Matt Gaetz calls for US to quit and kick UN out, fund 'Israel' instead
3 Min Read
The US representative claims to want no UN funds in the American budget, and urges to keep the UN out of the US and vice versa.
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Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2024, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md., Friday, February 23, 2024. (AP)
At a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) event on Friday in Washington, US Representative Matt Gaetz urged the US to withdraw from the United Nations and cut off funding to fund "Israel’s" war in Gaza instead.
“We shouldn’t have any foreign aid to any other country without corresponding cuts to our own bloated federal budget,” he said, adding: “If you want to send aid to Israel, fine, pay for it by defunding the United Nations.”
“I want the UN to be zeroed out in our budget. The US should be out of the UN, and the UN should be out of the US.”
“How about take the money away from the entity that had some of their own people attacking and killing Israelis?” he asked. “It seems like a good offset.”
Gaetz noted that previous Ukraine aid packages are now “slushing around the money-laundering capitals of the world.”
He additionally reiterated the double standards in the current Western outrage regarding the death of Russian activist Alexey Navalny in a Siberian penal colony, as he recalled that American journalist Gonzalo Lira also died in a Ukrainian prison.
We’ve heard a lot about Alexei Navalny's death recently. It’s tragic. You should be allowed to oppose the ruling party in your country without risk of poison, prison, or death.
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) February 23, 2024
But I would remind everyone though, especially the journalists in the back, that Ukraine's Zelenskyy… pic.twitter.com/EsvCTO4NLt
“What’s really left unsaid in this Ukraine aid debate is that Europe’s fecklessness is a direct result of them becoming national security welfare queens, largely at your expense”, he expressed, showing the extent to which the West has become financially reliant on the US.
Division in funding
Gaetz's comments follow the Biden administration's scolding of Republican lawmakers for failing to approve a $95 billion aid bill.
Read more: US vows aid to Ukraine amid increasing concerns of frontline collapse
The package encompasses $60 billion designated for Ukraine, where military resources are quickly depleting. A substantial portion of these funds is intended to bolster Ukraine's military capabilities and replenish US weaponry and equipment deployed to the frontline.
Additionally, $14 billion has been allocated to support "Israel" and the US in carrying out military activities across the Middle East.
Furthermore, over $8 billion was earmarked for bolstering US partners in the Indo-Pacific, particularly Taiwan, as a means of deterring an alleged Chinese aggression.
In a statement, however, US House Speaker Mike Johnson indicated that the Republican-led chamber would not take up the bill.
Johnson argued that while the bill aided strategic US allies, it did not include changes to US immigration policy after a previous Senate text that encompassed both the border and foreign aid was killed by members of Johnson's party in the upper chamber.
