Anna Paulina Luna Grills Witnesses About Lindsey Graham And Richard Blumenthal's Trip To Ukraine

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At today's House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) questioned witnesses about Ukraine and NATO.

Transcript

00:00First and foremost, I'm going to have to disagree with my colleague's sentiment as Ukraine as our

00:03ally. Ukraine is not a member of NATO. Aside from that, Zelensky hasn't held actual elections

00:09since the war started, so I don't know what free and fair democracy does that.

00:14But aside from that, if we're looking at the U.S. total spending in NATO, it's 3.3 percent of the

00:18defense budget, which is a lot of money. My question, and I'd like to actually point out,

00:24we just saw two senators took a vlogging trip to Ukraine yesterday. It was Senator Blumenthal

00:29and Graham, or I guess it was over the weekend. But to put simply, their sanctions bill with Graham,

00:35it's basically another D.C. classic. The Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025 throws a 500 percent tariff

00:40and banking bans at Moscow, but where's the accountability for how billions in prior aid

00:46were spent? Biden's admin shoveled millions and billions of dollars into Ukraine with zero

00:51oversight, no audits, no results. Now this bill demands $55 million for monitoring, while Section 17

00:56slaps tariffs on other countries buying Russian oil, which China will bypass through third parties.

01:02Trump's America First policies does not write blank checks. It demands verifiable wins.

01:07And if Europe is not going to step up militarily, why should U.S. taxpayers fund their security theater?

01:12Sanctions without enforced negotiations are just performative politics.

01:16You know, I was just with the House Democracy Partnership Institute. We were actually in Belgium.

01:21We met with the European Union. We met with some NATO countries. And what I can tell you is you have

01:26these countries who are not surrounding Ukraine, and they're advocating for war. But you have countries

01:32like Romania, countries like Moldova that want peace and thoroughly back President Trump's agenda.

01:38The reason that I bring that up is because I do believe if we continue funding NATO in our current capacity,

01:44we are simply making excuses, not forcing them to take a realistic approach at peace negotiations.

01:49My first question would be to Mr. Montgomery, if you could just go back and elaborate really

01:55quickly on what you had stated in regards to oil.

01:58Yeah, right now the Russians are able to ship their fossil fuels in avoidance of the existing sanctions,

02:07which both the Biden and Trump administration have in place, by finding third parties.

02:11They ship them on illegal shadow ships, and third parties, and you mentioned them, China, India,

02:17Turkey are receiving that. The way you normally stop that is you then sanction the companies receiving

02:23that, the ports receiving it, and the banks involved in the procurement, and then those companies back

02:29off. And historically we've seen that happen with Iran, with North Korea, with others.

02:33So all we have to do is enforce the existing laws, the existing sanctions, and we will take away

02:39Russia's, what is funding Russia's military operations.

02:43Instead of performative politics, correct? I mean, I agree with you.

02:48Well, instead of the, yeah. I think you can do that regardless of the sanction bill going on in the Senate.

02:53Cool. And aside from that, just with that same perspective, do you think that it's a good idea for

03:00members of our Senate, members of Congress to go outside of the policy being set forth by the White House

03:07and the Secretary of State in regards to policy with Russia and Ukraine currently?

03:12Well, I certainly feel it's fair for senators and congressmen to go on whatever congressional delegations.

03:17They want to have supported thousands of my career.

03:19And I, and I have no opinion on when Republicans, you know, criticize Democrat administrations or

03:26Democrat representatives criticize Republican administrations. To my military knowledge,

03:30that appears to be the normal way of doing business.

03:32Do you think, though, that it's dangerous to have people that are advocating for policy that's pro-war

03:37when they're first and foremost not the ones on the front lines and also to receive massive contracts

03:42from defense contractors? Or not massive contracts, but massive donations and support from defense contractors?

03:46I have, I have no Senator Graham, and I believe he honestly believes.

03:50Oh, that wasn't directed at Senator Graham, sir. That seems to be a problem, not just in the House,

03:53but also the Senate, not specific to one member, both Democrat or Republican.

03:57I, as a retired military officer, I'd never hold a politician accountable for expressing his or her views.

04:04Sorry, sorry?

04:05I mean, a politician should be able to express his or her views.

04:08Oh, no, that, I mean, I understand that, sir. I was just asking simply yesterday.

04:11But I thank you for your time and obviously not trying to attack you on this.

04:14I appreciate you being here today. Thank you, Chairman.

04:17I now recognize the representative from Rhode Island, Mr. Animal.

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