TILLIS TO WITKOFF: ASK UKRAINIAN FAMILIES WHETHER PUTIN IS A “HUMANITARIAN”
Republican Senator Thom Tillis has sharply condemned Steve Witkoff’s praise of Putin, calling the remark “embarrassing and outrageous.”
“You should go back to Ukraine and ask the families of the children Putin has kidnapped and murdered whether they agree your friend Putin is a ‘humanitarian.’”
The North Carolina senator accompanied his criticism with a dictionary definition of the word: someone concerned with improving lives and reducing suffering. Apparently, American diplomacy now requires a vocabulary intervention.
Witkoff used the description while thanking Putin for releasing wrongfully detained American Stephen Hubbard. His freedom is welcome. It does not erase the suffering Russia continues to inflict on Ukraine.
Tillis brought the discussion back to the families absent from that diplomatic exchange: parents searching for abducted children, families grieving children killed in Russian attacks, and people whose lives have been permanently changed by this war.
His criticism also comes from within the president’s own party. Calling Putin a humanitarian is drawing objections from Republicans who recognise what that praise overlooks.
Before offering Putin another compliment, Witkoff could take Tillis’s advice and listen to those families. They have far more to say about his humanitarian record than a handshake can convey.