Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy slammed Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Saturday for pushing for Ukraine’s admission into NATO, accusing the Republican lawmaker of “marching us to the brink of nuclear war.”
“@JoeBiden needs to man up to his bully-friend Zelensky & clearly state that we are dead-set opposed to Ukrainian admission to NATO,” Ramaswamy tweeted, ahead of next week’s NATO summit in Lithuania. “This should be a hard red line.”
“It’s shameful that even Republicans like @LindseyGrahamSC are now pushing for it,” he added. “Stop marching us to the brink of nuclear war.”
Graham said on Friday that he would work across the aisle in the Senate to pass a resolution urging for Ukraine’s admission into the Western alliance, adding that he believes there is an “overwhelming majority” of senators who would support such a measure.
“The best way to prevent future wars and promote peace is to create security guarantees that make aggressor nations think twice before starting wars,” the South Carolina Republican tweeted. “Ukrainian NATO membership is vital to the future security of Europe and the world.”
Ramaswamy called NATO’s further expansion “sheer lunacy” and vowed not to be “bullied” by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky if elected.
“As President I’ll refuse to be bullied by an anti-democratic comedian-turned-leader & it’s truly mystifying to me that the rest of the West is eating out of this Pied Piper’s hand every day,” he added.
However, as Biden prepares to head to Lithuania, he has remained hesitant about Kyiv’s potential admission into NATO, telling CNN on Friday that he doesn’t think the country is “ready” to join the alliance.
“Holding NATO together is really critical,” the president added. “I don’t there is unanimity about whether or not to bring Ukraine into the NATO family now at this moment in the middle of a war.”