the U.S. translated into English and then sent it to Zelensky and said, this is our proposal rather than rejecting this thing and saying, what the hell is this? Yes, Donald, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia. You literally are laundering the Russian plan. Here, play this clip first of Senator Rounds. Let's play it. Senator Shaheen mentioned that Secretary Rubio did make a phone call to us this afternoon. I think he made it very clear to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives. It is not our recommendation. It is not our peace plan.

5:47It is a proposal that was received, and as an intermediary, we have made arrangements to share it, and we did not release it. It was leaked. It was not released by our members or our representatives. So as we move through on this thing here, Representative Rubio has made it clear that this is an opportunity to have received it and that it has been utilized and delivered to the Ukrainians and that they will have an opportunity to respond.

6:24Ben Meiselas:Okay, so you have Senator Rounds say that, and then you had the State Department, Tommy Piggott, say the following. This is blatantly false. As Secretary Rubio and the entire administration consistently maintain, this plan was authored by the United States with input from both the Russians and the Ukrainians. Ukrainians didn't give any input there. It's terms of surrender, and Ukraine said they had nothing to do with it. They were caught off guard. Democrat and Republican senators and lawmakers were caught off guard. Dato was caught off guard. No one knows what the hell is going on with this thing.

7:03Ben Meiselas:I'll tell you what we learned happened though. And this comes from Republicans working with Democrats in the Foreign Affairs Committee to smoke this all out. So then Marco Rubio posted the peace proposal was authored by the US. It is offered as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations. It is based on input from the Russian side, but it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine. Liar, liar, Rubio is a liar. Let me show you what independent who caucuses with the Democrats, Angus King said at the Halifax conference after Senator Mike Brown spoke. Here, let's play this clip right here.

7:47This has been an extraordinary weekend, both because of the sessions that we've had with people from all over the world, but also because of the communication, as was mentioned today, from Secretary Rubio and the leaked 28-point plan, which, according to Secretary Rubio, is not the administration's position. It is essentially the wish list of the Russians that is now being presented to the Europeans and to the Ukrainians. It does provide a guideline to try to narrow the issues between Ukraine and Russia. And the encouraging thing to me is that the administration is not attempting to negotiate this agreement unilaterally, but indeed is in close consultation in the next few days with Ukraine and with our European allies.

8:43So I think that's an important development. All of us read that statement yesterday, we're alarmed by it I think. That's a fair statement. It turns out that it is a sort of a beginning point for negotiations and we'll see where the discussions go from here. Everyone wants this war to end, but we want it to end on a fair and just peace that respects the the integrity and the sovereignty of the country of Ukraine and does not does not reward aggression and also provides adequate security guarantees so that something like what occurred in 2022 does not occur again.

9:26Ben Meiselas:So here are some of the original reporting from Barack Revid. He writes for Axios and he says, a senior U.S. official tells me, as the Trump administration has consistently maintained, this plan was authored by the United States with input from the Russians and Ukrainians. This plan has always been a hopeful start to continue negotiations and eventually the signing of a final peace agreement. Well, it seems that this was concocted in Miami. Reporting from Bloomberg and Reuters and others suggest that you had this guy named Kirill Dmitriev, who runs Russia's Sovereign Wealth Fund, while he was meeting with Republican Congress members like Anna Paulina Luna and handing them out chocolates with Putin's face on it and books with Putin's face on it.

10:17Ben Meiselas:I kid you not. Meeting at the Faena Hotel, a five-star resort on Miami Beach, which is also owned by an oligarch. Dmitriev met also with Jared Kushner and Steve Whitcoff. And what is believed to have transpired is that Dmitriyov wrote this 28-point plan with Putin, handed it over to Whitcoff and Kushner, and then they, it seems, whether it was Whitcoff or Kushner, they gave it to someone, then they handed it to the press and said, this is the U.S. plan or this is the proposal that we have, which was the Russian plan. There seemed to have been no coordination with the State Department, certainly no coordination with the Foreign Intelligence Committee in the Senate, and it was put out there.

11:08Ben Meiselas:Then Donald Trump, who perhaps hadn't even seen it yet, was like, okay, I like it. It's coming from the Russians. Let's adopt it. That's our plan. So then Trump's like, this is our plan. And then J.D. Vance is like, this is the plan. J.D. Vance endorses it. He goes, any Ukraine-Russian peace plan has to stop the killing while preserving Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to both Russia and Ukraine, maximize the chances the war doesn't restart. Every criticism of the peace framework, the administration working on either misunderstands the framework or misstates some of the critical reality on the ground.

