Appearing Tuesday with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, former Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA) said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has stayed in the capital city of Kyiv to lead his country’s resistance against Russia’s invasion, should instead give in to Russia’s set of demands.
Brat also said “as a Christian brother, I would tell him” that if Russia’s offers are rejected, “Kyiv, the other major cities, are going to be just devastated.” (Zelensky is Jewish.)
Brat was first elected to the House in 2014, riding a wave of support from right-wing talk radio to win an upset victory in the Republican primary over House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. During his two terms in Congress, he maintained ties with white nationalist media as well as far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, in addition to receiving support from Fox News host Sean Hannity, until he lost his seat to a Democrat in the 2018 midterm election. He is now the dean of the school of business at the Christian right-affiliated Liberty University.
On the March 8 edition of War Room: Pandemic, Bannon and Brat discussed a set of Russian demands that were announced Monday, in which Ukraine would cease military action, amend its constitution to adopt a “neutral” status in which it would not seek to join NATO, and give up its claims to the Crimean Peninsula and the Donbas region.
At a time when Russian attackers have targeted fleeing civilians, Brat implored the audience to remember “the golden rule” and consider Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s perspective: “There’s no way Putin is going to allow our aggressive military power on their border.”