Rep. Michael Waltz: This is an Atrocious Episode in American History

Michael Waltz, Congressman (R-Florida’s 6th district) & co-author of Dawn of the BRAVE joined the Guy Benson Show to discuss the Wagner-Putin meeting, the Ukraine war, and supporting the family of Nasrat Yar.

Listen to the full interview below:

Waltz said this about the tragic death of Nasrat Yar.

“He could survive the Taliban. He could survive that, a disastrous withdrawal and he couldn’t survive the streets of Washington, D.C… It’s heartbreaking.”

Full transcript below:

Guy Benson: With us now is Congressman Michael Waltz, a Republican of Florida, the sixth District. And he’s coauthor of the book Dawn of the Brave. And, Congressman, it’s great to have you back here.

Michael Waltz: Hey, good to be with you, Guy. Greetings from Miami. Today is the second anniversary of the protests, an uprising in Cuba. Just leaving a great event with the freedom fighters from the Bay of Pigs all the way to today’s modern freedom fighters fighting, fighting for their liberty. So always good to be with you, man.

Guy Benson: Very, very cool. Well, we’re glad to have you here. I want to talk about Ukraine and Russia. Let’s just start with this matter of these cluster bombs. I know that Russia has been using them against the Ukrainians. And now finally, it appears that the Biden administration is going to provide the Ukrainians with that same sort of lethal aid. It’s gotten mixed reviews. Let’s just start with this. What are these bombs? What makes them unique?

Michael Waltz: Yes. Well, so a normal or normal artillery round will hit the ground and explode. Right. And anything caught in that blast or that it hits will obviously be destroyed. What these cluster munitions do is they essentially explode in the air and then they’ve rained down a bunch of bomblets and a little bit bigger than a grenade over a much wider area. And if you have particularly if you have infantry or troops in trenches, like we’re seeing in the Russians, defensive lines where they’re in hardened trench lines, then this will essentially hit them from the top and they’ll be incredibly effective. I’ve actually been asking the Pentagon for over a year now, you know, just of why they we weren’t providing them. The Russians, by the way. You know, the concern from so many is what they call the dud rate. So when these bomblets, these grenade sized shells rained down, a certain percentage don’t explode. And essentially then, you know, kind of act as landmines that could kill civilians or others. Ours have a done rate of of 1%, a dud rate of 1%. The ones that the Russians are using have a dud rate of upwards of 20 to 30%. So the argument is that these areas in conflict are literally already littered with Russian clusters, cluster bombs that haven’t exploded. Let’s help the Ukrainians win and end this war. And I’ve been asking for a year why we haven’t provided hours to them.

Guy Benson: And now it’s happening. I saw a supportive statement, for example, from Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas. He’s on your side as well. There are, of course, plenty of people, including some conservatives and Republicans, colleagues of yours, Congressman, who say this is not the right move. This is an escalation on America’s part. We shouldn’t be doing this. This isn’t a good use of our of our treasure, our weaponry. What’s your response to that?

Michael Waltz: Well, from the escalation standpoint, again, the Russians have been using them since day one. So this isn’t America unilaterally escalating into I won’t support it. Let’s get this thing over with. And if we want to keep American troops out of the war, that means that means defeating Putin on the battlefield. And if the Ukrainians are willing to do the fighting and dying without losing a single American soldier, they’re asking for the beans and bullets, then I think that’s you know, that’s a right investment on our part. That said, the Europeans are the ones that need to step up and do more. It is atrocious and wrong that, for example, France, which is has a economy for four times the size of Poland, is providing a fourth of the military aid, or that the EU has the same size economy as the United States has provided half of what the U.S. has. So I have a measure, it’s called “dollar for euro” that that will mandate that the Europeans provide the same level of support the U.S. has or we pull back to match theirs. But one way or another, the fact that the fact that Joe Biden is in at the NATO’s summit right now as we speak, and only 7%. All right, excuse me, seven out of the 30 native countries are living up to their 2% military commitments is pathetic. We’ve been asking nicely for years, and I think we need much tougher measures out of Congress to force the Europeans to provide for their own damn defense.

Guy Benson: What do you make of this groundswell that we’re seeing again of pulling Ukraine into NATO’s? Speaking of NATO’s and the meetings that are ongoing at the moment? Marc Thiessen, a colleague of mine here at FOX, smart Guy, conservative Guy, very pro Ukraine; he’s saying the way to end this war is to embrace Ukraine as a NATO ally. I know that that’s very controversial. President Biden has said no to that, saying at least not until the war is over. I’m sympathetic to the idea of having the Ukrainians within that NATO’s family. But to me, it seems like at the moment that would be a ticket to western troops on the ground, potentially American troops on the ground in Ukraine, which is something that very few Americans support. Where do you come down on NATO membership for Ukraine?

Michael Waltz: Yeah, well, I have a lot of respect for Marc, but I think you hit the nail on the head there Guy that, you know, allowing NATO’s membership in the midst of a war is essentially committing NATO’s in the United States to that war to fight Russia. And again, if we have the Ukrainians who aren’t asking for US troops, they’re just asking for the for the supplies and the bullets to do their own fighting. I think that’s about the right place to be. What I’m demanding is that the Europeans step up and provide for their own defense. I’m tired of us subsidizing, which we have for seven years now, the European social programs where they could have their cake and eat it, too. America pays for their defense while they pump in, you know, free, free programs into their societies. So, look, I think we have a long way to go with NATO’s reform before we expand. NATO’s at all a much less to a country that’s at war.