11:44Ben Meiselas:So he basically says that's, you know, that's our plan right here. So when Donald Trump was fawning over Mamdani in the Oval Office on Friday, Trump was asked about this 28-point plan for surrender. And Trump's like, oh, you're saying Zelensky doesn't like it? He'll have to like it. So Trump here is endorsing that this is now the Trump plan, but it was the Russian plan. And do you see how this was smoked out by the Republican senator with the Democratic senators? Let me be very clear on a bipartisan basis, because they called Rubio. Rubio panics. Rubio says that's not our plan. That's the that's the plan of the Russians.

12:25Then the senators go out there, call out Rubio, and then Rubio has to go in, protect Trump and then act like, oh, no, no, that that was our plan.

12:35Ben Meiselas:That was our plan. The duplicity, the incompetence, and the, yes, Russia, Russia, Russia collusion before our eyes. I mean, here, play this clip of Donald Trump from the Oval on Friday. I wanted to ask you also about this Ukraine plan. President Zelensky said today that his country would risk either giving up a partner or giving up its dignity. There's been criticism that this deal - You mean he doesn't like it? It's unclear. He was sort of - Well, he'll have to like it. And if he doesn't like it, then, you know, they should just keep fighting, I guess. The suggestion that you made, though, was that if he doesn't accept it, that the U.S.

13:10would pull back its support for Ukraine. Well, at some point, he's going to have to accept something. You know, he hasn't accepted. You remember right in the Oval Office not so long ago, I said, you don't have the cards. Don't forget, I inherited this war. I would have never, this war never would have happened. I inherited this war. And I thought he should have made a deal a year ago, two years ago. the ultimate deal would have been if it never started. That would have been a good deal. That could have been done too if you had the right president, but you didn't have the right president.

13:41Ben Meiselas:And then here's what Donald Trump said when he was wearing this bizarre sweater thing that he was wearing here. And Trump was asked, is this your final offer to Ukraine? And then Trump says he can continue to fight his little heart out. That's what he said. He can continue to, if he doesn't want to accept this plan, here play this clip.

14:04Is this your final offer to Ukraine? No, not my mind. I would like to get the peace. It should have happened a long time ago. The Ukraine war with Russia should have never happened. If I were president, it never would have happened. We're trying to get it ended. One way or the other, we have to get it ended. So we're going to get it.

14:29that he can continue, that he can continue to fight his little heart out.

14:35Ben Meiselas:And earlier in the week, or I think it was Thursday or Friday, Caroline Levitt, when she held our press conference, she was asked, you're saying this is a good plan? Ukraine hates this plan. Russia hates this plan. Heck, even Nigel Farage, a Putin bootlicker who runs the right wing extremist reform party in the UK. He says that this plan is terrible. Nigel Farage, when Farage says this is too much, that tells you all you need to know. But here's what Caroline Levitt has to say. Play this clip. Go ahead. You said this is a good plan. So according to our sources, this proposal demands major concessions from Ukraine and doesn't demand much from Russia.

15:18So was Russia involved in drafting? Your understanding is wrong. Have you read the full plan? You haven't. You've read reporting from one side of the war. And so I want you to understand that the administration has talked equally with both sides. You have seen President Trump engage directly with both President Putin and President Zelensky. Likewise, his national security team has as well. In fact, Special Envoy Whitcoff and Secretary Rubio met with some of the Ukrainians just in the past week to discuss this very plan. And so just like you saw with respect to Israel and Gaza. We are hearing out both sides of this war to understand what can you commit to to end the war.

15:59And that's ultimately how we are going to get to an agreeable solution. That's what the president has directed of his team. I know there's a lot of criticism out there and a lot of doubters, but I would just remind you of the historic success that this president and his team accomplished in the Middle East. We believe that is possible with Russia and Ukraine, and we're hoping and working very hard to achieve that.

16:17Ben Meiselas:So then we got a strong international statement from UK, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, Poland, Netherlands, Norway, Finland, and Spain. And they push back on the Vance-Dimitriyev-Kushner plan. And they say the following, we reiterate that the implementation of elements relating to the European Union and relating to NATO would need the consent of the EU and NATO members respectively. And it goes on to say, we're clear on the principles that the borders must not be changed by force. We are also concerned by the proposed limitation on Ukraine's armed forces, which would leave Ukraine vulnerable to future attack.

