Tillis: ‘American Lives Will Be Lost in Great Numbers Without’ NATO Alliance

Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said that American lives have been saved by the NATO alliance.

He warned, “American lives will be lost in great numbers without it.”

Partial transcipt as follows:

KARL:  Well, he just — I mean, just, just today, he called NATO cowards. He said they’re cowards for not willing to come in and secure the Strait of Hormuz.

TILLIS:  I don’t think that they’re cowards. I think they’re people that weren’t consulted on a major military operation, and I’d have the same reaction if I was the head of state. Not that I don’t want to get there and help, but I think it’s — it’s not productive to sit there and have created an environment that only — that did not exist before our action, and then to say, it’s time for somebody else to come in. And look, this is about losing lives. I mean, this is a very dangerous part of the world. This isn’t a part — this isn’t just about a ship sinking. This is about a ship’s crew and whatever military personnel are deployed there to try and ensure safe passage.

So again, I’m the Republican leader, have been since 2018, of the Senate NATO Observer Group. I know these countries well. I meet with them regularly at the Munich Security Conference, at the NATO Summits. And these folks love the United States. Our mil-to-mil relationships are very strong, but they don’t appreciate the way they’re being treated right now. And I can absolutely understand that.

KARL:  President Trump, just this week, suggested that he could pull out of NATO, and that — he also added that, you know, I can do that without Congress.

TILLIS:  Yeah, well, that’s factually not true. The president of the United States cannot withdraw from NATO. Now, having said that, the president can poison the well. The president can make it functionally defunct if he wants to, but I would really encourage him to take a hundred — the top 100 generals in the Pentagon right now and ask any of them if they think it’s a good idea to sever that relationship.

And you’d be hard pressed — if they’re telling you the truth — you’d be hard pressed to find one, because that has enormous, enormous risk in it. American lives have been saved by the NATO alliance, and American lives will be lost in great numbers without it.

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