Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, slammed former President Trump for characterizing Vladimir Putin as "very savvy" and "genius." Russia's invasion of Ukraine has prompted harsh international sanctions; even traditionally neutral countries like Sweden and Switzerland have joined the European Union's strategy to starve and isolate Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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Christie, a former close adviser to Trump who helped him prepare for the 2020 presidential debates, stated on Twitter: ‘How can anyone with any understanding of the world call Putin's decision to invade Ukraine "genius" and "very savvy" as we watch him unite the rest of the world against Russia in nearly an instant?'
'President Putin has been one of the greatest unifiers of NATO in modern history. So I guess that is one thing we can thank him for,' White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday.
'Putin has two choices now: an unwinnable occupation of Ukraine after leveling the country and murdering its hero President (if that is even achievable) or a humiliating retreat. Yeah, that's 'genius' and 'very savvy' alright. No walking that back. History is watching,' Christie continued.
In an interview with conservative podcaster Buck Sexton, the former president said:
'I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, 'This is genius.'
'Putin declares a big portion of Ukraine, Putin declares it as an independent. Oh, that's wonderful.’
'So, Putin is now saying, 'It's independent,' a large section of Ukraine. I said, 'How smart is that?'
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'He used the word 'independent' and 'we're gonna go out and we're gonna go in and we're gonna help keep the peace.' You gotta say that's pretty savvy.'
During a fundraiser at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump returned to the issue.
'I mean, he's assuming control of a country in exchange for $2 in sanctions.' 'I think that's really clever,' he said.
During his speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, the former president claimed once more that Putin was brilliant.
'The problem is not that Putin is smart, of course, he's smart, but the real problem is that our leaders are dumb,' Trump said.
'I have no doubt Putin made his decision to ruthlessly invade Ukraine after watching pathetic withdrawal from Afghanistan.'
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'I was with Putin a lot, I spent a lot of time with him, I got along with him,' Trump also offered. 'It's a good thing to get along with people, it's not a bad thing,' the ex-president protested.
'It would have been so easy for me to stop this travesty from happening,' Trump continued. 'He understood me, he understood I didn't play games.'
Biden's threat of sanctions was mocked by the ex-president, who called him "grossly incompetent" and said Putin has been sanctioned for the past 25 years.
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'Ukraine is a catastrophic disaster, but [it's] really interesting that so many Democrat politicians in Washington seem to be rushing to microphones to declare, 'Ukraine's borders are sacred, we feel for Ukraine ... Ukraine's sovereignty must be protected at all costs,' he noted. 'Even though they're destroying our own borders and our own sovereignty.'
'The Biden administration has spent months obsessing about how to stop an invasion of a country thousands of miles away,' Trump said. 'I believe Americans deserve a president who will stop an invasion of our country.'
He went on to say that the Biden White House is more concerned with aiding inhabitants of a faraway foreign country than it is with helping Americans.
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If Democrats wanted to fight for democracy, Trump said, "they should start with the democracy that is under attack just next door - a place called Canada."
Democrats hit out at Trump's comments, President Biden saying: 'I put as much stock in Trump saying that Putin's a genius as I do when he called himself a stable genius,' in an interview with political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen.
On the fifth day of their invasion, Vladimir Putin's soldiers unleashed what seemed to be cluster and vacuum bomb assaults, prompting Ukraine's president to accuse Russia of war crimes.
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Volodymyr Zelensky said there would 'definitely be an international tribunal' for what he said was a 'violation of all conventions' and added that 'no one in the world will forgive you for killing peaceful Ukrainian people.'
Vladimir Putin had unleashed an indiscriminate bombing attack on the eastern city of Kharkiv just 24 hours after local opposition had driven his forces from its streets in a frantic attempt to revive his stalled military offensive.
Weapons were dropped on the largest pro-Russian city in Ukraine, which is 25 miles from the Russian border and has a population of 1.5 million people, in an attempt to weaken its resolve to resist.