The United States has given more than $65 billion in aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded the country in February, and there is no end in sight to taxpayers funding this war. President Biden recently pledged to continue sending aid "for as long as it takes." As a result, the war looks interminable and has brought the world closer to the brink of nuclear "Armageddon" (in Biden's words) than it has been since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Why, then, are so many lawmakers escalating U.S. involvement in the war by voting to send military aid to Ukraine? Protesters demanded answers from Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez during a town hall event on Wednesday.
"You ran as an outsider, yet you've voted to start this war in Ukraine; you're voting to start a third nuclear war with Russia and China. Why are you playing with the lives of American citizens?" one heckler asked.
"Tulsi Gabbard has shown guts where you have shown cowardice," another said. "I believed in you, and you became the very thing you sought to fight against. That's what you've become. You are the establishment. And you are the reason everybody will end up in a nuclear war unless you choose to stand up right now and denounce the Democratic Party."
Those comments were met with applause from the few constituents present.
Former Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard made headlines this week for leaving the Democratic Party, accusing its leaders of being "an elitist cabal of warmongers" who are "dragging us ever closer to nuclear war."