Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) on Wednesday mentioned that President Trump and his Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth “literally appear to be negotiating on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin and argued the commander-in-chief has already handed Kremlin “victories” earlier than the official talks have even began.
“I mean, Trump and Hegseth literally appeared to be negotiating on behalf of Putin. They‘re trying to sell us on the things the Kremlin wants, and it is everything wrong with running a good negotiation. I mean, it violates every principle of negotiation you can imagine,” Moulton mentioned throughout his Wednesday evening look on CNN’s “AC360.”
“I mean, first of all, he‘s saying he‘s desperate for a deal. Putin knows that Trump is desperate for a deal. He promised the end of the war on day one, and he‘s already broken that promise. So now he‘s scrambling to get a peace deal, and he‘s selling the house before he — or he‘s giving away the house, I should say, before he even puts it on the market.”
“I imply, it‘s simply loopy negotiating ways, until you perceive that Trump is actually making an attempt to promote us on what Putin needs,” mentioned the Home Democrat, who visited Ukraine throughout the practically three-year battle.
Trump spoke with Putin and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday. The president highlighted in each conversations his need to place an finish to warfare in Jap Europe. Trump additionally mentioned he’ll meet with Putin in Saudi Arabia, however it’s unclear when precisely.
Hegseth acknowledged on Wednesday that he doesn’t assume that Ukraine being inserted into the NATO alliance is a “realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement.”
Moulton argued the peace negotiations involving Russia and Ukraine usually are not nearly placing a halt to a lethal warfare in Europe, however sending a message to dictators around the globe, together with China’s Xi Jinping, that democracies are “going to stand up to authoritarian regimes who try to take over foreign countries.”
“And we all know that if China decides to take over Taiwan it would literally start World War 3. You could see tens of thousands of American troops die in that kind of a conflict so there’s a lot at stake with what’s going on here,” Moulton mentioned on Wednesday.
“Negotiations really matter. We can’t come out of these negotiations with Putin thinking he has a win and Trump is already literally handing him victories before the negotiations has even really started.”
Trump additionally mentioned on Wednesday that Kyiv’s return to its pre-2014 borders is unlikely and Ukraine’s president will “have to do what he has to do.”
The Massachusetts Democrat, who serves on the Home Armed Companies Committee, mentioned that Europe has stepped up protection spending and he needs them to maintain investing extra, however added the “whole principle behind NATO is that America has Europeans’ backs. That’s the way it’s worked for 75 years, that’s the way we deterred conflict in Europe for 75 years.”
“The problem is that it’s very dangerous for the future stability of Europe and because we do have NATO commitments because that has been the bedrock of how NATO works, the next time Putin decides to start a war because he said ‘hey I got a win out of Ukraine, let’s go to Poland next, let’s go Latvia next,’ American troops are going to be on the line,” he mentioned on Wednesday.
