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Tempers flared, feelings were hurt, and a trade agreement that was a certainty went out the window, replaced with demands for an apology instead. That’s a general synopsis of Friday’s Oval Office meeting between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but the issue of who should give the apology and who should receive it may be a little bit fuzzy, as some people insist it was Trump, not the Ukrainian President, who came off as the antagonist. Former WOR newsman Joe Bartlett is among those squarely in Zelenskyy’s corner. Appearing on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program, Bartlett stated that while he’s still a Trump supporter, he had some issues with how the American President looked like he was out to embarrass his Ukrainian counterpart from the moment he entered the White House.
“That Oval Office thing, really, it bothered me,” Bartlett told host Larry Mendte. ‘First of all, why was it broadcast live on TV? They don’t do that. If you’re going to have a frank discussion, you don’t bring cameras in there, so this was obviously a setup. It wasn’t by Zelensky… And why was Vance brought in there? Why was he there? The other thing, too, when it was all over- this is a barometer- when it was all over the Russia media said that was great. This is what concerns me; we are on the side of Russia in this Ukraine thing, and now we’re pulling all the military support, the arms support. That’s not good.”
Bartlett also weighed in on the mayoral race in New York, where he reluctantly backed Andrew Cuomo. “He definitely has a lot of baggage, but thanks to your favorite President and a few of his cabinet selections, sexual harassment allegations are not a disqualifier in politics anymore. His Covid policy, that’s a big negative, a huge negative, but I think it would have been harder for him to run statewide because of that. I don’t think it’s going to be a problem in New York City.”
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