'Quickly, sir': CNN host cuts off GOP lawmaker's rambling defense of Trump's strategy
CNN's John Berman stepped in to redirect a Republican congressman's digressive defense of President Donald Trump's strategy for ending Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH), who heads the House Foreign Affairs Committee, appeared Wednesday on "CNN News Central," where Berman asked him to comment on the president's comment that Ukraine should not have taken on a "nation that's 10 times [its] size."
"Congressman, what should Ukraine have done when Russia rolled tanks over the border and invaded and was rushing toward Kyiv?" Berman asked.
Davidson argued that Ukraine had made crucial mistakes more than a decade ago that led to the February 2022 invasion by Russia, which he seemingly justified at length.
"Once the tanks are rolling, diplomacy failed, and what they should have done is going back to 2013, 2014, is they should have been clear that they want to maintain a friendly relationship with Russia, that they're not posing a threat to Russia, and they would never let Europeans or Americans pose a threat to Russia," Davidson said. "Russia feels threatened by a lot of things, including the internal domestic affairs of Ukraine, so eastern Ukraine, the Donbas, east of the Dnieper River, heavily Russian speaking. They want to maintain Russian culture, and a friend of mine from there said, 'Hey, it's a lot like maybe for an American, if you think of Quebec, they want to speak French, they want this french culture and heritage recognized. They're content to be part of Canada, but until you come in and say, well, you can't speak French anymore and we're not going to recognize that and we're going to purge every reference to what you view as your culture.' That's the kinds of things that were going on in the internal affairs of Ukraine that Russia continued to try to address with Ukraine."
"That's not an excuse for the invasion or war, but, you know, there was no diplomacy that was de-escalatory," Davidson added. "In fact, everything was escalatory, and so I think, look, if you go back to, you know, maybe, maybe some days in – imagine a bar, everybody might get a little loud and mouthy until like, the defensive end guy stands up and he's, you know, six-five, about 280 [pounds] and clearly really fit, and every time I've seen that happen, somebody gets really diplomatic really quick, and I think that's what President Trump's talking about. You didn't give enough weight to diplomacy."
Berman appeared skeptical of the congressman's explanation.
"Yeah, well, I mean, the other way of looking at that is sometimes you do have to stand up to bullies, and you talk about the lessons of World War I," Berman said, and Davidson agreed but attempted to insert a caveat. "I'm not saying that. I'm saying, I'm just talking about the other side of what you're saying, and you're talking about the lessons of World War I. There are people who talk about the lessons of World War II and Munich and concessions right there, but it does sound like you're putting some responsibility on Ukraine for this conflict."
"Quickly, sir, I do want to ask you about what the president has said about the Smithsonian," Berman added, changing the subject. "How much how important do you personally think slavery was in U.S. history, particularly 19th century U.S. history?"
Davidson pointed out that he majored in U.S. history at the United States Military Academy, and he seemingly agreed that the Smithsonian should put a positive spin on the history of slavery.
"If you really question what particular state, right, that the Confederacy was protecting, go back and read the state constitutions," Davidson said. "They were protecting the right to own people. It was abhorrent, and it's hard to believe that it was a deal that was ever struck in the founding of our nation, so in the Declaration of Independence, I think people got through that and said, we need to unite against Britain. But it's a healthy debate to say it did it make sense for them to even do that in the Constitution, and, you know, that is a sin that you know, the United States and Britain were the first in the world to address, and in some places in the world, they still haven't addressed it."
"So you know, I think the president's rightly saying, look, we address this when lots of the world did not, and, you know, you continue to want to see people divide and tear down America instead of heal America, and I think that's the question, and you can cover the same topic in a way that unites and heals, or you can cover it that keeps old wounds open," he added.
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