Matt Gaetz has the solution for the Ukraine War: Make Russia part of NATO
'I've got an idea. Offer NATO membership to Russia,' said Gaetz during Monday's edition of The Matt Gaetz Show. 'Of course, for this carrot, Trump would need to get everything he wants out of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin regarding the end of hostilities, economic cooperation, and territorial disputes.'
'Before you suggest I'm crazy for thinking about NATO and Russia as partners, the idea has been floated by foreign policy thinkers on the right and left for some time,' he added. 'In 1997, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on NATO expansion. President Clinton's secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, reflected on groundbreaking cooperation between NATO and Russia.'
'That fruit didn't germinate because instead of doubling down on cooperation with Russia, the thinking prevailed that we had to expand NATO and encircle Russia. We learned that an animal backed into a corner can lash out,' Gaetz argued. 'We chose encirclement over cooperation when people were saying cooperation could be part of our forward-looking path with Russia.'
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created in 1949 in the aftermath of the Second World War to counter the Soviet Union. While NATO worked to establish a partnership with Russia following the end of the Cold War, all cooperation ceased when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.
'Michael McFaul was President Obama 's ambassador to Russia. In 2006, he wrote an article entitled, 'Why a Democratic Russia Should Join NATO,'' Gaetz went on. 'Again, this reinforces that NATO membership is an earned reward, not an entitlement, but why not give Russia a chance to earn it?'
Russia became the first country to join NATO's Partnership for Peace programme in June 1994. Its goals were to expand political and military cooperation in Europe.
In late May 1997, NATO leaders and then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed the NATO-Russia Founding Act, sharing their wish to 'build together a lasting and inclusive peace in the Euro-Atlantic area on the principles of democracy and cooperative security.'
During President Vladimir Putin's time in power, between 2002 and 2008, NATO and Russia participated in the NATO-Russia Council, the formal meetings of which came to an end amid Russia's military action in Georgia in 2008.
NATO's website now states that 'The Russian Federation is the most significant and direct threat to Allies' security.'
'NATO membership for Russia isn't coming tomorrow, but to make peace, everyone needs to give up something and get something,' said Gaetz. 'Everyone needs to feel safer in peace than at war. Making war is easy; all you have to do is attack. Making peace is hard, but at least the Trump administration is making progress. We believe that progress could and ultimately should lead to NATO expansion to Russia if everyone behaves.'
Gaetz's comments came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a cadre of European leaders met with President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday.
An administration official said Sunday that Putin agreed at his Alaska summit with Trump on Friday that the U.S. and its European allies could offer Ukraine a security guarantee in the shape of NATO's collective security mandate as part of a possible deal to end the full-scale war started by Russia in February 2022.
Trump envoy Steve Witkoff appeared on CNN 's State of the Union on Sunday, saying that it 'was the first time we had ever heard the Russians agree to that.' He added that it was 'game-changing.'
'We were able to win the following concession: that the United States could offer Article 5-like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in NATO,' Witkoff added.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
11 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Morning Joe host stuns panel by heaping MORE praise on Trump as he warms up to former arch-enemy
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough has said Donald Trump 'holds the cards' over Vladimir Putin in their diplomacy talks surrounding the war in Ukraine. The Morning Joe star made the declaration amid ongoing peace talks between the two leaders on Wednesday. 'You know, there are a lot of people talking about, "who has cards... who's not playing cards,"' he told fellow anchor Willie Geist. 'I heard some people over the weekend said Vladimir Putin is the 'only person that might...' Scarborough continued, before interrupting himself with what was billed as the only answer. 'No. It's Donald Trump. Donald Trump has the cards. 'He has the cards with, first of, with sanctions,' he said. A former Florida Republican who today is one of the left-leaning networks' leading voices, the host went on to outline why he believes Trump has little to worry about. 'He can just say, "Lindsey [Graham], go ahead - let's pass the sanctions bill and let's grind him down,' he explained, referring to the GOP senator from South Carolina. The Morning Joe star made the declaration amid ongoing peace talks between the two, pictured convening in Alaska on Friday 'And the second thing is, well, you know, there was talk about a possible $90million military aide bill to Ukraine,' he went on. 'There's two things that would change the dynamics very quickly.' The comments continued Scarborough's surprise support for the president in recent weeks, and Geist, in turn, observed how Putin has continued to attack Ukraine despite the recent peace talks. Scarborough dismissed such talk as mere posturing. 'Vladimir Putin can huff and puff and say he's going to blow the house down all he wants,' he said. 'He's not the one holding the cards. Donald Trump's holding the cards right now. 'It will be very interesting to see if he'll play them over the next 10 days.' Just last week, he criticized Democrats for publicly complaining about Trump 's takeover of Washington, DC - where Morning Joe is based - while secretly pining for a crackdown behind closed doors. Without naming names, the host detailed how he'd received calls from his friends who quietly expressed support for the deployment of federal agents to DC. Their political allegiance? 'All democrats,' Scarborough said on-air August 12. A few days before, he said he agreed with Trump in his assessment that DC is now a dangerous city. 'Certainly don't need the National Guard in there, or certainly not Marines,' he said with wife Mika Brzezinski by his side. 'But you look at Washington, DC, and it's been dangerous for years. 'There have been, you know, a year, a couple of years here, a couple of years there, where it's been a bit better - but certainly over the past five years it has just been an absolute mess. 'Its quality of life has been terrible.' Earlier this week, Scarborough - who faced criticism for meeting with Trump in Mar-a-Lago after the election - revealed MSNBC would be changing its name to 'MS NOW'. The change, CEO Mark Lazarus said in a memo viewed by Daily Mail, represents the new company's focus on 'building our individual identity and vision for the future while laying a foundation for the continued growth and success of our businesses.' MSNBC will also lose the peacock logo long associated with NBCUniversal when the name change goes into effect later this year. MS NOW is an acronym for My Source News Opinion World, execs said - after previously promising the network would keep the 'NBC' in its its name as it prepares to spearhead a spinoff company that's been dubbed Versant. The firm, also based in 30 Rock, is comprised of Comcast channels like MSNBC that had been causing declines in the parent company's share price. The stars of Morning Joe, Brzezinski and Scarborough, are said to be in the midst of exploiting their power to 'leverage their stature within the network,' according to Mediaite's Colby Hall. In a report penned earlier this month, Hall cited an unusual number of absences from both after execs pulled their show off the air following the July 2024 assassination attempt on Trump. 'It's hard to ignore the timing,' Hall wrote. 'With MSNBC's realignment on the horizon and talent contracts under review, Joe and Mika's extended absences feel like a flex - a reminder that Morning Joe doesn't work without them,' he added. The Versant spin off is expected to take place between late 2025 and early 2026. An exact date has not yet been announced.
The Guardian
11 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Texas Republicans bring redistricting bill to house floor after finally reaching quorum
Texas Republicans brought a bill to the floor of the state legislature on Wednesday to redraw the state's congressional districts, making quick use of their regained quorum after the return of protesting Democratic legislators. Democratic state representatives filed a series of amendments to the bill which were voted down, but used the process to raise objections to taking up redistricting before flood relief, to house rules which require a police escort when leaving the chamber and to the proposal itself, a mid-decade change which they argue reduces the voting power of people of color in service to Republican political gains and further gerrymanders the state at the cost of democracy. 'We're ready to meet Trump where he is, which is on a dirt road,' said Democrat Nicole Collier, livestreaming from a bathroom off the legislative floor. 'We're ready to get down and dirty.' Collier refused to sign a pass and permit a police escort for leaving the House floor, and has been trapped in the chambers as a result. While on a Zoom call with the Democratic senator Cory Booker of New Jersey and the Democratic National Committee chair, Ken Martin, Collier said she was being told she had to end the live stream or face a felony charge, abruptly leaving the meeting. It is emblematic of the unusual resistance Democrats in Texas have put up to the redistricting bill, and the response of the Republican-controlled Texas government to that resistance. 'This bill intentionally discriminates against Black and Hispanic Texans and other Texans of color by cracking and packing minority communities across the state of Texas,' said Chris Turner, a Democratic representative from Arlington. 'It is a clear violation of the Voting Rights Act and the constitution.' Republican leaders rejected racial animus as an element of the redistricting, noting that it increases the number of districts with a Hispanic voting age majority from seven to eight. Based on voting results from 2024, five congressional seats would change party from Democratic to Republican under the new map, which they argue is legally allowed. 'You want transparency,' said representative Todd Hunter, the Corpus Christi Republican who drafted the redistricting bill. 'The underlying goal of this plan is straightforward: improve Republican political performance … We are allowed to draw congressional districts on the basis of political performance, as recognized by the US supreme court in Rucho v Common Cause. These districts were drawn primarily using political performance to guide the redrawing of districts.' The strong assertion that the genesis of the redistricting is about increasing the number of Republicans in Congress, and not to diminish the voting power of people of color, is an early defense to expected legal challenges to the proposal under the Voting Rights Act. 'When you say the word 'redistricting', I think you know there are going to be legal challenges,' Hunter said. Under the Voting Rights Act and longstanding court precedent, lawmakers needed to draw lines with great awareness of the racial composition of the electorate in order to avoid unconstitutionally packing them into single districts to reduce their influence on other districts, or to spread them across multiple districts – cracking – to dilute their voting strength as a group. Talk of a mid-decade redistricting began in Texas after the Department of Justice circulated a letter describing the use of race in the state's 2021 redistricting to be unconstitutional. Texas's governor, Greg Abbott, seized on this as a rationale to redraw district lines more advantageous to Republicans. Donald Trump has called for Texas and other states to redraw their lines for more partisan advantage, prompting California's governor, Gavin Newsom, and other Democratic governors to begin to counter with redistrictings of their own. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion Democrats in the Texas house left the state last month, intent on denying a quorum to the legislature to block a vote on the redistricting bill. They abandoned their exile after the California legislature began advancing a redistricting bill of its own. In contentious discussion, state representative Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, ranking Democrat on the Texas house redistricting committee, pressed Hunter on the motivations behind the new map lines and on the absence of input from the Texas legislative into a map that would probably face a voting rights challenge. That drew a sharp response from Hunter. 'You left 17 to 18 days! You could have sat with me,' Hunter said. 'Now you're getting on the microphone saying why didn't I involve you? Well, I wasn't going to cross state lines to find ya! I was here … You own the walkout. You said you did that. But don't come into this body and say we didn't include you. You left us for 18 days.'
