Josh Mandel and Mike Gibbons, Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate in Ohio, expressed support for a no-fly zone in Ukraine during the debate on Monday night.
When asked by the moderator if they would support a no-fly zone in the skies over Ukraine, both Mandel and Gibbons said that they would if the Europeans orchestrated it.
Given that NATO would be behind the no-fly zone, it would therefore mean NATO allies of the U.S. would be actively shooting down Russian planes, potentially pulling the country into World War III. Referring to Gibbons and Mandel as “neo-cons,” Republican Ohio U.S. Senate Candidate J.D. Vance called the suggestion “absolutely reckless” on Twitter shortly after the debate.
“These 2 neocons want to blunder us into WW3,” he tweeted. “What happens when Russia shoots down the plane of a European ally? America will be forced to respond with our blood & treasure. Mandel & Gibbons are either too dumb to realize this, or they know & are ok with it. Absolutely reckless.”
“Are these people unaware of who our leaders are? Do we want General Mark Milley to lecture the Russians about ‘white rage’ after they blow up one of our planes? Do we trust Biden and Kamala to lead our nation in a war with a major power?” he added. The answer is ‘of course not.'”
Vance concluded that Republican politicians have learned little since the failures in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya.
“Meanwhile, both he and Mandel are effectively proposing a pathway that would lead us to war,” he said. “It’s insane how little Republican politicians have learned from the last 20 years. But no one who claims they’re “America First” should be repeating the same conventional wisdom that has destroyed our country’s wealth and lost a generation’s worth of wars.”
Gibbons and Mandel expressing support for a no-fly zone in Ukraine comes days after the two got into a heated exchange during another debate when Mandel called Gibbons a “pussy.”