Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) confidently waltzed right past a fact check on live television over Ukraine's desire to join the NATO alliance.
House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) faced down a leadership challenge from within the Republican Party by moving forward with separate funding bills for aid to Ukraine, Israel and other allies, but Luna told CNN's John Berman that she and other GOP lawmakers would continue to oppose military aid to the embattled European nation.
"I mean, I'm an Air Force veteran and my husband was shot in Afghanistan in 2014, so I first and foremost know definitely the unfortunate blood that is shed by this country and our young people as a result of people up here in Washington making decisions," Luna said.
"And what I will tell you is currently right now with Ukraine, while we are sending money over there, there's no accountability, but I think even furthermore, remember, Ukraine chose to not join NATO. They also, in addition to that, had decisions that they made early on that would basically enable them to support what we're doing here in the United States as far as fighting that, and they chose not to, so, again, it is not our fight to fight."
"We've given them a ton of aid," she added. "We've given them so much aid that we could have funded a second Marine Corps. I think that if you go to what's happening right now with the inflation that we're seeing in this country, in addition to – let's take student loans, for example – and yet we're funding a foreign government. I simply don't agree with that."
Berman stepped in with a correction, pointing out that Ukraine had asked to join NATO in September 2022, seven months after Russia invaded, but the United States and other member nations expressed support for its eventual membership while avoiding direct comment on its application.
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But Luna interrupted to disagree with the facts.
"I'm going to have to respectfully push back on that," Luna said, closing her eyes and lifting her chin to deliver her pronouncement, "because I disagree. But continue, sorry."
Berman expressed his appreciation but declined to challenge her fact-free assertion, and instead turned his attention to a motion to vacate Johnson's chair that was filed last month by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
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04 18 2024 09 20 12 youtu.be