SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) – A Bay Area Representative suggested in a CNN interview that the country should kick “every Russian student out” of universities in retaliation against Russian President Vladamir Putin.
Rep. Eric Swalwell was interviewed on Thursday. In the interview, Swalwell said that “closing their embassy in the United States” and “kicking every Russian student out” of the country should be on the table.
Here is Swalwell’s full response from the interview:
“Everything we do has to be aligned with our allies and the fact that we were able to get the Germans to stop this pipeline, that’s huge. That’s U.S. leadership on the international stage, and so, we want to move with our allies in NATO but also in countries, like Japan, who can, you know, take quite swift and severe actions against Russia. But yes, on the table should be sanctioning Putin personally. Completely taking them out of the European and international banking system which is known as SWIFT. Frankly, I think closing their embassy in the United States, kicking every Russian student out of the United States, those should all be on the table, and Putin needs to know that every day that he is in Ukraine, there are more severe options that could come.”
Following this interview, people took to Twitter by responding to and retweeting Fox News’ post which read, “Eric Swalwell floats kicking Russians out of US universities in retaliation to Putin invading Ukraine.”
Senator Bernie Sanders’ foreign policy advisor, Matt Duss, retweeted the post saying:
“This is empty hawkish posturing that would punish students while doing nothing to help Ukrainians.”
In response to Fox News, Swalwell tweeted:
“When Fox *News* thinks they’re owning me but the comments section agrees with me. Looks like they miscalculated America. We don’t root for Russia. You bet wrong.”