Tulsi Gabbard: Ukraine Invasion ‘Could Have Been Avoided’

According to former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), the Russian invasion of Ukraine could have been avoided if President Joe Biden and NATO had taken measures to ensure Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ukraine would not be invited to join NATO.

Gabbard told FNC host Tucker Carlson during Thursday’s broadcast of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” how the Biden administration and NATO should have gone about it. However, she also insisted she did not “support” Putin’s decision to invade.

“Well, first of all, I do not in any way support Putin’s decision to go into Ukraine,” she said. “It is causing and going to cause an immense amount of suffering for the people there. I’ve been to Ukraine a few times. I have personal friends who are still in Ukraine. People have nothing to do with politics, everyday Ukrainians, and they’re afraid, Tucker, and they’re angry. They are angry at Russia. They are angry at America, and they are angry at the failure of leadership that could have prevented this, and that is the thing that is most tragic about this heartbreaking situation with this war is that it could have been avoided.”

“If President Biden and NATO had done exactly what you were just talking about and agreeing, hey, we’re going to take NATO off the table for Ukraine, something that both the U.S. and NATO have agreed is not likely to ever happen and something that is a legitimate security concern for Russia that they won’t accept having U.S. and NATO troops on their border within Ukraine,” Gabbard continued.

“Had the U.S. and NATO leadership done this, this situation could have been prevented,” she added. “I think the problem here in America is that people who bring this up, people who ask these questions, people who challenge the decisions that the Biden administration has been making in this are smeared and caricaturized as traitors, rather than actually pointing at the truth, which is this administration is not acting in the best interest of the American people. They are turning their backs on the American people.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor