Rep. Smith: Dems’ letter to Biden wrong approach in Ukraine

As Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), who represents Washington’s Seventh Congressional District, withdraws a letter to President Biden on his Ukraine policy that she and 29 House Democratic colleagues signed, another Washington Congressmember is distancing himself from that letter.

The letter, written by the Congressional Progressive Caucus in June and leaked this week, praises President Biden’s support for Ukraine, but urges diplomacy with Russia to bring the war to an end.

Jayapal, who heads the caucus, said in a statement that the letter was leaked by staff without proper vetting and was not intended to be made public in its current form. Some of the letter’s signers have said that they would not sign the letter if it had been written today.

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“Because of the timing, our message is being conflated by some as being equivalent to the recent statement by Republican Leader McCarthy threatening an end to aid to Ukraine if Republicans take over,” Jayapal’s statement read. “The proximity of these statements created the unfortunate appearance that Democrats, who have strongly and unanimously supported and voted for every package of military, strategic, and economic assistance to the Ukrainian people, are somehow aligned with Republicans who seek to pull the plug on American support for President Zelensky and the Ukrainian forces.”

Jayapal’s office did not return KIRO Newsradio’s interview request.

Congressman Adam Smith (D-WA) of Bellevue, who represents Washington’s Ninth Congressional District and chairs the House Armed Services Committee, said he turned down the opportunity to sign the letter over the summer.

“The letter basically misunderstood the military situation on the ground in Ukraine, and what is necessary to help Ukraine, and that’s why I didn’t sign onto it,” he told KIRO Newsradio.

Smith believes his colleagues were coming from a good place when drafting the letter, but he said it oversimplified the war.

“The biggest thing driving the letter is an understandable desire for peace,” he said. “But I think the mistake here is, to stop the war, we first have to stop Putin.”

It is winning the war and defeating Russia that will lead to peace, Smith said — and the way to do that, he said, is to continue sending aid to Ukraine. He believes now is not the time to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country has committed war crimes.

“As long as he thinks he can take Ukraine, he’s going to keep killing people,” Smith said. “So number one, if you want peace, support Ukraine militarily. And I think that’s the part that they misunderstood.”

Smith also rejects the idea proposed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk of having certain Ukrainian territories become part of Russia as part of peace negotiations.

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“[Putin] will take what you give him, and then he will come back and take more,” Smith said. “All the war crimes that they have committed, the civilians that they have killed, the people that they have tortured — to give them that territory is to legitimize that type of outright violence.”

Despite the letter, Smith said his Democratic colleagues in the House are all united in supporting Ukraine’s military, and firmly stand behind President Biden’s approach.

“The Democratic Party is still unified in giving Ukraine as much support as they can, military support to defend their country,” he said. “Every single Democrat voted for the $40 billion, and for the $13 billion in addition.”

At the same time, Smith stops short of wanting to send U.S. troops to Ukraine.

“I support President Biden’s policy in Ukraine. I think he has done the exact right approach,” Smith said. “And part of that approach is that we don’t get into a direct conflict with Russia — a direct conflict between the U.S. and NATO with Russia, combat troops on combat troops, would escalate the war to a devastating extent. So President Biden has struck that balance exactly right.”

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