Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) said in an interview Sunday that the Trump administration has recently given a “mixed message” on Ukraine.
“Well, I think it was a mixed [message] coming from the administration,” Shaheen told CBS News’s Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation.”
“On the one hand, you heard Secretary Hegseth saying they were gonna take NATO off the table, that Ukraine needed to give up territory, and on the other hand, you had Vice President Vance saying that everything should be on the table, including the possibility of putting boots on the ground in Ukraine,” she added. “So, it’s a mixed message.”
In opening remarks Wednesday before a meeting of the Ukraine Contact Defense Group, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he does “not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement,” comments that coincide with the Trump administration’s recent efforts to end the war in Ukraine. Hegseth also said that Ukraine will not recover all of its territory from the Russians.
The Wall Street Journal recently asked Vice President Vance about what “stick” would be used to ensure Russian President Vladimir Putin sticks to any ceasefire agreement to end the war in Ukraine.
“I think certainly — look, there, there are instruments of pressure, absolutely. And again, if you look at President Trump’s approach to this, the range of options is extremely broad,” Vance said. “And there are economic tools of leverage. There [are], of course, military tools of leverage.”
“There’s a whole host of things that we could do,” the vice president added. “But fundamentally, I think the president wants to have a productive negotiation, both with Putin and with [Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky].”
The vice president also said President Trump has been “very clear” that he “doesn’t like the idea of moving Ukraine into NATO.”
“I also think the president is very clear that whenever he walks in a negotiation, everything is on the table,” Vance said.
In her appearance on “Face the Nation,” Shaheen said “there is strong bipartisan support in Congress to help Ukraine in this unfair war that Russia has initiated.”
The Hill has reached out to the Department of Defense and the White House for comment.
