Former U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard has said President Joe Biden’s administration wants Russia to invade Ukraine so that they can impose “draconian” sanctions on the country.
Gabbard, a Democrat who represented Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district from 2013 to 2021, told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Friday that Biden could avoid a war by guaranteeing Ukraine would never join the NATO military alliance.
The U.S. warned on Friday that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could happen in the coming days and advised U.S. citizens to leave, while the Russian government has consistently denied it intends to attack.
Carlson asked Gabbard, who was also a Democratic presidential candidate in 2020, about a potential conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
“First of all, President Biden could end this crisis and prevent a war with Russia by doing something very simple,” Gabbard said.
“Guaranteeing that Ukraine will not become a member of NATO because if Ukraine became a member of NATO, that would put U.S. and NATO troops right on the doorstep of Russia, which, as Putin has laid out, would undermine their national security interests,” she said.
“The reality is that it is highly, highly unlikely that Ukraine will ever become a member of NATO anyway,” Gabbard said. “So the question is, why don’t president Biden and NATO leaders actually just say that and guarantee it?”
“Which begs the question of why are we in this position then? If the answer to this and preventing this war from happening is very clear as day. And really, it just points to one conclusion that I can see, which is, they actually want Russia to invade Ukraine,” the former congresswoman said.
“Number one, it gives the Biden administration a clear excuse to go and levy draconian sanctions, which are a modern-day siege against Russia and the Russian people,” Gabbard said.
“And number two, it cements this Cold War in place. The military-industrial complex is the one that benefits from this,” she went on.
“They clearly control the Biden administration. Warmongers on both sides in Washington have drumming up these tensions. If they get Russia to invade Ukraine, then, again, it locks in this new Cold War,” Gabbard said.
Gabbard argued that the “military-industrial complex” would make “a ton more money than they have been fighting Al-Qaeda.”
President Biden has repeatedly said Russia would face sanctions in the event of an invasion, including the blocking of the Nord Stream 2 Russia-to-Germany gas pipeline.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said at a press briefing on Friday that U.S. citizens should leave Ukraine and warned that a Russian invasion could be imminent.
While he did not provide details of U.S. intelligence on the matter, he said a Russian attack on the country “could begin during the Olympics, despite a lot of speculation that it would only happen after.”
