The Situation Room: Rep. Seth Moulton, (D-MA), Is Interviewed About Meeting Between Blinken And Lavrov, F-16, China

Interview

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Face to face diplomacy is always important. And as a Marine veteran myself, like most veterans, I'm a huge believer in diplomacy because I understand the costs of war when diplomacy fails. And you just can't substitute going face to face. We have to talk with our adversaries. That's exactly what Blinken is doing.

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No, I don't think he is. You have to be careful about that. That's certainly a risk. But this administration all along has been walking the line between getting Ukraine what they need to win and not escalating this into a Russia on NATO war.

And I think Biden is doing the right thing by continuing to signal to the Russians that we're going to support the Ukrainians a lot, we're going to support them enough to win. That's clearly our policy. But that doesn't mean that we're going to give them everything.

And actually, F-16s are actually a really smart place to draw the line, in my opinion, because it's not really what the Ukrainians need. They're going to ask for the world. Of course, they're going to ask, they're going to ask for everything that they can get, I would too, if I were in their position, but what they really need right now are more tanks, artillery ammunition, small arms ammunition, the things that you need on the ground to take back territory from the Russians, a few fancy fighter jets are not going to win this war.

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We all want this war to end this as quickly as possible. And let's not lose sight of the fact that with all the back and forth political support, waxing and waning debates about who's winning on the ground, and where this is all going, there's one simple way for this to end, and that's for Putin to pull out of Ukraine.

But I'm not as concerned as most people are about American political support, because behind the scenes in Congress, when you talk to fellow members of the Armed Services Committee, it's very bipartisan. There is a fringe group of Republicans represented by some extremists like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who want to cut off support for Ukraine, but it really is a fringe group of extremists. The risk, the danger, is that, you know, people like Fox News personality Tucker Carlson are taking their rhetoric and getting more Americans behind this fringe group of Republicans.

And so, Republicans throughout the caucus are feeling pressure from their constituents. But when they talk to me, they're fully supportive of this. We need to win this war, we need to send a message to Putin that he's not going to go any further than this. And by winning this war in Europe, we're also sending a message to Xi Jinping in China that he better not start a war in the Pacific.

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Well, this is another place where the Biden administration is being incredibly savvy, because they have made the bold choice to disclose the intelligence they have that China is considering this. And I think it's put China on their heels. They do not want to be seen as allies to Putin and his ruthless and illegal invasion. I think they were taken aback by the invasion.

But of course, they do see the U.S. as a common enemy. What we need to do is keep them on the right side of history.

You know, Xi Jinping thinks that China is going to be a world superpower, I disagree with him. But if he wants to be a world superpower, that he has to do the right thing, he has to set an example for other nations. And that means following the rule of law. He doesn't want to be in a club of autocrats and dictators, essentially war criminals like Vladimir Putin, who are losing their war. And that's what Xi Jinping will do if he gets a closer partnership with Vladimir Putin.

So, the pressure from the U.S. is having the right effect. It's making the Chinese have second thoughts.

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Good to see you, Wolf.

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