The United States is engaged in a kind of war against Russia, according to a member of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee.
U.S. Representative Seth Moulton (D-Salem), who supports Ukraine, made the comment Monday, May 2 during an appearance on Special Report with Bret Baier on Fox News.
Baier asked Moulton, a former U.S. Marine, about his support for sending increased military aid to Ukraine. Moulton said:
I support it because it is the right thing to do for Ukraine. Obviously, there is a lot of politics involved and there will be domestic debates here at home about all the policies and whatnot.
But at the end of the day we have to realize we’re at war.
We’re not just at war to support the Ukrainians. We’re fundamentally at war, although somewhat through a proxy, with Russia, and it’s important that we win.
Moulton told NewBostonPost in a statement on Monday that regardless of what one calls it, he thinks the United States is taking crucial steps to combat a foreign adversary; he also accused certain right-wingers of being pro-Russia.
“Whatever you want to call it, this is a new type of conflict and it is bigger than just Ukraine,” Moulton said in written statement. “Shortly after Russia invaded, I wrote an op-ed, published by Fox News, that described many of the new challenges we face from modern conflicts like this. Tucker Carlson and other critics are just giving cover to the extreme Republicans who are siding with Russia.”
Moulton was one of many members of the U.S. House of Representatives who voted to send an additional $40.1 billion in military aid to Ukraine in the wake of this war (H.R.7691). The bill passed 368-57 in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday, May 10; every one of the 57 No votes were Republicans.
Moulton wasn’t the only member of Congress to express support for using the Ukrainian conflict as a proxy war against Russia.
Former Navy SEAL and U.S. Representative Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) expressed a similar sentiment when someone complained to him on Twitter that he thought that sending $40.1 billion to Ukraine was a waste of taxpayer money.
“Yeah, because investing in the destruction of our adversary’s military, without losing a single American troop, strikes me as a good idea,” Crenshaw tweeted. “You should feel the same.”
Meanwhile, the White House has denied allegations that the United States is engaged in a proxy war with Russia, despite members of Congress saying it.
“President Biden has been clear that U.S. forces are not and will not engage in a conflict with Russia,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates told The Intercept. “We are supporting the Ukrainian people as they defend their country, which is exactly what President Biden told Putin we would do if he invaded.”
This isn’t the first time that the Biden administration and Moulton have disagreed on foreign policy.
Moulton, who briefly ran for president in the Democratic primary in 2019, was a sharp critic of the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. Moulton called the the withdrawal a “f—— disaster.”
A spokesperson for Fox News could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
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