Former Vice President Mike Pence said he welcomes President Donald Trump's decision to resume military aid to Ukraine this week, adding that he hopes Trump now recognizes that Russian President Vladimir Putin "doesn't want peace."
Pence made the comments in an interview with CNN on Thursday.
"While I had concerns and expressed them in those first 100 days about the president's kind of ongoing hope and desire for a negotiated settlement, I welcome his decisions this week and his rhetoric," Pence said.
"My hope is that the president is starting to recognize Vladimir Putin doesn't want peace," Pence said. "Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine."
Trump approved aid flowing back to Ukraine earlier this week after "a decision somewhere out of the Pentagon that suspended aid to Ukraine" last week, Pence said.
Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a call last Friday that he did not order the pause of aid.
The Guardian reported Tuesday that Elbridge Colby, undersecretary of defense for policy, suggested the aid freeze in a memo to Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg, who then ordered the halting of aid.
"I do believe the time has come for us to renew our military support for Ukraine, make it clear that we're going to continue to provide that support, along with our European allies, until a just and lasting peace is achieved," Pence said.
Pence also praised Trump's move to bomb Iran's nuclear sites in the face of criticism from isolationists in his own administration.
"I think what may have changed is that some of the isolationist voices in and around this administration have recently condemned the president's correct and courageous decision to launch a military assault against Iran," Pence said. "I think they may have lost some of their footing with the president."
He added that Trump "is not an isolationist."
"His bias is to lead," Pence told CNN. "I think he understands that America is the leader of the free world."
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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