Warren Davidson Asks Witness: 'Should We Make Ukraine A Member Of NATO?'

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During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing last week, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) spoke about Ukraine joining NATO.

Transcript

00:00you and I recognize the representative from Ohio mr. Davidson thank you

00:05chairman thank our witnesses appreciate the timely hearing today microphone well

00:11it works just not well so the sound guy can do something about that it'd be

00:20great but so let me start over so thank you for the hearing it's timely and I

00:29would ask unanimous consent to submit Vice President Vance's speech in Munich

00:35for the record the administration sets the foreign policy for our our country

00:41and the administration's been very clear where the Biden administration wasn't the

00:45Biden administration never would define the mission in Ukraine they would never

00:49say what exactly they want to accomplish the Trump administration has been clear

00:55in Ukraine by saying we want to help restore peace and that is what the

01:02president and Secretary of State and every other tool in the executive branch is

01:07trying to do is to restore peace when you look at Vice President Vance's speech in

01:13Munich he asked the fundamental question what exactly are we defending and not

01:19just territory but ideas and values and I think it's noteworthy because we see

01:25people from Western Europe claiming asylum in Hungary so they don't go to jail for

01:34free speech or for participating in a political party like AFD or the now

01:40majority party in Poland or the winner of the presidential election from the

01:44conservative party there so you see values that are undermining the

01:49institution in the United States by funding NATO essentially becoming the

01:53de facto security force for NATO has enabled Europe to spend their money on

02:00everything but defense we've we've served as their defense and it's been the

02:05umbrella to which they've extended their membership eastward so we're pulling

02:10security while they're undermining the values that made us the West the values

02:15that when I was in Berlin walking through checkpoint Charlie in the days

02:19after 9 November 1989 that we said we were defending and instead it's the other

02:25way so you know Ambassador Smith I just want to be clear because of this

02:29ongoing discussion about Ukraine is Ukraine a NATO member country it is not I

02:34didn't think so yeah we're certain of that NATO's closest partner but we seem to

02:38keep treating NATO as a Ukraine is a member of NATO should we make Ukraine a

02:43member of NATO the Alliance agreed in 2008 and stated that Ukraine will someday

02:49become a member right now there's no consensus across the Alliance to do so

02:53there's clearly not a consensus and I think for a good reason because if we

02:57brought NATO Ukraine into NATO we would immediately be in a state of war one of

03:02the things that people like to refer to is is article 5 so you know ambassador or

03:08Admiral Montgomery you said in your testimony that quote the US posture in

03:13Europe gives NATO's article 5 its teeth I worry that you know that kind of proves my

03:19point that that it enables the European Union member countries to basically rely on

03:26America's blanket of security in an under invest in their own and I guess at some

03:34point do you do is your own view that article 5 would obligate us to fight a war

03:39of actually being immediately in a state of war if a NATO member country was

03:45attacked article 5 well if there's an article 5 violation determined by the

03:49Alliance then I think it's highly likely the United States would participate in that

03:54warden and I and I do think we are the enable there's no doubt our GDP is equal

03:59to all of Europe so it's likely that if we were all spending three point we're

04:03currently spending I know the graph said something else but I think we spend

04:06about three point oh two percent three point oh two five percent to put a

04:10specific number on defense we don't spend that I mean I gotta be clear here

04:14where we're barely clear of the numbers we want them to get to but if we if we're

04:18spending that much we're gonna they're gonna and they spend that much we will be

04:22able to secure ourselves and deter Vladimir Putin from doing things my

04:26goal is not that we fight article 5 but we make it clear to Putin that should you

04:30attack a treaty ally of ours like the Baltic States or Poland we will hold you

04:35accountable and therefore when he sees how strong we and Europe together and I

04:39believe I agree with you completely Europe needs to carry its load and Europe

04:44was apathetic for 30 years but they're coming around led by the Eastern

04:49Europeans and even the president has acknowledged that the Eastern

04:52Europeans were spending four and now soon five percent deserve our support the

04:57president spoken about the Baltics it's good and I I'm glad you acknowledge that

05:00Congress actually has the decision on whether we go to war so article 5 doesn't

05:05automatically trip it in my time is is largely expired here but I just want to

05:11point out that you know president Eisenhower thought that if we were in in NATO for

05:1710 years that we would not have succeeded in the mission in NATO so I think it's

05:22worth questioning as Vice President Vance did in Munich what are we doing here

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