The Ukrainian gratitude that embarrassing, ignorant white supremacist JD Vance (I don't know her) has apparently failed to notice

The vice president also asked Zelenskyy: “Have you ever said ‘thank you’ once?” President Donald Trump added around the same time, “You have to be thankful.”

As NBC News reported, Zelenskyy thanked the United States repeatedly in his speech before a joint meeting of Congress in December 2022, when he delivered a passionate appeal for more American aid.

“Thank you so much. Thank you so much for that. Thank you. It’s too much for me. All this for our great people. Thank you so much,” Zelenskyy said. “Dear Americans, in all states, cities and communities, all those who value freedom and justice, who cherish it as strongly as we Ukrainians in our cities, in each and every family, I hope my words of respect and gratitude resonate in each American heart.”

Those remarks were not at all unusual. I spent roughly 20 seconds on the Ukrainian leader’s social media feed, and I found an avalanche of instances in which Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude to the United States and the American public. It happened over and over and over and over and over and over again.

Indeed, after the Oval Office fiasco, the Ukrainian president again wrote online, “Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit. Thank you @POTUS, Congress, and the American people. Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that.”

It’s difficult to speculate about Vance’s motivations. Maybe the vice president hasn’t kept up with messaging on Kyiv. Maybe he thought he’d take a cheap shot at a U.S. ally based on nothing but ignorance. I’m not in a position to say.

But to answer Vance’s question — “Have you ever said ‘thank you’ once?” — the Ukrainian leader has said “thank you” far more than once.

Nevertheless, as part of the same Q&A, Starmer also took the opportunity to correct Trump’s claim that European countries that provided aid to Ukraine “get their money back.” NBC News reported:

“We don’t get the money back,” Trump added, before blaming former President Joe Biden for not giving military aid in the form of a loan. “We’re not getting all of [our aid back],” Starmer told Trump, adding: “Quite a bit of ours was given, was gifted.”

Observers would be forgiven for feeling a sense of déjà vu. After all, it was earlier this week when Trump, in the same room, sat alongside another foreign leader and peddled eerily similar incorrect claims. The Republican falsely insisted that the United States had spent $350 billion in aid to Ukraine, while Europe had spent only $100 billion, adding that European countries would get their money back.

It fell to French President Emmanuel Macron to interrupt his American counterpart to explain — in English — that Trump’s claims were plainly untrue. The Republican didn’t appear to believe the facts as presented, but reality remained unchanged: Trump’s claims were false, while Macron’s explanation was correct.....

After Trump suffered a similar embarrassment with Starmer, O’Donnell said, “There is a kind of person whose humiliation reflex simply doesn’t work.”

In an extraordinary display of public support, heads of state, heads of government, and foreign ministers from all over Europe and Canada are posting in support of Ukraine in response to the Oval Office meeting with Trump, Zelenskyy, and Vance.

The acting head of the U.S. attorney’s office in the District of Colubmbia, however, appears uninterested in moderation ahead of his visit to Capitol Hill. In fact, Martin seems to be throwing caution to the wind while using his office to implement a maximalist agenda. Bloomberg Law reported:

Washington’s top federal prosecutor Ed Martin has demoted multiple senior supervisors involved in Jan. 6 insurrection cases to work in significantly reduced capacities. The supervisors oversaw the office’s work on federal crimes, and public corruption and civil rights, among other offices, according to multiple people familiar with the moves. Now they been told to immediately report to misdemeanors or an office called the early case assessment section, said the individuals, who all spoke on condition of anonymity to share private conversations.

Bloomberg Law’s report, which has been verified by NBC News, added that for a U.S. attorney to demote veteran leaders, directing them to handle misdemeanor cases instead of the felonies they’ve long handled, “is considered a significant departure.”

Of course, to a breathtaking degree, many of Martin’s recent moves represent “a significant departure” from how U.S. attorneys tend to conduct themselves, especially in one of the nation’s most important and most high-profile prosecutorial offices.

Martin describing himself as one of the president’s lawyers was a significant departure.

Martin weighing in a civil case involving the White House, which had literally nothing to do with his office, was a significant departure.

Martin’s reported role in a dubious Environmental Protection Agency investigation was a significant departure.

Martin’s reported steps in the case involving Republican Rep. Cory Mills of Florida was a significant departure.

Martin launching the wildly unnecessary “Operation Whirlwind” was a significant departure.

Martin launching the wildly unnecessary “Project 1512” initiative was a significant departure.

Martin creepy public vow to wield his prosecutorial powers against those who get in Elon Musk’s way was a significant departure.

Martin’s brazen conflict of interest in a Jan. 6 case, in which he effectively took both sides of a criminal case, was a significant departure.

Martin kicking off a radically unnecessary investigation into Jack Smith and a law firm that gave the former special counsel pro bono legal services was a significant departure.

....Martin seems to be going out of his way to prove his many critics right.

The more Elon Musk and the DOGE operation rack up legal defeats, the more enraged he appears on his social media platform. As Jay Willis summarized at Balls and Strikes, the Republican megadonor has been “posting incessantly, calling for the impeachment of ‘fake,’ ‘corrupt,’ ‘activist’ judges for ‘violating the will of the people.’ His timeline ... is littered with conspiratorial screeds about the dastardly ulterior motives that these judges must have had for preventing an unelected billionaire from assuming the power of the legislative and executive branches all for himself.”.....

If the Trump administration’s highly controversial moves are struggling to withstand judicial scrutiny, the argument goes, then there must obviously be a problem with judicial scrutiny.

Joyce Vance, a former U.S. attorney and an MSNBC legal analyst, responded to the senator’s comments in a thoughtful essay:

Utah Senator Mike Lee knows better than this, which means that it’s about politics and not about the law. Specifically, it’s about letting politics trump the rule of law, the principle that there are laws that everyone, including the government, must follow. ... Calling for judges to be impeached just because you don’t like their decisions is nothing short of anti-constitutional.

President Volodymyr Zelensky left the White House early without signing a mineral deal with the United States following a heated exchange with President Donald Trump on Feb. 28.

Zelensky departed in his motorcade around 1:45 p.m. local time, without holding a joint news conference scheduled for later in the day.

A source familiar with the matter told CNN that the mineral deal between the U.S. and Ukraine was not signed following the tense exchange.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Feb. 28, after meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, that Zelensky "is not ready for peace."

"He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for peace," Trump posted on TruthSocial.