Vance Downplays Criticism of Witkoff’s ‘Humanitarian’ Putin Praise: ‘We Should All Be Celebrating’

Vice President JD Vance brusquely dismissed criticism of US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff Wednesday for having praised Russian dictator Vladimir Putin as a “humanitarian,” saying the emphasis should be on Witkoff’s success in bringing an imprisoned American home, not what he said to get it done.

Speaking Wednesday after a rally in Ohio, a reporter asked Vance if he agreed with Witkoff’s effusive praise of the Russian leader.

Critics had quickly piled on Witkoff, who made the glowing remark after word broke that Russia had released retired American teacher Stephen Hubbard from prison.

Hubbard, 74, had been imprisoned for four years after Russia accused him of acting as a contract mercenary for Ukraine.

Vance wouldn’t entertain the scathing criticism of Witkoff after a reporter asked if he agreed with calling Putin a “humanitarian:”

I agree with Steve Witkoff saying something nice to a person who just released an American hostage.

Whether you agree with the underlying sentiment or not, Steve Witkoff is a diplomat. His job is to go over there and get a job done.

I care much less about what Steve said and about the fact that he is bringing an American hostage home to his family. We should all be celebrating that, not be complaining about what he said in order to get it done. Next. Thank you.

Witkoff had told Putin: “You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian. You are a humanitarian also, sir,” following Hubbard’s release.

Russian authorities claimed Hubbard was being paid $1,000 a month to fight for Ukraine. The U.S. State Department later designated Hubbard as having been wrongfully detained, and his sister, Patricia Hubbard Fox, denied the allegation, CNN reported.

Hubbard is the second American released from a Russian prison in the past three months.

In August, U.S. Marine Robert Gilman, 32, was freed after four years in a Russian prison amid reports he had become seriously ill and was in a “dissociative stupor” for more than a month after being abused in prison — and had been taken to a civilian hospital where he was on a feeding tube while being handcuffed to his hospital bed.

Gilman, a teacher, had been jailed in Russia after he was accused of causing a disturbance on a train and later beating a police officer, a case his family disputed, according to the Associated Press.

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