American diplomat Ned Price, who served as deputy to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, blasted President Donald Trump's "pernicious lies" made at a Thursday Oval Office news conference with Norway's prime minister.
MSNBC anchor Chris Jansen introduced Price by recapping Trump's comments about giving Crimea plus 20 percent of Ukraine over to Russia, but stopping Putin from "taking the whole country."
"Do you hear a deal there that's acceptable?" she asked.
"Let's be clear about what we just heard," Price began. "It was a lot of bluster and a lot of lies. And I'm glad you started where you did, because I think one of the most pernicious lies that we just heard was this idea that President Trump is putting pressure on President Putin."
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Price continued, "President Trump is right that he is exerting a strategy of carrots and sticks. The problem is that it's all carrots for Russia, and it's all sticks for Ukraine. And I say that because, going back to the start of this process...you might recall, President Zelensky's visit to that very room, the Oval Office, when he was berated by President Trump, thrown out of the White House, and after that, the administration halted security assistance."
Price claimed that the gap in security and intelligence assistance "had a practical impact on the ground, and it cost Ukrainian lives."
Regarding the peace deal, Price claimed, "The problem is that this would not be a just peace, this would be, again, capitulation; this would be appeasement rather than peace."
Price warned that as it stands, the U.S.-brokered deal "would do nothing but incentivize President Putin, and dictators, and wannabe dictators the world over to attempt to undertake the same type of territorial aggression that has cost Ukraine so much in terms of blood and treasure."
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