Exclusive— Tom Barrett: Reps. Elissa Slotkin, Liz Cheney ‘Obsessed with Foreign Military Intervention’

State Sen. Tom Barrett (R-MI), the Republican nominee to represent Michigan’s 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, linked Rep. Liz Cheney’s (R-WY) endorsement of his opponent Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) to what he said was a shared obsession with foreign military operations held by both Cheney and Slotkin.

Barrett was asked if Cheney’s support of Slotkin benefits the latter’s reelection bid on Monday’s edition of the Breitbart News Daily podcast with host Alex Marlow. He described Cheney’s political support for Slotkin as a boon for his campaign given widespread disdain for Cheney among Republican voters.

“I think it actually hurts her,” Barrett replied, “because it really energized the Republicans in my district and across the country to really want to help out and want to jump in to help us out, and it raised the profile [of this race], and Liz Cheney talked about the work her and Elissa Slotkin had done together on the Armed Services Committee as a reason for her endorsement.”

Barrett, a U.S. Army veteran of the War in Iraq, contrasted Cheney’s and Slotkin’s shared posture of military and foreign policy bona fides with their lack of meaningful response to the Biden administration’s self-described “withdrawal” from Afghanistan while highlighting Cheney’s and Slotkin’s memberships on the House Armed Services Committee.

He remarked, “I just pointed out in every single interview I did the complete lack of any accountability for this administration on the Armed Services Committee for any of what happened in Afghanistan, where we had so many service members — we had 13 service members killed — America had 13 new Gold Star Families that day. Joe Biden let the Taliban be in charge of security for our troops, and then, ultimately, 13 were killed, dozens more injured, and they’ve done nothing to hold them accountable whatsoever.”

“The Cheney family, the Slotkins, these people are obsessed with foreign military intervention by American troops, and I am trying to do my best to keep us out of foreign entanglements. Of course, the Cheney family never saw a war they wouldn’t send other people’s kids to go fight. My opponent Elissa Slotkin is on record supporting a ground war with China,” he added.

Barrett described his foreign policy vision as responsible and restrained relative to Cheney’s and Slotkin’s shared recklessness.

He continued, “I simply want to keep America safe by having a strong defense that serves as a deterrent to our foreign adversaries, emboldens our allies, but doesn’t put American boots on every single conflict around the world. We have to be more strategic about where we engage with military force.”

Barrett concluded by comparing the volume of money spent on political advertising supporting his incumbent Democrat opponent’s campaign against his own.

“My opponent has spent so much money, she is one of the most prolific fundraisers in Congress,” he observed. “She has spent over $11 million just from her own campaign, not counting the outside super PACs and everything else. When the dust settles on this race tomorrow, the total spending in this congressional campaign — my actual campaign that I’ve raised money into and spent money from — will have spent less than ten percent of the total money spent in this district, and we’re going to win. Our polls are a dead heat, right now. We’ve now taken the lead in some polling that’s been done just in the last few days.”

Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter @rkraychik.