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GOP Rep. Tim Walberg suggests Gaza should be handled ‘like Nagasaki and Hiroshima’
Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., said this week that the conflict in Gaza should be over quickly “like Nagasaki and Hiroshima,” and the United States should refrain from sending any humanitarian aid to the besieged enclave as Israel’s war with Hamas continues.
“We shouldn’t be spending a dime on humanitarian aid,” Walberg said at a town hall meeting on Monday in Dundee, Michigan, according to a video that circulated on social media.
“It should be like Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Get it over quick,” he continued, referring to the Japanese cities on which the U.S. dropped atomic bombs during World War II. Hundreds of thousands of people died.
In a statement, Walberg said he “used a metaphor to convey the need for both Israel and Ukraine to win their wars as swiftly as possible, without putting American troops in harm’s way.”
“My reasoning was the exact opposite of what is being reported: the quicker these wars end, the fewer innocent lives will be caught in the crossfire,” he added.
According to Walberg’s public calendar, he was scheduled to attend a community gathering in Dundee on Monday, March 25, at 10 a.m.
Walberg made the comment in response to a question from an audience member who asked, “Why are we spending our money to build a port for them?”
The question appeared to reference the Biden administration’s plan to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza via a floating dock. The United Nations and other agencies have warned the enclave is on the brink of famine amid Israel’s five-month assault and the lack of sufficient supplies flowing into Gaza.
“It’s Joe Biden’s reason: We need to get humanitarian aid into Gaza. I don’t think we should,” Walberg replied.
More than 32,000 people have died in Gaza since Israel launched its war against Hamas, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The military campaign follows the militant group’s Oct. 7 attack in the country, in which nearly 1,200 people were killed and about 250 were taken hostage. More than 100 people are still believed to be held captive in Gaza.
A number of Walberg’s fellow Michigan politicians quickly criticized his remarks.
Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens said in a post on X that “threatening to use, suggesting the use of, or, God forbid actually using nuclear weapons, are unacceptable tactics of war in the 21st Century.”
Former Rep. Justin Amash, a Palestinian American Republican who is running for Senate, said in a post that Walberg’s comments “evince an utter indifference to human suffering,” adding “for him to suggest that hundreds of thousands of innocent Palestinians should be obliterated, including my own relatives sheltering at an Orthodox Christian church, is reprehensible and indefensible.”
State Sen. Darrin Camilleri, a Democrat, called on Walberg to resign, and Democratic Rep. Dan Kildee said Walberg’s comments were “horrific & shocking” and his position “indefensible.”
“My colleague’s comments are reckless and wrong,” Rep. Hillary Scholten, a Democrat, said on X. She called Walberg’s comments “depraved” and urged him to “retract and apologize.”
Politicians outside of Michigan also took issue with Walberg’s comments.
Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Pa., called the comments “horrific, inhumane, and barbaric,” and Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J., said the remarks were “disgraceful” and “shameful.”
Italy suggests exit of China’s Belt and Road in shift toward U.S.
There was also an alluring historical narrative. The BRI is based loosely on the ancient Silk Road trade route, the same that was traversed by the medieval Venetian explorer Marco Polo. When Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Italy to sign the deal in 2019, he described Polo as a “pioneer of cultural exchanges between East and West” and an inspiration for centuries of friendship since.
Though European countries had spoken warmly about the Chinese government in the years previously, by the time Italy inked its deal Western attitudes had begun to turn, with increased scrutiny on China’s human rights record and President Donald Trump launching a trade war on Beijing.
At the time, however, Italy’s populist leadership “was a government of inexperienced people,” said Fasulo, the Italy-China expert. “They did not realize in time that the international scenario was changing so fast.”
The outcome — while not quite “a load of oranges” — has not been kind to Italy. Since signing the BRI, Chinese exports to Italy have risen 51%, but Italy’s exports to China have gone up only 26%, according to Italian government figures.
Italy’s decision may not only be economic.
Some observers have questioned how Meloni — accused of anti-immigrant and anti-LGBT policies — fits with President Joe Biden’s attempts to corral a coalition of democracies against world autocracies. Nevertheless she has made no secret of her desire to be seen by Washington as a reliable partner when it comes to both China and Russia, at a time of swirling questions over the mettle of other powers like France and Germany.
