MEGHAN MCCAIN: Cynics call Zelensky a ‘conman’ and insult his ‘strip club’ clothes

The Ukrainian people have been through hell.

You’d think that would earn its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, just a shred of human decency from his critics.

But of course, that would be asking too much.

Zelensky spoke before a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night, dressed in his typical green camouflage, an outfit he used to wear when the war with Russia began.

Remember those days, when no one gave Zelensky or his compatriots a snowball-in-hell chance to get out alive.

His speech was thankful but also calm. He insisted that the Ukrainians are not asking the Americans to shed their blood in defense of their country. Instead, he asked for weapons so they can fight for themselves. It was an impressive and moving speech.

However, even before it was over, the outrage of the artists began.

One of her biggest complaints: she wasn’t wearing the right clothes.

Newsmax host Benny Johnson really did, tweeting: “This ungrateful piece of shit has no decency to wear a suit in the White House, he has no respect for the country that is funding his survival.”

The fact that Zelensky, perhaps the most persecuted man in the world, was smuggled out of his war-torn country to personally thank and appeal to the American people apparently doesn’t matter.

He really should have worn a nice jacket and tie.

‘Sweatsuit with East European mafia hustlers on it. Our leaders fell into the trap. They have dishonored us all. What an incredible insult,” Johnson added.

A Breitbart writer tweeted: “For $45 billion, show some respect and rent a suit.”

Not to be outdone, Donald Trump Jr tweeted: “Zelensky is basically an ungrateful international welfare queen.”

And to round out the tornado of madness, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green tweeted: ‘Of course the shadow president has to come to Congress… This is absurd. Put America First!

I’m not going to waste time investigating your ‘shadow president’ insult, I’m sure it ranks somewhere near ‘space lasers’ in the conspiracy world.

Two of the clowiest members of Congress (and that’s saying a lot these days), Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert, refused to stand up or even applaud Zelensky. As he spoke, they sat and smiled and checked their phones.

For people so concerned with dress codes and etiquette, you’d think they’d maintain some basic standards of courtesy.

And then there was Tucker Carlson from Fox News.

He went on a particularly irrational tirade, saying Zelensky was “dressed like a strip club manager” and comparing him to con man Sam Bankman-Fried and dictator Fidel Castro.

He went on to accuse Zelensky of waging an “ongoing war on Christianity” (a massive and misleading exaggeration) and claimed that Biden will give Zelensky “anything he demands.”

He called Zelensky, ‘the guest who didn’t leave’. And he concluded, ‘every time we tolerate it, the demands get bigger.’

To begin with, much of what Tucker said is not true.

Zelensky’s appeal to the United States is not an elaborate plan to milk the West for money and arms. The Ukraine did not ask to be invaded. It is in ruins.

The United States estimates that 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers and 40,000 civilians have been killed. Countless children have been slaughtered, women raped: shattered lives and families will never, ever heal.

And we’re supposed to accept the fantasy that this is all part of a plan? Zelensky is a con man and he’s laughing all the way to the bank?

It’s ridiculous. It’s nauseating. It is an insult to common sense.

When Tucker says that Biden will agree to all of Zelensky’s demands, he is simply wrong, again.

Biden and Congress have refused to give Ukraine long-range missiles that could go further into Russia. NATO has refused to accept Ukraine’s calls for months for a no-fly zone.

Now, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t debate the wisdom of US Ukraine policy, specifically how much money we’re spending, what our national priorities are, and most importantly, the risks of this conflict becoming a Third World War.

But I am arguing that Zelensky’s critics degrade themselves when they resort to this strange childish bile.

God knows America is a tired nation. US veterans, their families, and ordinary citizens have good reason to be skeptical of the decision makers in Washington, who have committed the blood and treasure of the American people in a wasteful and senseless way.

foreign wars. But there are some things that are undeniable.

Vladimir Putin is a sociopathic thug and KGB assassin who yearns for the glory days of the USSR and willingly sends tens of thousands of his own people to die in pursuit of that goal.

On the other hand, Zelensky is a brave man, who has risen up in defense of his country.

Rather than flee his capital in the face of the experts’ predictions of doom and destruction, he stayed. ‘The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride,” he told the US embassy when the US offered to evacuate him from Kyiv in the early days of the war.

A Quinnipiac University poll at the time asked Americans, “What would you do if you were in the same position as the Ukrainians are now, stay and fight or leave the country?” Only 55% said they would stay and fight for America.

Don’t we have the good sense and humility to see some inspiration in Zelensky? Or are we all so cynical? I wish I could point to just one American official who embodied that kind of spirit.

The tantrums of these so-called ‘America Firsters’ seem like bitterness over their own failure. The candidates who embraced these isolationist ideas were losers in the midterm elections.

These people are surprisingly incapable of recognizing the truth about the world: that if Russia can take Ukraine, if China can take Taiwan, it has ramifications for the United States as well.

Force prevents war. And if the United States were to project more force before the invasion of Russia, perhaps the world would not be in the situation it is facing today. These are the debates we should be having.

But instead, Zelensky’s critics resort to petty insults, the clearest signs of a weak argument.