Kamala Harris laughed off questions about the refugee crisis resulting from the Russian attack on Ukraine and dodged inquiries at a press conference in Warsaw Thursday on why a deal for sending fighter jets to Kyiv fell through.
Ukrainian-born Republican Representative Victoria Spartz slammed the vice president by saying ‘this is a very serious situation requiring action, not a laughing matter,’ as critics tore into Harris’ conduct at her press conference alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda.
The vice president’s three-day trip to Eastern Europe comes as Poland has taken in upwards of 1.5 million refugees fleeing Ukraine in the 15 days since Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded.
When asked about the issue of refugees, Harris looked at Polish President Andrzej Duda like she expected him to respond first, then cackled through her comment: ‘A friend in need is a friend indeed.’
The vice president’s now commonplace laughter at inappropriate moments with world leaders was met with widespread criticism.
‘Kamala Harris has been very consistent during her live remarks with Poland’s leader,’ former Donald Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos tweeted Thursday. ‘She is awkwardly laughing. Again. Discussing refugees is no laughing matter. Why she laughs at this is deranged.’
Turning Point USA’s chief creative officer Benny Johnson posted: ‘Only Kamala Harris would find it appropriate to laugh when talking about the topic of Ukrainian Refugees.’
Harris has faced backlash previously for laughing during inappropriate moments. After the Biden administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan in August, Harris cut off reporters asking questions by giggling and saying ‘Hold on, hold on — slow down, everybody.’
Duda confirmed that he had asked Harris to help speed up the consular process so Ukrainian refugees could go stay with family they have in the U.S.
He also said that a ‘refugee crisis is unfolding’ in Eastern Europe, and claimed that more than 1 million people arrived at his country’s borders from Ukraine in just 10 days of the so-far 15-day conflict.
The United Nations predicts that at least 2.2 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded and more than half of those refugees are now in Poland.
Harris pledged during her Thursday press conference more than $50 million more in humanitarian aid to Ukraine, while also dodging questions on a fallen through deal to send the country warplanes.
‘The issue facing the Ukrainian people and our allies in the Eastern flank is something that occupies one of our highest priorities,’ the vice president said, calling it a ‘dynamic situation’ that ‘requires us to be nimble and to be swift.’
Duda, however, did address the issue of warplanes, explaining that the situation is ‘extremely complicated’, and that the mix up came because Poland was making these aircraft available for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to decide if they wanted to send them to Ukraine.
‘We are trying to do our best,’ Duda said in a frank moment during his joint briefing with the vice president as Poland takes in millions of refugees fleeing their neighbor Ukraine.
‘Some expectations were addressed in a very strong and a vocal way, also towards us, towards Poland,’ he added. ‘However, we are members of the North Atlantic Treaty alliance and as far as security issues are concerned we have to look at this not only through our own lens – through the prism of the security of Poland – but we also have to adopt the perspective of the security of NATO as a whole.’
Russian tanks push to within just a few miles of Kyiv’s outskirts, analysts and witnesses claim, though initial assaults to the west and east of the capital were repelled Wednesday as President Vladimir Putin’s men face a long and bloody campaign to take the capital.
At the same time, U.S. troops conducted military drills in Rutja, Estonia on Thursday by firing Stinger missiles from their Stryker armored fighting vehicles.
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SOURCE: Daily Mail, Katelyn Caralle
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