Don Bacon Addresses His 'Viral' Thoughts on Ukraine

Don Bacon Addresses His 'Viral' Thoughts on Ukraine

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
His name is Don Bacon and Representative Bacon. Thank you
so much for being back on our show today.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Hey, thank you, Emory. And it's over ten degrees for
nic going on here.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Yeah, you know what, I haven't quite ditched the sweatshirt
for whatever it's worth. But it's nice to know that
we're moving in the right direction now. I gotta be
honest with you. I saw this. I saw your post
on x and this was something that caught my attention.
You're always very interactive, you know, sometimes even when we're
not scheduled to chat, you know, you'll send me a

(00:30):
note or something through text or something, and I appreciate that.
But this was something that was seen by over four
point two million people just on this app alone, and
over one hundred thousand people have liked it. So this
has everything to do with your opinion on who started
the Russia Ukraine War and why you think that the
United States isn't necessarily articulating that very Well, what exactly

(00:54):
did you post and what's kind of the imp like
the real thesis of kind of your opinion on the
genesis of this conflict.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Well, I studied Russia almost my entire adult life. I
was an intelligence officer. I flew reconnaissance missions with them,
electronic warfare missions against him. And I don't take any
glee criticizing the president. I want the president to be successful,
and I understand that negotiating doing negotiations with Ukraine or Russia,

(01:23):
they're going to be tough. Compromise has got to be made.
May not follows it exactly the way I like. I
can also welcome the discussions how much we're going to
help Ukraine versus Europe. These are all worthy. But when
I hear the President say that the real dictator is
Zlonski and that he is the cause of the war
or the war is his fault, I just got to

(01:44):
speak up on it. And so you know, I put
a post saying this war was started by Putin invading Ukraine.
They did it eleven years ago at Crimea, and they
did it three years ago now, you know, trying to
take Kiev itself. They've been bombing the cities, They've kidnapped
over ten thousand Ukrainian kids, and dispersements throughout Russia. The

(02:05):
areas that are under control of Russia that are Ukraine,
those cities are leveled and the Russians have done rape
and pillaging. They've murdered the Puws. I just wanted to
make clearer this is Russia's invasion. Ukraine is the victim. Furthermore,
Putin is the dictator. They haven't had honest selections there
in twenty five years. He's killed all of his opponents,

(02:26):
whether they threw them off a building, poisoned them. It's
turned to the Gulac where they died. And Zelenski had
an honest election five years ago. I was competitive, and
in their constitution it says if invaded or in martial law,
these elections will be postponed. It's not something that Zelenski
even asked for. He's in the constitution before it came in.
Who's the world dictator here? It's Putin. I just feel

(02:49):
like I want to stand on truth on this, and
I believe it's in our national security interest that Ukraine prevails.
Because Ukraine falls, Moldova will be next. I think Eastern
Europe be threatened at Georgia. And Putin's made it clearer
he wants to re establish the old lines or borders
of the Soviet Union. We just got to know it.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Representative Don Bacon joining us here this post got an
awful lot of attention and for our svantage point. I'm
sure that you hear us talking on this show quite
a bit about that discourse. Like you said, you're not
taking joy and just you know, being critical of how
the President of the United States is talking about this.
But you just want people to understand that there is

(03:29):
a different angle than what that rhetoric is. What would
the president or any ally of the president, or any
conservative movement person. You know, generally Republicans seem to be
kind of on the other side of this conversation. What
would they have to gain and what would be their
motivation for trying to kind of flip the tables and
make this seem like it's Ukraine's fault.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Well, it's about sixty five to thirty five in our
country right now supporting it creat and I got the
last pulled overs I have were December, so it's a
little old. It was sixty five to thirty five for
support of the Ukraine. I think the Republican Party is
saulf it's probably divided. We're much more supportive of Israel,
unlike the Democrats. They're more divided on that, and I
think it's a mistake that we're divided on Ukraine frankly,

(04:11):
but it's got a lot of underlying reasons. I mean,
the president was accused of working illegally with Putin and
twenty sixteen it was a false allegations, but that would
allowed for a year or two this investigation was false.
I think that that sort of tainted the president's view
on Ukraine versus Russia. Of course, you got hunter Biden

(04:31):
was doing business with a Ukrainian company. There was the
first impeachment was involving the phone call between him and
the President Selenski. So I think there's some underlying psychological
things that have led into this. I think there's a
lot of false information that people have out there that
has taken root in a lot of our social media.

