Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) accused Republicans who are more concerned about the U.S.-Mexico border crisis than the war in Ukraine of laundering talking points from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Speaking with CNN on Friday, CNN's Sara Sidner asked Spanberger, "Republicans, some of the extreme parts of the party, as well saying things like, you know, Zelenskyy is the puppet or the shadow president of the United States, getting all this money. How do you respond to them? Do they have any, um – is there anything you can see from their side of things that they’re worried about things like what's happening at the border and yet spending this kind of money, giving it to Ukraine?"
"So there’s a couple things that I bring to this conversation. One, I’m a former CIA officer. I worked under cover with the CIA for the entirety of my time and among the things that I focused on was understanding the threat of covert influence coming at us. And certainly our work throughout the world to understand the Russian threat towards the United States, toward our people and more broadly around the world," Spanberger began.
"And what we have here, unfortunately, is people who are falling prey to Russian talking points, to Putin’s talking points, the idea that Putin continues to try and divide the United States are not only here domestically but divide us from our allies, create divisions and sow distrust or dissension among our ranks," she continued. "So the conversations I’ve been having with colleagues are very simple, 'Do not fall prey to Vladimir Putin’s talking points.'"
The U.S. has spent billions in giving military aid and economic support to Ukraine after Russia restarted its invasion in February of this year. It is because of U.S. support, which include Javelin missiles and body armor, Ukrainians have held off the Russian military but Putin shows no sign of withdrawing from the region anytime soon.
The border crisis has been raging since last year, before the Russian invasion, and it has only gotten worse, with border towns struggling to keep up with the influx of illegal immigrants. The city of El Paso, Texas is seeing hundreds of processed and released migrants sleeping on the streets because they do not have the money to buy a plane or bus ticket.
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