Ross: US politicians can’t give Putin excuses to broaden the conflict
Feb 28, 2022, 6:12 AM | Updated: 8:50 am

Protesters hold Ukrainian national flags and placards during a rally out site the Embassy of Russian Federation on Feb. 28, 2022, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Protests have erupted around the world in support of Ukraine after Russian forces invaded the country earlier this week. (Photo by Annice Lyn/Getty Images)
(Photo by Annice Lyn/Getty Images)
We all have free speech. The government can’t censor us, and that’s as it should be. But you would think that there’d be at least a little self-regulation among politicians.
For example, on FOX last night, retired Brigadier General Donald Bolduc was invited to comment on Ukraine. Bolduc is now a politician – he ran for the U.S. Senate in New Hampshire in 2020 and lost; he’s running again this year.
And he came on and said that the United States should be inserting covert CIA forces and special ops teams to help the Ukrainian Army.
Well, that prompted Fox’s own Pentagon – who was booked for the following segment – to go off script and call him out. For what I thought was a pretty good reason:
“But I have to respond to something your previous guest, Brigadier General Donald Bolduc, said because he really was way off the mark in terms of talking about what the U.S. could do on the ground,” Griffin said. “And with the backdrop of what you’ve just said, in terms of Putin has nuclear weapons, that is why the U.S. military and NATO do not have troops on the ground inside Ukraine.”
“The Ukrainians are very good fighters, they do not need Americans to fight for them because that would then cause this to spread. And clearly, Brigadier General Bolduc is not a military strategist, and to suggest that the U.S. would put indirect fires, or special operations, or CIA on the ground to give Putin any sort of excuse to broaden this conflict is extremely dangerous talk at a time like this.”
And then – also on Fox News – commentator , who was on with media critic , called out Donald Trump for describing Putin as a “genius” and a “peacekeeper.” Because even if he thinks it’s a joke, she says this is a dangerous time for the head of the Republican party to be making jokes:
“The fact is that when President Trump does things like this and the Russians turn it around — this is key, Howie — they turn it around, they put it on a loop tape, and they put it on their state-owned television, along with Mike Pompeo, who I believe said, ‘I have enormous respect for Putin, he’s elegant, sophisticated.’ They use that against the United States just as Putin is rattling the nuclear saber,” Claman said. “That’s pretty difficult for conservatives and Republicans to look at and swallow.”
And yet swallow it is exactly what Republicans who want his endorsement seem quite willing to do.
Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5 – 9 a.m. on Xվ Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.