An actor whose career kicked off playing a high school kid slammed one GOP presidential candidate as a “not very interesting” one for proposed policy positions on Ukraine.
(Video: CNN)
After pawning one of his Academy Awards off on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, actor Sean Penn’s unwavering support of the war-torn nation allowed some further self-promotion with his new documentary “Superpower.”
Saturday, Penn, who portrayed Jeff Spicoli in the 1982 film “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” joined CNN anchor Jim Acosta to talk up the film and his views on America’s role in managing the foreign conflict the U.S. has poured billions of dollars into since Feb. 2022.
In particular, the award-winning actor took a shot at GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy after Acosta compared the businessman’s stance with that of former President Donald Trump.
“If Donald Trump gets back into the White House,” the CNN Newsroom anchor said, “if a Republican presidential candidate gets into the White House, there are others who — Vivek Ramaswamy has talked about this — pulling back on U.S. support for Ukraine. Your response to that.”
After calling out a “moral” and “political opportunity” to act on behalf of Ukraine, Penn blasted the political candidate and said, “I don’t find him very interesting because he’s just like a high school student who’s impressive ’cause he got an ‘A’ in something he’ll never apply in life.”
Ramaswamy had previously pegged the massive amounts of aid being shipped to Ukraine as connected to allegations of President Joe Biden’s influence-peddling. “The purpose of the U.S. military [is] to advance American interests, to protect the homeland. Not to aimlessly fight some random war that’s arguably a repayment for a private bribe that a family member of the United States received, $5 million from Burisma.”
Furthermore, he had assured Fox News host Jesse Watters, “I would do a deal that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin would say he has to do, but that actually advances American interest so that the United States wins. Here’s what I would do: I would freeze the current lines of control. I would further make a hard commitment that NATO will not admit Ukraine to NATO, that is enough to get Putin into do the deal. But I will require something even greater in return, Jess. Russia has to exit its military alliance with China.”
Vivek Ramaswamy reveals why he’s confident Putin would accept his massive demand for ending Ukraine war https://t.co/MWx0jreKvx pic.twitter.com/Swt5Bu5cYY
— BPR (@BIZPACReview) September 3, 2023
At the time of this post, Ramaswamy had not appeared to offer a reaction to Penn’s take, and the actor went on to push the importance of supporting Ukraine for whichever party willing to embrace it.
“I think that in the blood of these parties, in the actual belief when paying attention to it, either party now can have a very big political moment because I think there’s a lot of like mindedness within the focus in the context of what this war means in the United States,” the actor argued. “It’s not been presented very well in terms of the context.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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