(Video: CNN)
There are few Democrats as shameless and shielded from scrutiny as California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, who went on “CNN Newsroom” Thursday and said that Russian students at American universities should be kicked out and sent home as a deterrent to Russian aggression in Ukraine and as a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin specifically.
Now, coming out of the mouth of literally any other Democrat, this suggestion would be neither nauseating nor infuriating, but from Eric Swalwell, it is both. And, predictably, CNN let him get away with it without so much as a nudge, let alone any pushback.
When asked if President Biden should “dump the full gauntlet” of sanctions on Putin, Swalwell responded, “Everything we do has to be aligned with our allies. And the fact we were able to get the Germans to stop this pipeline is huge. That’s U.S. leadership on the international stage. And so we want to move with our allies and NATO but countries like Japan, who can take quite swift and severe actions against Russia.”
“But, yes,” he continued, “on the table should be sanctions… completely taking them out of the European and international banking system known as SWIFT.”
“Frankly,” Swalwell stated, “I think closing their embassy in the United States, kicking every Russian student out of the United States, those should all be on the table and Vladimir Putin needs to know every day he is in Ukraine there are more severe options that could come.”
It’s a bold and completely hypocritical idea, considering that, according to a study posted on admissionsly.com, there are currently 369,548 Chinese nationals attending US universities, and, despite horrific human rights violations, genocide, industrial theft, and threatening Taiwan, no one — least of all Swalwell — is pushing to kick them out of school.
And here’s the thing Swalwell and CNN would really like you to forget: In 2020, Swalwell was knee-deep in a sex scandal with Chinese government spy Christine Fang, aka Fang Fang. And, according to a report at the time from the New York Post, Fang Fang entered the US as a university student.
But even if you do happen to forget all of those things, it’s still a really bad idea, according to the liberal Gravel Institute.
“Rep. Eric Swalwell has said that ‘kicking every Russian student out of the United States’ should be ‘on the table’ in retaliation for the Russian invasion,” Gravel Institute tweeted. “That is an absolutely atrocious idea. Ordinary people should not be punished for the actions of their government.”
Rep. Eric Swalwell has said that "kicking every Russian student out of the United States" should be "on the table" in retaliation for the Russian invasion.
That is an absolutely atrocious idea. Ordinary people should not be punished for the actions of their government.
— Gravel Institute (@GravelInstitute) February 25, 2022
In the interview, Swalwell went on to parrot nearly word for word the Left’s latest talking points: That Republicans support Russia, it’s all Trump’s fault, and Tucker Carlson is Putin’s puppet.
When asked if Biden has gone “far enough” in his handling of Putin, Swalwell responded, “I think this is the largest invasion in Europe since World War II, and these are the harshest sanctions any country has experienced since World War II as far as financial, travel, energy resources. There will be more to come.”
“But I also think we have to build a sentiment, Alisyn, in the United States, so that people understand why Putin is a bad guy,” he continued. “He murders journalists who oppose him. He jails the opposition. That’s inside his country. Outside his country, he disrupts democracies like he did to us in the United States and now moving into Ukraine in the way that he has. We need to unite in America because, frankly, we have Republicans who are rooting for Russia, and that makes it very hard for President Biden to get the whole country to go along when Donald Trump, Mike Pompeo and Tucker Carlson are rooting for Russians and that’s being replayed on Russia TV to rally Russians for this cause. We need unity to be the antidote here in the United States.”
An original thought, Eric. And maybe some accountability.
Is that really too much to ask?
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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