Sen. Slotkin on Trump & NATO: ‘I Do Not Like that in Order for Them to Move, They Had to Be Kicked in the Teeth, But There’s No Denying that They Moved’

EXCERPT:

SLOTKIN: “There is no way to disagree with the factual data that they are spending more on their own defense, that they are having rapid conversations about European defense separate from us. Like -- I'm sorry -- and I say that as someone who was at the Pentagon and every year went to NATO and was like, could you guys please invest more in your own defense? And they were like, thank you. No, thank you. I don't like, right, and for our European, I'm sure there's some European friends here, I do not like that in order for them to move, they had to be kicked in the teeth, but there's no denying that they moved. Now, Vladimir Putin had something to do with that too, right? It's not all Donald J. Trump. But the fact is they're spending more, they're having conversations without us. But I will say that comes at a price and that price is playing out right now in the Strait of Hormuz. Like when we called, they didn't show up. And if you want to understand, like, specifically the value of alliances is that sometimes, like, they have more mind sweepers than you and you need mind sweepers and you call them to come and they don't show up, right? That to me is like, there is -- if we want to take a long view, I do deeply believe in our alliances. I do deeply believe they need to invest in their own defense and there's no doubt. But I think that to say that only having that kind of stick approach with our allies necessarily makes us safer. There are puts and takes there and we're seeing that play out in the Strait of Hormuz right now where they just didn't show up when we called.”