(04:52):
For example, a lot of people think we've given a
lot more money than European unions. It's not true European
Union if you add up all the countries and what
they put in, because the more of the United States
there's aid. The notion that there's a lot of money
missing that we sent Ukraine, that's not true, and there
is a truth to this. Biden promised more aid than

(05:12):
actually was sent to Ukraine. So that there's there's some
truth that not all the AID that was problems made
it to Ukraine. But Ukrainians have been very vigilant. I'm
trying to take cure of the aid that we've gone.
They're trying a little war. They're not there to they're
fighting for their lives, so they're not using the black
market and selling our weapons to other places. But that
story is out there, and there's just totally false information

(05:34):
about you know, Nazism being really prevalent in Ukraine. You know,
Zlumsky's a Jewish Man himself, and so there's a lot.
To me, there's a lot of false information, you know,
put out by Steve Bannon and uh Laura Lumer, who's
who's way out there, and I just I think it's
taken root in some of our social media. But I

(05:54):
think if you're a Reagan Republican, you know that we
believe in peace through strength. He stood up to the
Soviet Union, and that's that's my philosophy. We got to
send up to a bully. We don't have our troops
in Ukraine. I don't want troops in Ukraine. I surely
want Ukraine to win against this invader.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
Representative Don Bacon joining us here on our phone line.
So what would be the like from your perspective, the
proper or appropriate way to try to end this conflict?
In what could be agreed upon in this You know,
however the negotiations are going, and however involved the US
is going to be in that. It seems like we're

(06:31):
going to be very involved in trying to get this
to come to a conclusion. But what would be in
your eyes an appropriate conclusion for both sides to get
this thing to end.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
Well, first of all, I appreciate the fact that President
wants to have negotiations and get peace. I applaud that.
And whatever piece that we do, it's going to be
something that Ukraine is a part of it. And I have
submitted it looks terrible for the President to have his
team negotiated with Russia director and that have the Ukrainians there.
There's a long history of this and it doesn't look

(07:03):
good when we do it. And if you put yourself
in the European spot or as Lensky spot, you know
it doesn't it looks at the optics look terrible. I
I think in the end, the President also meet with
Zelenski and his team. How does this going to look?
I don't think it's going to end just the way
I want it or Ukraine wats it surely's not going
to end the way the Russians want it. There may
be some land that doesn't get is not given back

(07:24):
to Ukraine, but that is the case. We have to
protect Ukraine's right to be allied with who they want.
They're a sovereign nation, but Ukraine. But what Russia wants
to do is hold the land that they've already taken
and prevent Ukraine from having any alliances with Europe or
United States. It start keep them neutral, and that's that's
a non player for Ukraine. You know, they were under

(07:46):
the Russian domination for a long time. Stalin filled four
million Ukrainians in the nineteen thirties alone. If you go
on and on, these guys want to be aligned with
the West where they feel safe, and I think they've
earned that right. So there's going to be a compromise
with probably some land does not give them back to Ukraine,
but they have to have a security guarantees that Russia
will not do this again. And you only do that

(08:07):
by having alliances with the EU or NATO.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
So just to reiterate, as we're joined here by Representative
Don Bacon, for those tuning in, I wonder, right because
they're not in NATO, there are a lot of people
drawing lines all the way back to the nineties that
Ukraine is violating some sort of previous agreement. And there's
also this other kind of side quest thing that has

(08:31):
been going on that I'm sure is in a way related.
The Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessant, was there. We've
been hearing a lot about like rare earth minerals or
materials that Ukraine has that the United States might have
an interest in. Does any of any of those pieces
involving Ukraine, whether it's maybe some things that they have
gone against in agreements from back in the nineties when

