Blinken Delivers 'Tone-Deaf' Guitar Performance at Bar in Kiev After Visiting With Zelensky

Not only did Tony Blinken show up at a bar somewhere in Kyiv to play a rendition of Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World," State Department planners brought along C-SPAN to film the thing. The song is a pretty accurate distillation of Blinken's halfwit interventionist ideology pic.twitter.com/EOcVExXhwM

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) May 14, 2024

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken took to the stage with a Ukrainian band at a bar late on Tuesday during a surprise trip to Kyiv, drawing applause from the audience but some criticism online from people who felt the performance was "tone-deaf".

The mixed reaction reflected Ukrainians' recognition of the key role U.S. support plays in the war against Russia as well as growing concern among civilians over mounting battlefield losses and intensified Russian missile and drone attacks.

Blinken, who met President Volodymyr Zelenskiy during his visit and vowed unwavering U.S. support for Kyiv, referred to military difficulties in northeast Ukraine before he performed a rendition of Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World".

"Your soldiers, your citizens, particularly in the northeast in Kharkiv, are suffering tremendously," he told the audience at Barman Dictat in downtown Kyiv.

"But they need to know, you need to know, the United States is with you, so much of the world is with you. And they're fighting not just for a free Ukraine but for the free world, and the free world is with you too."

“I come before you, not only as the U.S. Secretary of State, but also as a Jew. My grandfather…fled pogroms... My stepfather…survived concentration camps. So...I understand...the harrowing echoes that Hamas’ massacres carry...for Jews everywhere.”

— Antony Blinken in Israel pic.twitter.com/GNyFbPx34c

— Frum TikTok (@FrumTikTok) October 12, 2023