To that end she was in Washington last week, touting her credentials as leader of a “center-right government” and brushing off “false propaganda” about her political leanings, as she told Italy’s Sky Tg24, owned by NBC News’ parent company Comcast.
During the visit, Biden praised Meloni’s “very strong support” for Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
“Part of this is about trying to put bilateral relations with Washington on a sounder footing,” said Francesco Sisci, a senior researcher at the Center for European Studies at China’s Renmin University. “Withdrawing from it now is a signal of a change of heart in the Western approach to China.”
Reuters contributed.
Vivek Ramaswamy suggests U.S. may be aiding Ukraine because of Hunter Biden
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy implied Saturday that American involvement in the war in Ukraine may be because of President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden.
“The purpose of the U.S. military [is] to advance American interests, to protect the homeland. Not to aimlessly fight some random war that’s arguably a repayment for a private bribe that a family member of the United States received, $5 million from Burisma,” said Ramaswamy, speaking at a campaign event to a crowd of about 60 Iowans in Council Bluffs.
Ramaswamy, who’s crisscrossing Iowa in a bid to win the Republican nomination, has been highly critical of U.S. foreign policy in Ukraine while on the trail.
“Was the payment to Hunter Biden corrupt? Absolutely it was. Do I think that it has some relationship towards our posture toward Ukraine? I think it’s likely that it does,” Ramaswamy said.
Ramaswamy’s comments were an apparent reference to an alleged bribe involving both the president and his son. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., has claimed he was told by a whistleblower — whose claims are uncorroborated — about a tip regarding a $5 million payment from a foreign national to Joe Biden, then vice president, and a family member “relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.”
Republicans later identified the other family member as Hunter Biden, who served at the time as an attorney and board member of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company.
The White House has denied the president had any participation in his son’s business dealings.
Devon Archer, a former business associate of Hunter Biden, was questioned by the Republican-led House oversight committee on Monday. According to transcripts from the closed-door interview, Archer said the president’s son used the Biden “brand” to his advantage while working for Burisma.
He also testified that he had no knowledge of the president altering U.S. foreign policy toward Ukraine to help his son.
Archer said Hunter Biden would put his father on speakerphone in front of business associates at dinners, but those conversations centered around small talk like the weather.
Russia invaded Ukraine in the winter of 2022, years after Biden left Burisma’s board. Since the invasion, the Biden administration and Congress have given billions of dollars of aid to Ukraine despite polls that show the American people are split on sending more funding.
Russia’s Medvedev suggests Ukrainian ports will be hit again
By Andrew Osborn
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday suggested Moscow would launch more strikes against Ukrainian ports in response to Kyiv’s attacks on Russian ships in the Black Sea, and threatened to hand Ukraine “an ecological catastrophe”.
Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, a body chaired by President Vladimir Putin, spoke after Ukrainian sea drone attacks on a Russian warship in the port of Novorossiysk, and against a tanker near Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Putin chaired a meeting of the Security Council on Friday which Medvedev attended following the attack on Novorossiysk, in which the Olenegorsky Gornyak, a Russian Navy landing ship, was reported to have been badly damaged.
“Scumbags and freaks understand only cruelty and force. Apparently, the strikes on Odesa, Izmail, and other places were not enough for them,” Medvedev said in a post on his official social media accounts.
Russia has in recent weeks targeted the Black Sea port of Odesa, where the Ukrainian Navy is headquartered, and Izmail, Ukraine’s main inland port across the Danube River from Romania, damaging port infrastructure and grain facilities.
Moscow, which last month withdrew from a deal that had allowed Ukraine to safely export its grain via the Black Sea, began the port attacks after a Ukrainian strike on the bridge which links Russia with Crimea, killing the parents of a teenage girl and causing serious damage.
The United Nations and some Western and African countries have urged Russia to return to the grain deal, something Moscow has said it will only do if and when an agreement designed to facilitate the export of Russian grain and fertilisers is implemented.
Medvedev suggested retaliatory Russian strikes against Ukraine for its sea drone attacks could end any chances of reviving the grain deal.
“If the Kyiv scum want to create an ecological disaster in the Black Sea, they should get one on the part of their territory that will soon fall to Poland and that will stink for centuries after that,” said Medvedev.
