Democrats Try To Use Colby Confirmation Hearing To Sabotage Trump’s Russia-Ukraine Negotiations
Since returning to office, President Donald Trump has been busy attempting to find a peaceful resolution to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. But it’s clear following their antics during Tuesday’s confirmation hearing for Pentagon nominee Elbridge Colby that Democrats will do whatever it takes to hinder the president’s ability to do so.
Throughout his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Colby was repeatedly hounded by the body’s leftist members to deride Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Democrats pushed the under secretary of defense for policy nominee to acknowledge that Moscow was the aggressor in the conflict and had, in fact, caused the war.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., began the onslaught and asked Colby, “Who started the war in Ukraine?” Colby reaffirmed his belief that the current situation involving ongoing negotiations between the U.S. and Russia is “very delicate,” and that he does not want to be in a position where he’s “disrupting or inhibiting progress on peace.”
“I think the president and the vice president have been very clear that words matter, and I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to be commenting on these delicate topics,” said Colby, who in a prior response to Gillibrand did acknowledge that Russia “presents a significant military threat to Europe” and America.
Colby’s stance was evidently clear: He wasn’t going to say anything that might risk antagonizing Russia and jeopardizing ongoing peace talks between Washington and Moscow.
But his response to Gillibrand apparently wasn’t good enough for several of the committee’s leftists. In their lines of “questioning,” Democrat-caucusing Sens. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Tim Kaine of Virginia, Angus King of Maine, Mark Kelly of Arizona, and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois all undermined the Trump administration’s ongoing peace talks by attempting to goad the Pentagon nominee into placing blame for the invasion at Russia’s feet.
Kelly went a step further, effectively asking Colby to denounce Vladimir Putin as a “war criminal” and Russia’s actions in Ukraine as “war crimes.”
“[A]t this point, my personal interest is in making sure that I don’t do anything that would disrupt the resumption of a move towards peace that I think would benefit Ukraine,” Colby said in response to Kelly.
Duckworth later indicated a similar diplomatic response from Colby was comparable to saying, “You don’t know whether or not [Adolf] Hitler invaded Poland.”
[READ: Vance Makes The Definitive Case Why Elbridge Colby Is The Right Man To Shepherd U.S. Defense Policy]
Dems Don’t Want Peace
Democrats’ repeated insistence that Colby pin the blame for the war on Russia serves two purposes.
The first is to further the left’s narrative that Trump is soft on Putin — a demonstrable lie stemming from Democrats’ Russia collusion hoax. In fact, unlike Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s presidencies, there were no attempts by Moscow to annex neighboring territories during Trump’s first term.
The second and more significant explanation for Democrats’ antagonizing of Colby, however, is that they have no interest in ending the Russia-Ukraine war.
Much like their neocon allies across the political aisle, many Democrat members of Congress are perfectly fine with indefinitely shipping American taxpayer dollars and resources into Ukraine. They have no regard for the continued loss of life or drain on U.S. stockpiles, nor the consequences resulting from such issues.
Resolving the Russia-Ukraine conflict would also shine an incredibly bad light on Biden and the Democrat Party writ large. Not only did Putin invade under Biden’s watch, but the 46th president and his administration allowed the fighting to go on for years without bringing it to a peaceful end.
With Trump, the world has a real opportunity to quell the violence and establish lasting peace — and that’s something Democrats simply won’t accept.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
Jesus Christ is King