17:01Ben Meiselas:notably as Gandalf says right here, experts were puzzled after noticing that the American peace plan reads like it was drafted in Russian first, then run through Google Translate with every point conveniently aligned with Moscow's interest. The giveaway is a sentence such as, Russia is expected not to invade neighboring countries, a phrasing no English speaker uses unless their brain is running on Russian settings. There's also like a lot of other weird verbiage that, again, just looked like it was put through Google Translate right there. Should also be noted while Donald Trump was doing that, a reporter exposed him as well and brought up the fact that Jair Bolsonaro was arrested in Brazil for trying to escape from Brazil.

17:55Ben Meiselas:and at the same time Jair Bolsonaro was trying to escape, we learned that, you guessed it, Donald Trump was on the phone with Bolsonaro. And Trump's like, what? You told me he was arrested? Huh? What? Here, play this clip. Do you have any comment about Bolsonaro's arrest? A former resilient president. So I spoke last night to the gentleman you just referred to and we're going to be meeting, I believe, in the very near future. Sir, are you willing about the president being arrested today? What? Any comment about the former Brazilian president being arrested today? No, I don't know anything about it.

18:34Sir, are you willing to hurt the president?

18:36Ben Meiselas:Mr. President, are you willing? Is that what happened? Yes. Mr. President. That's too bad. That's too bad. No, I just think it's too bad. Now, lastly, I'll play you Democratic Senator Shaheen. Here's what she had to say as well at that Halifax conference. And she was on the call with Rubio along with the Republican senators. So here is what Senator Shaheen had to say. Here play this clip. Throughout the weekend, I have made it clear that I believe this is a Russian proposal. I hope that tomorrow's negotiations in Geneva focus on a real framework for negotiation that guarantees an outcome that benefits Ukraine rather than Russia.

19:21I think any real peace plan needs to be sustainable and backed by Ukraine's government and its people. It should be developed in full consideration and consultation with our allies who are going to help guarantee a ceasefire and any long-term peace deal. It should include meaningful security guarantees that assure Ukraine and our allies on the continent that we won't see Russia invade Ukraine again in a few years. And I think the United States Congress, on a bipartisan basis, including here at this forum, if you listen to the members of this delegation, have reiterated our support for Ukraine.

20:06We believe it's critical that we maintain intelligence sharing and military assistance should remain in place until a real peace deal is reached.

20:16Ben Meiselas:Dmitriyev, by the way, the Russian who helped draft this plan with Whitcoff, goes in response to J.D. Vance's statement. Very true fantasy solutions built on Biden's fake narratives have only prolonged the war and suffering. Many EU and UK warmongers want to fight to the last Ukrainian. The US peace framework can stop the Ukraine conflict and restore global security. Blessed be the peacemakers. And again, he's literally talking about his own plan that was laundered through the United States. So you get the steps right here, right? Dmitriev sent by Putin in Miami meeting with Republican lawmakers at the Faina five-star hotel.

20:59Ben Meiselas:He meets with Kushner and Whitcoff. Whitcoff is the U.S. envoy to Russia. He gives the plan in Russia. They translate it into English. The press gets their hands on it. Donald Trump then's like, yeah, that's my plan. Vance is like, that's our plan. Caroline Levitt's like, that's our plan. And then it became obvious that this was the Russian plan. So Rubio tries to be like, you know, senators, hey, that's not really our plan. I just want to let you know. I want to give you the heads up. So then even the Republican senators are pissed. And they're like, we spoke to Rubio and Rubio said that that was the Russian plan.

21:37Ben Meiselas:So in all, you know, because I, it probably was the Russian plan that then Trump adopted because Trump liked it. Russia, Russia, Russia. Yeah. But now the regime saying that is our plan because it's chaos. It's Putin bootlicking. So then today there's the meeting in Geneva between the United States, the coalition of the willing, the European allies and others of Ukraine will be meeting in Geneva. And now Witkoff and Rubio are going to be there. And Putin's not going to change what he's asking for. Putin wants to take over Ukraine. It's obvious. And Putin is escalating those attacks on Ukraine each and every day, killing more innocent Ukrainians.

22:19And so that's where we're at right We'll keep you posted, but a very Trumpian turn of events with his Putin bootlicking.

22:31Ben Meiselas:Let me know what you think. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. And thanks for watching.

22:52podcast.