“That will be the final judgement for them on the grain deal.”
It was not clear what kind of ecological disaster Medvedev was referring to. Top Russian security officials have suggested, without providing evidence, that Polish troops will be deployed to western Ukraine at some point, while Russia will hold on to and expand the territory it has unilaterally annexed in the south and east of Ukraine.
Kyiv, which is carrying out a counteroffensive, says it remains committed to retaking all of its territory, including Crimea.
(Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Editing by David Holmes)
Putin suggests African or Chinese peace initiatives could help end its war with Ukraine
Vladimir Putin has indicated that African or Chinese peace initiatives could be the basis for ending the war in Ukraine.
But the Russian president on Saturday warned it was hard to implement a ceasefire when the Ukrainian Army was on the offensive.
It is not the first time that the suggestion over a peace deal has been made and comes in the wake of African leaders pressing him on Friday to forge ahead with their plan to end the Ukraine conflict.
Mr Putin said: “We do not reject talks on Ukraine.”
He said on Saturday he would not attend a summit of the BRICS nations in August in person as he did not see the visit as more important than him staying in Russia.
The Kremlin said last week that Mr Putin would instead dial into the summit by video call and that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would be at the Johannesburg summit instead when it takes place on August 22-24.
The Russian leader revealed that Moscow carried out some preventive strikes after what it called a Ukrainian “terrorist attack” on the Crimean Bridge.
But he would not elaborate as to where the strikes had been staged or give more details.
Moscow blamed Ukraine for the attack that led to a Russian couple being killed and their 14-year-old daughter being wounded last week in the strike on the road linking Russia to Crimea.
He further criticised the West for hypocrisy over the war in Ukraine and highlighted the conflict in Syria.
Mr Putin also claimed Ukraine had lost 415 tanks and 1,300 armoured vehicles since June 4 and added there were “no serious changes” on the Ukrainian front for now.
A Russian rocket attack killed one civilian and injured five more in the northeastern city of Sumy late on Saturday, Ukraine’s interior ministry said.
“During the evening of July 29, an enemy missile hit an educational institution,” the ministry said on Telegram.
“At least one civilian was killed and 5 civilians were wounded.”
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Ron DeSantis suggests he would pardon Trump on any federal charges
WASHINGTON — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gave his strongest suggestion yet, in an interview that aired on Friday, that he would consider pardoning former President Donald Trump if elected to the White House next year.
In the interview on The Megyn Kelly Show, DeSantis was asked by the host if he would commit to pardoning Trump on any federal charges.
“Well, what I’ve said is very simple. I’m going to do what’s right for the country. I don’t think it would be good for the country to have an almost 80-year-old former president go to prison,” DeSantis said.
Pressed on whether that means he would pardon Trump, Desantis continued: “It doesn’t seem like it would be a good thing. And I look at like, you know, Ford pardoned Nixon, took some heat for it, but at the end of the day, it’s like, do we want to move forward as a country? Or do we want to be mired in these past controversies?”
In May, shortly after he officially entered the presidential race, DeSantis said he would consider pardoning people involved in the Jan. 6 insurrection, if elected, including Trump.
Four GOP contenders challenging Trump for the presidential nomination next year — Perry Johnson, Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley and Larry Elder — have said they would pardon Trump if elected, or are leaning that way. Two candidates, Chris Christie and Will Hurd, said they wouldn’t pardon Trump or are leaning that way.
Last week, DeSantis downplayed the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, telling comedian Russell Brand in an interview that the riot “was not an insurrection.”
“These were people that were there to attend a rally, and then they were there to protest. Now, it devolved, and it devolved into a riot, but the idea that this was a plan to somehow overthrow the government of the United States is not true, and it’s something that the media had spun up just to try and basically get as much mileage out of it and use it for partisan and for political aims,” he said.
Trump was slapped with new charges in connection with his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House on Thursday. A federal indictment filed by special counsel Jack Smith accused the former president of being part of a scheme to delete security video.
A grand jury hearing evidence from Smith’s office in the case involving the Jan. 6 attack and efforts to overturn the 2020 election is expected to soon vote on whether to charge Trump in that case.
The former president was also indicted in New York earlier this year in a document fraud case connected to hush money he allegedly paid to cover up affairs.
