Tim Kaine: “I regret it is necessary to introduce legislation that prevents a President from withdrawing from NATO. Our allies with…”

“I regret it is necessary to introduce legislation that prevents a President from withdrawing from NATO. Our allies with whom we have fought alongside since World War II and earlier in some cases, are seriously questioning our allegiance for the first time in the history of the modern international order. President Trump has chosen to call our European allies ``foes'' while aligning himself with a brutal and repressive authoritarian, Vladimir Putin, over the professional assessment of the U.S. intelligence community. Troubling news continues to flow from the President's disastrous trip to Europe for the NATO summit and his meeting with President Putin in Helsinki. And for the first time ever, we are forced to ask what options we have to preserve U.S. membership in the primary tool of peace and stability for the last 70 years, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In response to the only invocation of Article 5 of the NATO Treaty, more than 1,100 servicemembers from our NATO allies have given their lives fighting alongside the United States. This is a sacrifice that should not be so easily cast aside by our President who continues to inaccurately depict the alliance as a protection racket and ``obsolete.'' While we must continue to press every country to continue increasing defense spending to meet the agreed upon goal of 2 percent of GDP by 2024, it is disconcerting to watch the President disparage these allies and make threats to withdraw the U.S. from NATO.…”