Cornel West Roasted For Claiming U.S. ‘Provoked’ Russian Invasion of Ukraine: ‘No Different Than Trump, RFK Jr, Tucker Carlson’
Third-party 2024 presidential candidate Cornel West received an avalanche of criticism this week after a Thursday night appearance on CNN in which he blamed the U.S. for the Russian invasion of Ukraine and argued Ukraine must make territorial concessions in order to end the brutal war.
West, a longtime prominent left-wing academic voice in American politics, joined CNN’s Kaitlin Collins to discuss his presidential run and worldview. During the conversation, West condemned the American “empire” and defended Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine as somehow equivalent to what he believes the U.S. would have done.
“If Russia had missiles in Mexico and Canada, the United States government would probably blow them to smithereens because that’s how empires behave. We had the same challenge in Cuba in 1962. So what we end up with is a criminal invasion,” declared West, who is seeking the Green Party’s nomination.
“And I know that some of my left-wing comrades, ‘Oh it’s an invasion,’ but a criminal invasion provoked by the expansion of NATO, which is an instrument of U.S. global power,” West added.
Collins then asked West, “Practically speaking, what would you accept in Ukraine? Like what? I mean, Trump claims he could fix it. What would that look like for you?”
“Oh, what I would do, I would bring in the Chinese, the Turks, the African rulers. I would sit down with the Ukrainian leaders and say, we must stop this war, stop these war crimes, cluster bombs on a variety of different parties and make sure that we begin a diplomatic process for a just peace,” West replied, adding:
And that just peace is going to have some serious concessions across the board. Russian troops have to leave. There’s going to be debates over the territory. There going to be some kind of concessions over the territory, but stop the killing. Why? Because the Ukrainian brothers and sisters are precious and they are bearing so much of the suffering with this proxy war between the American empire and the Russian Federation.
So there’s responsibility and blame across the board. But the American empire does bear a significant responsibility here, even though it is not the sole or exclusive responsibility. And it’s in no way a pro-Putin [talking point.
West’s comments were shared online and quickly went viral, receiving millions of views as of Friday morning and a bevy of harsh criticism.
“He’s no different than Trump, RFK Jr, Tucker Carlson, Tulsi Gabbard, or any other member of the ‘blame America’ club. Despicable,” replied former GOP Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL).
“Sounds more like Cornel anti-West,” quipped the Bulwark’s Will Saletan in a reply.
“Whose territory!? His? Who the hell is he to offer Ukrainian land and the Ukrainian people on it to an invader because he is so ashamed to be an American that he sides with imperialist Russia massacring civilians in an unprovoked war of choice?” added Garry Kasparov.
“Brother @CornelWest wants to offer Ukraine’s territory to Putin to stop America’s ‘proxy war’! I can’t believe I ever took this clown seriously,” added journalist Idrees Ahmad.
Below are some more responses to West’s comments:
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