Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, is being roasted after suggesting that President Joe Biden is defending Ukraine against Russian aggression because of his son, Hunter, further elevating discredited conspiracy theories about Hunter Biden's business dealings .
During an appearance on former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon's podcast, Greene claimed that Biden wants a war with Russia because Ukraine has "dirt" on Hunter, suggesting that Biden is willing to wage war with a major nuclear power to protect his son from blowback.
You can hear what Greene said in the video below.
Greene said:
"I am blown away with what we're seeing. The President of the United States, Joe Biden, is willing to take our military to war ... against nuclear Russia because of Ukraine."
"You cannot deny this, it's because Ukraine has the dirt on Hunter Biden. Ukraine has the dirt on Joe Biden, our President. This is why we can have many of our troops get killed in this war that Joe Biden wants to have happen."
Conspiracy theories about Hunter Biden's business dealings have been a favorite in conservative circles for some time.
A 2020 New York Post investigation published emails suggesting Hunter Biden introduced his father, President Joe Biden, to an executive with Ukrainian gas firm Burisma Holdings in 2015.
The story received criticism for shaky reporting. Twitter's attempts to block the news outlet from sharing the story drew criticism from Republicans who accused the tech giant of censoring conservative voices.
In accusing the President of wanting to start a war in Eastern Europe, Greene threw fresh meat at a base to whom she has often characterized Biden as a warmonger.
Greene has repeatedly called for Biden to be impeached, particularly over his administration's handling of evacuations from Afghanistan. She has failed to mention that former President Donald Trump negotiated an agreement to withdraw from Afghanistan, and that he released thousands of Taliban leaders from prison.
Despite her stridency, Greene has expressed annoyance with many fellow Republicans who have admonished her for moving too quickly to impeach Biden sans viable charges and without going through the proper channels.
Many have condemned Greene in the wake of her remarks.
Greene's claims are especially absurd amid heightened fears that Russia will invade Ukraine as Putin amasses an estimated 125,000 troops on Ukraine's border.
Russia has issued several security demands that the United States and its allies have already rejected.
Putin aims to curtail the enlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), seeking to bar Ukraine from joining the alliance in a bid to assert Russia’s influence over its neighbors, aspirations that gained prominence after Putin seized the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
Although Ukraine is not yet a member of NATO, it is partnered with the military alliance, a development that has angered Putin, who views Ukraine not as an independent nation but as land lost as a result of the end of the Cold War, which led to the Soviet Union's collapse and diminished Russia's superpower status.
Putin has left world leaders guessing as to whether or not he actually wants to invade Ukraine, though he clearly wants NATO to curb military exercises in Ukraine and in other former Soviet satellite states, demands that have resulted in a diplomatic stalemate.
In a written response to Russia's demands, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the United States is committed to NATO's "open-door" policy and seeks to offer a "principled and pragmatic evaluation" of the Kremlin's concerns, stressing that "the ball" is now in Russia's court.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said afterward that the Kremlin is dissatisfied with this response and accused the West of not expressing "a willingness... to take our concerns into account," though he acknowledged that Russia was not outright rejecting calls for diplomatic solutions, saying that the Kremlin "won't rush" with their assessments.
