President describes Crimea, on the same radio show, as 'a piece of land right in the ocean.'

The Mark Levin interview that produced “Aber-baijan and Albania” the day before continued, on the same program, the following day. In that segment, the President turned to Crimea. The peninsula in the Black Sea. The territory at the center of the Russia-Ukraine war he is currently negotiating.

He described Crimea as, quote, “a piece of land stuck out right in the ocean, right in the Black Sea.” He further described it, twice, as “the size of Texas.”

Crimea is connected to mainland Ukraine by an isthmus. It is a peninsula. The Black Sea is a sea, not an ocean. It empties to the Mediterranean through the Bosporus, then the Dardanelles, then a long Mediterranean run, then Gibraltar, before reaching anything that geographers refer to as ocean. Crimea is approximately 26,000 square kilometers. Texas is approximately 695,000 square kilometers. The actual closest American analogue, by area, is Massachusetts.

We are negotiating the territorial outcome of a war over a piece of land. The negotiator does not know whether the piece of land is on a sea or an ocean. The negotiator does not know within a factor of twenty-six how big the piece of land is. The negotiator stated both facts on a recorded phone call, in his own voice, in his own words, while currently mediating the conflict.

This is not a question of nuance. The Black Sea is on every map. The size of Crimea is on the Wikipedia infobox. A briefing book exists. There is a National Security Council. The President speaks to Russian and Ukrainian heads of state by phone. There is no point in the chain of preparation at which this error should have remained intact.

It remained intact, in his voice, on a national radio call.

A serious country sends a serious negotiator. A serious negotiator opens the atlas.

Calmly documenting the decline.