Republican Congressmen Madison Cawthorn (NC) and Matt Rosendale (MT) are being blasted for bills they introduced as it became clear Russian President Vladimir Putin was intent on waging war against Ukraine. The bills, as GovTrack explains, “ban aid to Ukraine until Mexico border is secured.”
Cawthorn’s extremism has grown in the 14 months he’s been a U.S. Congressman, but he may be best known for his trip to Hitler’s vacation home, the Eagle’s Nest in Bavaria, when he was still a GOP candidate. On Instagram Cawthorn “referred to Hitler as ‘the Fuhrer,’” which the Times of Israel says is a term of reverence, “and said the spot was on his ‘bucket list.'”
According to GovTrack Cawthorn’s bill “mandates that the number of Armed Force members deployed” to Ukraine “must be less than the number deployed to the Mexican border.”
Tuesday evening Cawthorn, who has become one of the faces representing House Republicans (Rosendale is fairly unknown), was the target of outrage after his bill was revealed.
“This is pretty gross but it’s also very stupid. I’m surprised Louie Gohmert isn’t involved in this,” wrote The Atlantic’s Molly Jong-Fast.
Political scientist and professor of international relations, David Rothkopf tweeted simply, “I. Just. Can’t.”
“Just like their daddy Trump,” tweeted former Lincoln Project executive director Fred Wellman. “Traitors to democracy.”
Some noted that Vladimir Putin earlier in the day bombed a Holocaust memorial site (a possible war crime) and a TV tower in Kyiv. The Holocaust site honors the 33,000 Jews Hitler killed there, one of the sites of the largest Nazi slaughters of Jews.
Others labeled them traitors.
A few more responses:
“Idiots in the service of Putin.”
“The guy who met his ex-wife in Moscow is trying to hold up aid to Ukraine? Seriously.“