Guy Benson: Congressman Walsh, I saw these headlines today, and I have to say, I just my eyes widen. I scratch my head. I am not an expert on this matter at all. But the Kremlin announced earlier that Vladimir Putin met with Prigozhin, the Wagner leader, after the thwarted mutiny a number of weeks ago. They apparently had a meeting. What on earth is going on here? Was that all a show? Was that real? Have they actually kissed and made up or are things okay? Is Prigozhin going to end up with a bullet in the back of his head at some point? Is this a ruse by Putin? What’s your read on this?

Michael Waltz: Yeah, look, I’ve said since day one, I didn’t buy everything that we were hearing out of out of the Kremlin. And you want to talk about Game of Thrones, Guy? Can you imagine Prigozhin getting that invite? Come on in.

Guy Benson: Yeah. Come on. Let’s have a meeting.

Michael Waltz: Yeah, sure. You know. Yeah. Who knows if he thought he was going to walk out or not. But this is what we do know. We know that the Wagner group, led by Prigozhin, spend about the only thing in the Russian military that’s been successful in Ukraine. And we know that Putin needs his capabilities because he is used essentially as a mercenary special operations expeditionary force all over Africa and all over the Middle East, where they seized gold, mines, zinc, copper and other natural resources and provide cash back to Putin and hard resources that their economy starved of. And they act as a proxy across the Middle East in places like Syria. So I don’t you know, he couldn’t let Bognor go as a capability. I never bought that. And if you listen to and carefully, his beef always was with the Ministry of Defense and the Russian military, not with Putin. And Putin is a master at playing these different factions off against each other. And I think the other thing that goes on exposed in his March for justice to Moscow was that Putin has nothing left in terms of internal security. 85% of his military. All those chips are stacked in Ukraine. He doesn’t have anything left in this interior. And that’s why Prigozhin got as close as he did and they cut a deal. I’m looking forward to get in some classified spaces, Guy. And seeing what we know from an intelligence standpoint, of course, I can’t share that, but there’s a lot more to this story, obviously.

Guy Benson: Congressman Waltz, I want to get your reaction to a story that broke last week. I was on vacation, but it really bothered me. It stuck with me for days. We talked about it earlier in the show. As a matter of fact, this murdered Afghan interpreter who worked alongside our men and women in that country, in his country, survived all sorts of horrors war, Taliban, everything came to America and was just murdered in cold blood in Washington, D.C., which has been an increasingly unsafe city, our capital city. Just the the horrible dark irony of what he lived through and survived only to come to the capital of this country and get murdered. It’s I would call it unfathomable, but unfortunately, it is it is quite fathomable these days. And I know you have been a real champion of Guys exactly like this and a huge critic of the Biden administration’s disastrous pullout from Afghanistan. This one hurts.

Michael Waltz: It does. It’s amazing. He could survive the Taliban. He could survive that, a disastrous withdrawal and he couldn’t survive the streets of Washington, D.C., which, by the way, he had moved to from where he was originally relocated to Philadelphia because crime was so bad there. So, you know, this is just yet another statement of I mean, when we see in Chicago dozens of people getting shot and killed per weekend, per week and we talk about, you know, mass killings in the United States, it’s heartbreaking. Guy. Just a little bit more background on him. He had been working with Special Forces since he was ten years old. He learned English by watching American movies. I know guys who worked with him personally, and there wasn’t anybody who who saw it and was willing to die for and loved freedom then this amazing individual. And it just it’s just heartbreaking on so many levels. And it’s yet another it’s yet another scar. I got to tell you, the moral injury amongst our veterans population on the withdrawal from Afghanistan, that this administration, this president won’t even say the word, won’t even talk about it in the State of the Union or any other time, except to tap himself on the back. And. And claim success. We’re seeing suicide rates go even higher. We have we have a lot of men and women in very dark places. And for anybody listening, you kept this country safe for two decades from another 911. A whole generation grew up not worried about planes flying into buildings. And your sacrifices weren’t in vain. This interpreter’s sacrifices weren’t in vain. But it’s yet another as yet another scar on what I think is the most atrocious. Just the most atrocious episode in modern, modern American history.

Guy Benson: I mean, it’s such a tough story. And to that point on the morale. Congressman, just already the the morale issue that you described and then you layer on top of it here is one of the success stories of getting someone out who helped us resettled in this country. We can pay on a small debt of gratitude to him and his family, and he gets murdered. Not just in any American city, but in our capital city. It’s just an absolute disgrace. And there is a verified go fund me online for his family. The fact that that needs to exist turns my stomach. And, Congressman, I just want to get your response, because I knew you’d be heated about it and rightfully so. Congressman Michael Waltz, Republican of Florida, the sixth Congressional District in the Sunshine State, member of the House Armed Services, Intel and Foreign Affairs Committee, is a combat decorated Green Beret on the Guy Benson Show. Congressman, we always enjoy your appearances here. Thank you so much for your time.

Michael Waltz: Thank you, Guy. Keep up the fight.