(08:54):
they got their independence, or Scott Bessent and our interest
in some of what they have have, does that give
some credence to the idea that we are trying to
allow Ukraine to have as much as possible and to
kind of economically help them through trade in the future.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
Well, the second part, it would be great if we
could develop an agreement with Ukraine and get the rare
earth minerals to help extract it. They would benefit economically,
so would we. Right now, almost all the rare earth
minerals come from China, and we need optional or alternative sources.
That's what your cell phone use, your F sixteens, your
F fifteens, F three five US A lot of rare

(09:32):
earth minerals we have to rely on China form and
so I think that it would be great to get
a trade or agreement or some kind of an agreement
where we can help extract those minerals, and then of
course they would benefit from that too financially. But the
first part, the actual person who cuts it it has
violated agreements. Actually Russia. They had the Buddha pest Accords,

(09:54):
I think it was nineteen ninety four and Russia was
given back all the nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Al must
that they would respect the boundaries and the borders and
the sovereignty of Ukraine. And so the country that has
violated in the agreement's really Russia, as they signed a
Buddhapusta chord and now they're invading Ukraine and Ukraine used
to be the third largest nuclear power on Earth and

(10:15):
they gave up those weapons with that agreement.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
Very interesting And as we wrap this up, last thing
for you, Representative Bacon, this conflict is one of multiple
you alluded to Israel a bit earlier, and these are
are fairly unrelated. There are certainly lines that we can
kind of draw with both of them at the same time.
But what is from your vantage point in Washington, DC,

(10:43):
the pressure point or the priority to try to wrap
things up first? Trying to get the Middle East cleaned
up and get a plan for peace there, or trying
to get Vladimir Putin, you know, kind of happy before
he decides he wants to continue this war and invade.
Maybe for the countries which conflict, do you think is

(11:03):
it more important for the federal government to try to
get finished faster?

Speaker 2 (11:09):
Well, there's I think both our priorities. So as Taiwan,
we want to deter China from invading Taiwan. We don't
want war with China, and Taiwan fren deter it great.
When it comes to Israel, Israel's a dominant power there.
You know, we've been helping them with some weapons, but
they control this fight and they're on top of it,
and there is going to be no peace there for

(11:29):
a while. And so there's a Palestinian leader that recognizes
Israel's right to exist, and there is not right now.
There is no Palestine leadership that will legitimize Israel in
the future. So I don't see peace and in your
term doable. So Israel has the overwhelming power there to
defend itself and control what's going on. So I really

(11:50):
think the powder kegs Ukraine that we got to focus
on because if we don't, if we don't intervene wisely,
Ukraine can fall, and then you'll have Boldova will fall
right away, maybe Georgia. The Baltics are a threat. The
Putin's been threatening the Baltics even though they're part of NATO,
and I think if we don't stay on top of that,
Ukraine could fall. We don't need our troops there, but
the weapons we've given them, like attack them's and enough

(12:12):
six things. They've really worked. But Biden did a terrible
job on us. He tied their hands behind their back,
gave things a year late, gave them too little, too late,
and really fed into a gridlock scenario. My hope was
that Trump would be much better than Biden and deal
with this a little more aggressively and get it done with.
And that's still my hope. And I really don't know.

(12:33):
Maybe Trump has us in his plan anyway, because he
negotiates it a different way, and maybe you know, he's
got a plan beyond what I could see with yesterday's
comments where he would get this resolved. But I would
love to have this resolved. We want to independent Ukraine.
That's a democracy, free market system, rule of law. It'll
be a game changer in Eastern Europe to see that happen.

(12:55):
And that's the real threat to putin a country on
his border at likes democracy, electure, markets as rule of law.
As the Rustans will see that it can be done,
and that is really the threat to putin.

Speaker 1 (13:06):
Representative Don Bacon, he represents Omaha in the surrounding area
as part of the second Congressional District of Nebraska. Representative
Bacon as always a true honor to speak with you.
Thank you for being candid about your comments, and thanks
for joining our show today.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
Thank you, sir,