There are many people, including President Donald Trump, who do not realize remaining in NATO benefits the United States as much as it does other countries, and pulling out would be a "massive mistake," Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said Tuesday.
"We got through a cold war without firing a shot with the Russians because of the existence of NATO," Rep. Kinzinger told MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "That's our frontier there. Protecting the democracies of NATO, like protecting our own elections, is extremely essential."
His comments were in response to an article in The New York Times that Trump had last year suggested to his top security officials he no could no longer see the point of remaining in the alliance.
He also discussed the ongoing government shutdown, commenting there is a national environment where "nobody can compromise."
"We live in this environment where the far left and far right have captured American politics and we're not allowed to talk to the other side of the aisle," the congressman said, "and the other side always has to lose. It can't win."
To get out of the impasse, both sides will have to have some kind of compromise between the parties, Kinzinger said but meanwhile, there has got to be some sort of wall in at least some places on the border.
"It doesn't have to be sea to shining sea, and then there has to be technology," he said. "Regardless of what you think is being argued on this stuff, both sides have got to come together and figure a way out of this . . . the answer is both sides can lose, but that's the only way out of this."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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