White House slaps down House Republicans for ‘political stunt’ over Zelensky visit

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Republicans may be outraged over Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to a munitions plant in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, but the White House isn’t paying much heed to their complaints.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre used her Thursday press briefing to bat down gripes from House Republicans who are accusing Zelensky of improperly interfering in the upcoming US presidential election by visiting a weapons factory where artillery shells used by his country’s armed forces are being produced.

The Ukrainian leader is in the US to attend the UN General Assembly and is meeting with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House later in the day Thursday. He drew Republicans’ ire when he visited the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in Pennsylvania over the weekend.

During his visit, Zelensky inspected production lines where the 155mm artillery shells, designed for the front lines in his country’s war with Russia, are manufactured. He did so alongside the state’s governor, Josh Shapiro.

While inspecting the plant, he told workers: “It is in places like this where you can truly feel that the democratic world can prevail. Thanks to people like these — in Ukraine, in America, and in all partner countries — who work tirelessly to ensure that life is protected.”

Zelensky’s sojourn in the Keystone State — and his subsequent criticisms of former president Donald Trump and his running-mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance — led House Republicans to level charges of putting a thumb on the scales for Harris, particular since Pennsylvania is an important swing state.

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer was moved to send letters to the White House, Department of Justice and Department of Defense in which he demanded “any information and communication, both internal and external, about President Zelensky’s visit to the United States,” and griped that Zelensky was granted the use of an Air Force aircraft for his travel to Pennsylvania.

Speaker Mike Johnson went a step further, calling for Zelensky to fire his widely respected ambassador, Oksana Markarova, because she’d failed to invite any Republicans to the event.

But White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre pushed back on the GOP’s assertions by noting that the visit to the plant was arranged at the request of Zelensky’s government and no one else.

“The Ukrainians asked to visit the facility, which employs American workers ... who are manufacturing critical supplies that the Ukrainian military is using every day on the front lines of freedom because of its centrality ... to their country’s continued existence. This came from the Ukrainians, not us,” she said. “This is something that they wanted to do after they made that request. DoD did what it has done for years: figure out how to provide transportation for foreign leaders traveling on US soil.”

As for Zelensky’s use of an American military plane, Jean-Pierre pointed out that such arrangements are standard for foreign leaders who are traveling domestically within the United States. She stressed that using military aircraft in such instances is “commonplace” — and not just because Zelensky is someone who the Russian government might like to see dead.

She also noted that Zelensky had made similar trip to a different defense manufacturing facility in Utah earlier in the year without drawing any complaints. That trip, she said, featured no Democratic participants, but it did include Utah’s Republican governor and other GOP officeholders.

“There wasn’t a single demand, not one, not one single demand for an investigation when that occurred a couple months ago in Utah. So this was business as usual ... We would encourage the House Republicans to drop this,” she added. “This is a political stunt.”