Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is facing rebuke from Republicans in the House and Senate after he touted his effort to pass a bipartisan resolution pushing for Ukraine to be admitted into NATO amid its war with Russia.
Discussing the effort in a tweet, Graham said he believes there’s “overwhelming” support for the proposal in the Senate and claimed that Ukrainian membership in NATO is “vital to the future security of Europe and the world.”
“I will be working with Republicans and Democrats in the Senate to pass a resolution urging the admission of Ukraine into NATO,” Graham said of the effort. “The best way to prevent future wars and promote peace is to create security guarantees that make aggressor nations think twice before starting wars.”
“Ukrainian NATO membership is vital to the future security of Europe and the world. I believe there is an overwhelming majority of Senators supporting this proposition,” he added.
The senator also drew backlash from House Republicans, including Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., who wrote in a tweet: “I’m sure Lindsey Graham knows this, but this would mean American troops on the ground in Ukraine.”
“The American people will not stand by and allow our troops to go die in someone else’s war,” the congresswoman added.
Taking aim at the proposal and speaking out against it, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said that “expanding NATO” does not fall in line with the interests of Americans.
Weighing in on the proposal, Ohio GOP Rep. Warren Davidson claimed that the effort being pushed by Graham is “essentially a declaration of war.”
“HARD NO. Russia’s invasion is unjust, but including Ukraine as a member of NATO is essentially a declaration of war,” Davidson wrote in response to Graham. “America cannot even agree on a mission statement in Ukraine, and NATO won’t fully fund their own defense. Epically bad idea. Low zero.”
Richard Grenell, the former U.S. Ambassador to Germany, also spoke out against the proposal offered by Graham and argued that there should be no new members added to “the U.S. taxpayer’s burden” until all members of NATO are paying the “2% spending obligation” they agreed to in 2014.
“Dangerous rhetoric from warmonger Graham, whose foreign policy track record means you’d be well advised to do the opposite of what he proposes,” Hemingway said in a tweet.
Graham’s position on the Russia-Ukraine war, which has been ongoing for well over a year, has not been popular among hardcore conservatives.
An ardent supporter of Ukraine’s defensive efforts, Graham traveled with Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut to Kyiv last summer.
“I don’t think it’s ready for membership in NATO,” Biden said in a CNN interview. “I spent, as you know, a great deal of time trying to hold NATO together, because I believe Putin has had an overwhelming objective since the time he launched 185,000 troops into Ukraine. And that was to break NATO. . . . So holding NATO together is really critical.”
“I don’t think there is unanimity in NATO about whether or not to bring Urkaine into the NATO family now, at this moment in the middle of a war,” he added.
NATO leaders will agree next week to help modernize Ukraine’s armed forces, create a new high-level forum for consultations and reaffirm that it will join their alliance one day, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, the organization’s top civilian official, said Friday. But the war-torn country will not start membership talks soon.
NATO first pledged that Ukraine would become a member, one day in 2008, but things have evolved little since then.
Fox News’ Greg Norman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.