Brian Schatz: “reserving the right to object. We are in a global fight against fascism and authoritarianism. We are seeing it in…”

“reserving the right to object. We are in a global fight against fascism and authoritarianism. We are seeing it in Putin's war in Ukraine, and we are seeing it with Hamas and the unspeakable horrors it committed on and since October 7. And we are seeing it with Xi Jinping's explicit desire to take Taiwan by force. These people do not hide their true intentions. They telegraph them to the whole world; and, worse, they are willing to do whatever it takes. Nothing is off limits to them. And that is the seriousness of the global threat of an increasingly coordinated fascist movement. And so to address one of these problems but not the other, to somehow judge one threat to be greater than the other, to say we are going to fund Israel but not Ukraine, is wrong. It is wrong morally because evil is evil, no matter where it occurs. And it is wrong strategically because we have a direct national security interest wherever fascism rears its ugly head. Take off your Ukraine lapel pins. Take back everything you said to President Zelenskyy. We were in the House when he addressed us. Everyone was anxious to shake his hand and express support. We put it into our Twitter bios. We put on the little lapel pin. We had him in the Old Senate Chamber on a bipartisan basis. Everybody is for Ukraine--unless it is hard. Everybody is for Ukraine--unless I can't get something unrelated on domestic policy.…”