Aussie premier calls JD Vance a ‘knob’ after Volodymyr Zelensky blow up
An Aussie leader has savaged the US Vice President as the fallout continues into the disastrous Volodymyr Zelensky meeting.
An Australian state premier has labelled US Vice President JD Vance a “knob” after the latter’s involvement in a White House row with Volodymyr Zelensky.
Western Australian leader Roger Cook made the comment at a pre-election Q and A hosted by the West Australian newspaper on Tuesday.
Asked by the paper’s state political editor Jessica Page to complete the sentence “JD Vance is a …”, incumbent Labor Premier Mr Cook replied “knob”.
The West reports his comment drew laughter from the audience before he said “sorry, you’ve got to have one unprofessional moment on stage”.
Mr Vance’s conduct in the extraordinary meeting with Mr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump, during which he accused the Ukranian leader of lacking gratitude, has been heavily criticised.
The Vice President has been subjected to protests since the meeting on Friday, US time, with a planned ski holiday in Vermont being disrupted by angry locals.
In an interview with Fox News released on Tuesday, AEDT, Mr Vance defended himself and Mr Trump and claimed Mr Zelensky “came at me”.
“What I tried to do was defuse the situation a little bit,” he said.
The White House announced today it was pausing aid to Ukraine until it had demonstrated a “good faith commitment to peace”.
Former WA premier Mark McGowan, who was also in attendance at Tuesday’s leadership forum in Perth, said his successor’s take on Mr Vance was “entirely accurate”.
“He answered a question honestly,” he said.
The comments saw Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers quickly grilled at an unrelated press conference soon afterwards.
Mr Chalmers described Mr Cook as an “absolutely outstanding premier” but added he would “choose different words” about the US VP.
“But that doesn’t … I’m not making any judgments about the words that Roger chose,” he said.
The Treasurer stressed it was up to the federal government to speak on Australia’s global affairs positions.
“You know I’ve been asked on a number of occasions now to comment on announcements and things being said by the American administration,” he says.
“I point out today, as I’ve pointed out on every other occasion, the Americans speak for the American administration, we speak for the Australian government. That’s our job.”
Mr Cook last year caused some controversy when he raised concerns over the impact of West Australian jobs if Mr Trump won the White House.
He had spoken of a “dark road” ahead if the Republican was to regain office, citing threats of looming tariffs with China.
“He wants to kill the trade with China, so he wants to destroy any sort of trade links between the US and China,” the WA premier said.
“China depends upon Western Australian iron ore … so in the event we have a Trump government that’s obviously a very concerning development.”
It saw opposition MP David Honey accuse Mr Cook in November of “alienating” the state in the eyes of Mr Trump and his administration.
Mr Cook, at the time, hit back that his government cared about jobs and “not undertaking some sort of cheer squad on behalf of the Republican Party in the US”.
West Australians will go to the ballot box this Saturday.
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