'Unconscionable': Ex-Republican demands Trump be removed from office after fight

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The nation’s capital is reeling from the Oval Office brawl heard round the world but, somewhere, Vladmir Putin’s smiling, according to a former intelligence official.

After President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance tag-teamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on live TV using Russian disinformation as their talking points, it’s become evident that this new White House is compromised, some onlookers suggested.

“The enemy is on the inside,” former Republican Virginia Congressman Denver Riggleman told Raw Story. “There’s so much fear, but we need to overcome that fear now, and the rational, the sane — those who care more about this country than securing mineral rights for their oligarch friends — might be the way we need to go now. This is America. This isn't Russia lite.”

But with Trump’s aides booting Ukranians from the White House grounds after Vance and Trump piled on Zelensky, critics fear the president is being played by propaganda

With tech billionaire and X owner Elon Musk working inside the White House, disinformation is now regularly flowing from the Oval Office, Riggleman said.

“What's happened is that we have such a disinformation and propaganda landscape based on social media and far-right alternative media that there's no way for us to understand how integrated lies are into our policy making,” he said.

What’s so dizzying to Riggleman — an Air Force veteran who went on to be a National Security Agency contractor — is that Ukraine, formally at least, remains an ally, while Russia is, formally, a foe.

After today’s White House meeting blew up, Riggleman says it’s obvious Trump and Vance are going out of their way to appease the Russian strongman.

“They're specifically trying to make Putin happy. It's interesting that the most powerful country in the world is bending the knee to a bare-chested b— horse rider,” Riggleman said. “This is absolutely unconscionable, and, because of his insanity, he should be removed on the 25th Amendment.”

The exchange makes Riggleman glad he left the Republican Party, but he also thinks it might break some of MAGA’s grip on some of his former GOP colleagues.

“All of the Republican Congress are cowards and lapdogs, because they value the power of their seat more than the future of this great country,” Riggleman said. “Trump has overplayed his hand for the first time for real when you're talking about what's happening with Ukraine and Russia, and I believe this might break the dam of those who have allowed ignorance and hubris to rule their decision making.”

America’s now on the wrong side, he said.

“It's not just a realignment of interest, it means we've become the baddies,” Riggleman said. “Really, what it comes down to is that, as somebody who is a former Republican, I never thought there would be a day where a Republican administration messages to Russia for their favorable assessment of us. I find it appalling. I find it disgusting.”

This episode is likely to rankle many Trump supporters, Riggleman predicts, especially veterans and active duty servicemembers.

“For people who fought for this country in so many different ways — real veterans that haven't been radicalized by insanity and conspiracy theories — right now, you're going to see a mobilization of the sane, I think, in a way you've never seen in foreign policy and things of that nature,” Riggleman said.

With the Democratic Party so weak and beleaguered these days, Riggleman thinks this latest Oval Office fight showcases the need for a new, viable third party.

“It’s almost like we have the crazy and the coward party, and I think we now need to understand and we need to build a third way,” Riggleman told Raw Story. “I just don't see how a two-party system survives in a social media, data-manipulated ecosystem.”