- White House press secretary Jen Psaki accused Sen. Josh Hawley of "parroting" Russian propaganda.
- Hawley called on the Biden administration to consider withdrawing its support for Ukraine joining NATO.
- "If you are digesting Russian misinformation … you are not aligned with long-standing bipartisan American values," Psaki said.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday accused Sen. Josh Hawley of "parroting" Russian propaganda after the Missouri Republican called on President Joe Biden to withdraw his support for Kyiv's NATO ambitions as the Kremlin simultaneously demands Ukraine be permanently banned from the alliance.
"If you are digesting Russian misinformation and parroting Russian talking points, you are not aligned with long-standing bipartisan American values, which is to stand up for the sovereignty of countries, like Ukraine," Psaki told reporters during a press briefing.
Those American values include a country's "right to choose their own alliances" and to stand against "potential attempts by any country to invade and take territory of another country," according to Psaki.
"That applies to Senator Hawley, but it also applies to others who may be parroting the talking points of Russian propagandist leaders," she added.
Her comments came hours after Hawley urged the Biden administration to consider the US's interests in going to war with Russia over a potential invasion of Ukraine.
"Already, President Biden has announced that the United States will send more conventional forces to Europe, if Russia invades Ukraine. Such a deployment can only detract from the U.S. military's ability to ready and modernize forces to deter China in the Indo-Pacific," Hawley wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, first reported by Axios. "But those opportunity costs pale in comparison to what would be expected – indeed, required – of the US, were NATO actually to admit Ukraine as a member."
Biden has warned Russia that an invasion of Ukraine would prompt severe economic consequences. The Biden administration has also deployed additional troops to Eastern Europe amid the crisis, but has remained firm on the fact that there won't be a US military response to a Russian invasion of Ukraine because it's not a NATO member. NATO operates under the principle of collective defense, or the notion that an attack on one member is an attack on all.
Hawley's remarks weren't far off from comments made by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. Putin warned that if Ukraine were to join NATO, it could provoke war between the alliance and Russia. He suggested that Kyiv would attempt to use force to regain control of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, if Ukraine became a NATO member.
"Imagine that Ukraine becomes a NATO member and launches those military operations," Putin said during a press conference at the Kremlin with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. "Should we fight NATO then? Has anyone thought about it?"
The US is vying to "contain Russia's development" by supporting Ukraine, Putin said.
"Ukraine is just an instrument of achieving this goal," he added. "It can be done in different ways, such as pulling us into some armed conflict and then forcing their allies in Europe to enact those harsh sanctions against us that are being discussed today in the US."
Russia has gathered roughly 100,000 troops on Ukraine's border since late 2021. The US has warned that a Russian invasion could be imminent. The Kremlin claims it doesn't have plans to invade, but recent history has made Western leaders skeptical. Beyond annexing Crimea, Russia since 2014 has been supporting rebels in a war against Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donbass region.
As he threatens Europe with the prospect of a new war, Putin has made demands for binding security guarantees from the West. Among other things, he's insisted Ukraine and Georgia (another former Soviet republic that Russia invaded within the past 15 years) be permanently barred from ever joining NATO. The alliance and Washington have repeatedly made it clear that this demand is a non-starter.
GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger decried Hawley as "one of the worst human beings" and a "con artist" over his comments on NATO and Ukraine.
Hawley is "more interested in pleasing Tucker [Carlson] and playing to worst instincts than leading," Kinzinger said. The Illinois Republican was seemingly alluding to the fact that Fox News host Tucker Carlson has echoed Kremlin talking points on Ukraine — taking Russia's side by blaming NATO for the contentious dynamic between Moscow and the West. This follows a broader trend among certain cohorts of Republicans, which largely began under former President Donald Trump, of defending Russia against Western criticism.