There is some controversy brewing over a closed-door briefing yesterday on Ukraine held for House members. The meeting was intended to break the gridlock over Ukraine funding. Several conservative House members told Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin that unless Ukraine aid is accompanied by passage of a stringent border security bill known as H.R. 2, it is a non-starter. 

The controversy emerged today when former Fox News talk show host Tucker Carlson reported that Austin had threatened to send American troops to Ukraine if Congress did not pass a bill acceptable to the Biden White House.

The Biden administration is openly threatening Americans over Ukraine. In a classified briefing in the House yesterday, defense secretary Lloyd Austin informed members that if they don’t appropriate more money for Zelensky, “we’ll send your uncles, cousins and sons to fight… pic.twitter.com/BPKMEBW8TK

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) December 7, 2023

The Biden administration is openly threatening Americans over Ukraine. In a classified briefing in the House yesterday, defense secretary Lloyd Austin informed members that if they don’t appropriate more money for Zelensky, “we’ll send your uncles, cousins and sons to fight Russia.” Pay the oligarchs or we’ll kill your kids.

At first blush, I have a lot of questions about this. I'll take a backseat to no man in my contempt for what Austin has done to the Defense Department, but he's not the type to douse himself in gasoline and strike a match, which, rhetorically, is exactly what he did. The strangest part was the threat to send their "uncles" to Ukraine. "Uncles?" Really? The youngest "uncle" of anyone in that crowd is probably a Social Security recipient, NTAWWT. Making all the more improbable is that there wasn't a stampede of Congressmen to the microphones. Any pre-conference agreement wouldn't govern a statement like that, and the nature of it is so outlandish that every member would've had an obligation to report it.

Fox News's Jennifer Griffin followed up a short while later.

This characterization of Austin’s remarks is 100 percent not true, acc to two sources who were in the briefings. Austin warned that it is not hyperbole to say Putin won’t stop at Ukraine. If he enters NATO territory US troops could be called to fight; cheaper to fund Ukraine now. https://t.co/Vd3LCYF4HN

— Jennifer Griffin (@JenGriffinFNC) December 7, 2023

In fact, Griffin's report is very much in line with the readout other media received from participants of the briefing, Texas Republican Michael McCaul.

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin warned Congress Tuesday that the United States may have to put troops on the ground in Europe to defend NATO allies if lawmakers don't pass more aid for Ukraine.

"If [Vladimir] Putin takes over Ukraine, he'll get Moldova, Georgia, then maybe the Baltics," House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told The Messenger after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and senior Biden administration military and intelligence officials briefed House lawmakers. According to the lawmaker, the officials pushed Congress to approve more aid to Ukraine.

"And then the idea that we'll have to put troops on the ground in Secretary Austin's word was very likely," Mr. McCaul stated, adding that he wants Congress to pass a Ukraine funding package. "That's what we're trying to avoid."

Others were less charitable.

This is an outright lie.

Defense Secretary Austin said nothing of the sort.

He's an incredible public servant and clearly explained why helping Ukraine is in America's national security interest. https://t.co/Qo3CShufGv

— Rep. Jason Crow (@RepJasonCrow) December 7, 2023

Some were gleeful, like Deputy Chair of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev.

The US Defense Secretary Austin has revealed a military secret.
A straightforward and simple-minded person, the general unhesitatingly stated the reason for the US involvement in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
No, it is not helping dying citizens or a country…

— Dmitry Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE) December 3, 2023

The US Defense Secretary Austin has revealed a military secret. A straightforward and simple-minded person, the general unhesitatingly stated the reason for the US involvement in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. 

No, it is not helping dying citizens or a country disappearing from the world map. No, it is not fighting for democracy against tyranny. And no, it is not even confronting Russia to diminish its defense capacity. It is … the necessity to modernize the US defense industry for $40 billion.

What a sincere person! 

It turns out, it’s all about defense goods commissioning to increase military production output and to create jobs. And, possibly, about the enormous profit that the companies close to Biden Administration get from it. 

Lingua mali pars pessima servi …[for the non-Catholics, I'll translate the Latin, "The tongue is the vile slave's vilest part."]

If you're going to claim someone is covering for Austin, McCaul is not the guy you want to use. The quote from Griffin and McCaul is something that Austin has been saying since shortly after Putin invaded Ukraine. Even though it has echoes of the Domino Theory (which I think was correct in principle but wrong in simply assuming communist wins were inevitable), it is very much justified if we've taken the time to listen to either Putin or Russian state media for the last three years (there is some discussion of that danger here Putin's War, Week 93. General Winter Hits the Brakes, Offensive Postmortems and Funding Fights and more in Did a Quickly Deleted Essay in Russian Media Explain What Vladimir Putin Wants Russia to Gain From the Ukraine Invasion? and Putin’s Threats to Sweden and Finland Are Much More Real Than They Are Being Given Credit For.

I hope Carlson does some additional digging into his sources because if his report is accurate, it contradicts the on-the-record statements of participants and would be, in my view, grounds for impeaching Austin. Shipping 80-year-old Congressional uncles to Ukraine in the winter is just inhumane. If he sticks with the story, he must have a name to attach the story to. I think the preponderance of evidence indicates that Carlson misinterpreted what his source told him and misinformed him for whatever reason. If that is the case, he needs to do the right thing and take a public L on this story.