Republican Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, an aficionado of licking electrical outlets given his hair style, tells Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that he does not support the US supporting Ukraine’s entry into NATO because it would mean American military forces would have been thrust into war with Russia after it invaded Ukraine.
Blinken points out that had Ukraine been a member of NATO, Putin would have had serious second thoughts about invading the sovereign nation because of NATO protections, to which Paul responds, “You could also argue that the countries [Russia] attacked were part of Russia.” This is untrue: Georgia and Ukraine were independent nations. Paul then pivots: “… were part of the Soviet Union,” a nation that ceased to exist two decades ago.