Hawley: Overtures to Expand NATO to Include Ukraine ‘Extremely Dangerous’

During an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “The Ingraham Angle,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) warned against efforts to bring Ukraine into NATO.

According to the Missouri Republican, such a move would risk a “from now until forever” conflict with Russia.

Partial transcript as follows:

INGRAHAM: Well, the deal that Biden and company scotched at the beginning of this war, before the war started. That would have avoided the war. It looks like what they’re going to end up with is worse than they would have gotten had they not done this at all. That’s what it looks like at least. It could change. But now, Senator, Zelenskyy has a magic solution to end the war. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT, UKRAINE (VIA TRANSLATOR): If we want to stop the hot stage of the war, we should take on the NATO umbrella, the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Your reaction, Senator.

HAWLEY: No, absolutely not. They should not put any part of Ukraine in NATO. And listen, this administration is already risking World War III by greenlighting the use of American weapons into Russian territory. What will happen if Moscow responds by sending a weapon, a missile, you name it, into the territory of a NATO country, we’ll all be at war. The idea that now we would expand NATO to include Ukraine is extremely dangerous. It is a recipe for constant conflict, including American soldiers boots on the ground in Europe from now until forever. It is a disastrous idea. It’s exactly the wrong thing to do.

And listen, here’s another point about the need to settle this conflict. What the Biden administration has been telling senators behind closed doors for literally two years now, Laura, is that there will have to be a negotiated peace. The Secretary of State was saying that two years ago. So out in public, they’re saying, war forever. Behind closed doors, they’re saying, well, we’re going to have to negotiate.

INGRAHAM: Yes.

HAWLEY: They just don’t want to make the hard choices to do it. And here we are.

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor