Peter Baker
speaker
291 appearances
9 recordings
3 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard 9 Jan
Peter Baker’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jan 2026 with 1.
Appearances
And so the reporters were all rushing out to the driveway, and there's this black Chevy SUV, the Suburban, at the door of the West Wing and out comes Volodymyr Zelensky looking very grim-faced as he climbs in. And then the suburban pulls out of the White House driveway and off the White House grounds and you realize just how much has changed in those few minutes. Wow. So lunch is off.
The press conference is off. Trump's aides are busy eating the lunch that had actually been prepared for Zelensky, this roasted chicken and creme brulee. And Trump issues a statement on his social media platform. And it says, I have determined that President Zelensky is not ready for peace if America is involved. He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office.
He can come back when he is ready for peace.
Yeah, I was there on the White House driveway when Senator Lindsey Graham came out.
essentially sent out by the White House to say not only that it was Zelensky's fault.
And that he's proud of Trump for standing up for America, but that if Zelensky wouldn't change, that he should even resign.
And what a remarkable 180 degrees for the Graham wing of the Republican Party, what used to be the Reagan wing of the Republican Party. Graham was one of the most hawkish, pro-Ukraine, anti-Russia voices on the scene, and now he has fallen in line behind Trump. But to Democrats, the only person who had been disrespected in that meeting was Zelensky.
And the Democrats are the ones who are left to defend Ukraine and call for a more skeptical view of Russia and to cast Russia as the enemy.
Yeah, I mean, look, it is certainly the case that a lot of people believe the United States needs to focus its priorities either at home or perhaps against China because that's the bigger threat. And therefore, we have to recalibrate our relationship with Europe, our commitments in Europe, our hostility toward Russia.
And the strategic thought that you hear from some people behind what happened on Friday is it's time for us to cut bait and be friendlier with Russia because we need them against China. I don't know how much that's part of Trump's own thinking, but certainly some people around him give voice to that analysis.
Even so, of course, to see the very personal and visceral way that Trump was willing to cut loose an ally in furtherance of this strategy was pretty striking. Even if that's what you wanted to do, doing it in this way, I think, was pretty shocking for a lot of people.
No question that Trump respects strength and power, and he sees the world as a place where big men and big powers like the United States and Putin's Russia divide up their spheres of influence very much like a 19th century or mid-20th century view of things, while the democracies will simply have to eat it if they have to.
In other words, what matters more is who is powerful, not who has the same kind of governmental system And that leaves the question then, does Ukraine become in effect roadkill on the way to this, you know, real politic goal? And what happens to the U.S. relationship with other democracies in Asia and Europe?
And do we embolden authoritarian governments like Putin by rewarding them for their aggression?
Yeah, absolutely. So as soon as Zelensky leaves Washington, he heads to London, where he meets with European leaders, including Keir Starmer, the British prime minister. And this was already planned before the blowup in the Oval Office, but it's such a remarkable amount of timing because he is greeted with open arms, right? The Europeans have rallied to his side in this.
One after the other, across the continent, they said, we stand with Ukraine, we stand with Zelensky. They Say the things that you just quoted the French prime minister is saying.
And Starmer promises more funding, a couple more billion dollars worth of weapons for advanced air defense missiles and talks about a peacekeeping force that the Europeans can put together even without the Americans once there is a peace deal, if there's a peace deal to try to enforce it. But it's a test.
It's a real test because time and time again, Europeans have said, yeah, we're going to step up and take more of the burden from the United States without actually following through. And they have risen to the occasion with Ukraine over these last three years. They've actually donated more money for Ukraine's defense than the United States has. You may have heard Trump say the opposite.
He's wrong about that. But it's still a question whether they can do everything that Ukraine would need and would lose without American support. And for Europe, it really is a moment of truth.
That's right. I mean, you know, they don't expect U.S. to put troops on the ground. What they would like would be air support or logistical support or intel support and mainly just political and geopolitical support.
Showing 121–140 of 291 · page 7 of 15
← Previous
Next →