The Independent
13 minutes ago
- The Independent
BBC ‘not institutionally antisemitic', editor says after row over Gaza coverage
The BBC is 'not institutionally antisemitic', a newspaper editor has said following a row over the broadcaster's coverage of the conflict in Gaza. James Harding, The Observer 's editor-in-chief said the perception of a 'political presence looming over the BBC' is a problem and the broadcaster needs to be 'beyond the reach of politicians'. The BBC has been criticised for a number of incidents in recent months which include breaching its own accuracy editorial guidelines and livestreaming the Bob Vylan Glastonbury set, where there were chants of 'Death, death to the IDF (Israel Defence Forces)'. Following the incident, UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said ministers expect 'accountability at the highest levels' for the BBC's decision to screen the performance. Mr Harding discussed the difficulties of covering the Gaza conflict when he delivered this year's James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Wednesday. He described how 'newsrooms are in a furious argument with ourselves over the coverage of Israel and Gaza', with the situation 'very hard to view dispassionately'. The Observer chief said this is true for all media organisations, particularly the BBC, and it is 'about as difficult as it gets in news'. Mr Harding said: 'This summer, Lisa Nandy has weighed in.' He said the Culture Secretary's office insists she did not explicitly ask Samir Shah, the BBC chairman, to 'deliver up' director-general Tim Davie 's resignation following the Bob Vylan incident, but 'people inside the BBC were left in no doubt that was the message'. Mr Harding said: 'The place became paranoid about how the BBC itself would cover the story; people around him thought the political pressure would be too much. 'Whatever your view of the hate speech vs freedom of speech issues, an overbearing government minister doesn't help anyone. 'The hiring and firing of the editor-in-chief of the country's leading newsroom and cultural organisation should not be the job of a politician. It's chilling. 'Political interference – and the perception of a political presence looming over the BBC – is a problem, one that we've got too accustomed to. 'It looks likely to get worse. We need to get on with putting the country's most important editorial and creative organisation beyond the reach of politicians now.' The broadcaster is also facing an Ofcom investigation into its documentary Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone after a review found it had breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy. The programme was removed from BBC iPlayer in February after it emerged the child narrator, Abdullah, is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who has worked as Hamas's deputy minister of agriculture. Mr Harding said the BBC is not antisemitic. 'I am Jewish, proudly so,' he said. 'I'm proud, too, to have worked for the most important news organisation in the world. 'The BBC is not institutionally antisemitic. It's untrue to say it is. 'It's also unhelpful – much better to correct the mistakes and address the judgment calls that have been wrong, than smear the institution, impugn the character of all the people who work there and, potentially, undermine journalists in the field working in the most difficult and dangerous of conditions.' The UK Government and the BBC have been asked for comment. Mr Harding is co-founder of Tortoise Media, which acquired broadsheet newspaper The Observer in April. Before he co-founded Tortoise Media, Mr Harding was editor of The Times from 2007 to 2012 and was in charge of the BBC's news and current affairs programming from 2013 up until the beginning of 2018. He also co-presented On Background on the BBC World Service and wrote the book Alpha Dogs: How Political Spin Became A Global Business. A spokesperson for the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said: 'The Culture Secretary has been repeatedly clear that the role of the director-general is a matter for the BBC board. Any suggestion to the contrary is untrue. 'The BBC has itself acknowledged a number of serious failings in recent months, including the broadcasting of the Bob Vylan set at Glastonbury. 'It is entirely right that the Culture Secretary raised these issues with the BBC leadership on behalf of licence fee payers.'
