Washington — Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and President Trump’s former rival on the presidential campaign trail, said Friday that if Mr. Trump secures an end to the war in Ukraine without Kyiv ceding territory to Russia, she would nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize herself.
Clinton made the comments on the podcast “Raging Moderates” with Jessica Tarlov, as Mr. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet in Alaska to discuss a possible end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“Honestly, if he could bring about the end to this terrible war, where Putin is the aggressor, invading a neighbor country, trying to change the borders — if he could end it without putting Ukraine in a position where it had to concede its territory to the aggressor, had to, in a way, validate Putin’s vision of greater Russia, but instead could really stand up to Putin, something we haven’t seen, but maybe this is the opportunity,” Clinton said.
“To make it clear that there must be a ceasefire. There will be no exchange of territory. And that, over a period of time, Putin should be actually withdrawing from the territory he’s seized in order to demonstrate his good-faith efforts, let us say, not to threaten European security,” she continued. “If we could pull that off, if President Trump were the architect of that, I’d nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize, because my goal here is to not allow capitulation to Putin, aided and abetted by the United States. I think that’s a terrible, terrible precedent.”
Clinton added: “I’m dreaming that for whatever combination of reasons, including the elusive Nobel Peace Prize, President Trump may actually stand up to Putin on behalf of not just Ukraine and its democracy and its very brave people, but frankly, on behalf of our own security and interests.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr and the Ukrainians want a full withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, including the territories Russia has seized.
Mr. Trump, whose supporters chanted “lock her up” about Clinton during the 2016 presidential election, expressed appreciation for his formal rival’s remarks. The president told Fox News’ Bret Baier on Friday it was “very nice” of Clinton to say that, and, “I may have to start liking her again.”
Clinton on Friday said she hopes Mr. Trump remembers that he’s at the very military base “that has to send up fighter planes to watch and fend off Russian bombers that routinely harass our military assets, do overflights, engage in provocative behavior in the skies above Alaska.”
“I hope he’s reminded of that,” she continued. “He is not meeting with a friend. He is meeting with an adversary, and an adversary who hopes to play him. And the best thing that could come out of this, frankly, is probably nothing, nothing agreed to, except a real strengthening of President Trump’s understanding that Putin is not someone you can make a deal with an expect it to last.”
