Interview With GOPer Up For State Post Goes Totally Off The Rails (VIDEO)

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., the lone pro-Russian congressman, in attendance during a Russia hearing at the Rayburn House Office Building, Tuesday, June 14, 2016, in Washington. (AP Photo/Paul Holston)
In this photo taken June 14, 2016, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., participates in a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Russia on Capitol Hill in Washington. The 69-year-old, self-described “surfer Republi... In this photo taken June 14, 2016, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., participates in a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Russia on Capitol Hill in Washington. The 69-year-old, self-described “surfer Republican” has long been a lone pro-Russian voice on Capitol Hill, defending Putin and urging dialogue with the Kremlin. This past spring, Rohrabacher’s position drew support from Donald Trump, who advocates giving relations with Moscow another chance.(AP Photo/Paul Holston) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), who is in the running for secretary of state, went off on a bizarre tear during a Wednesday interview, advocating for a cozier relationship with Russia and laying into the interviewer, an American citizen born in the Soviet Union.

In the interview with Yahoo, Rohrabacher focused much of his talking points on having a tougher policy on China and becoming more friendly with Russia once President-elect Donald Trump is in office. He said that teaming up with Russia is the way to defeat “radical Islam.”

“If it’s right for us to join in and cooperate and have a better relationship with Russia in order to defeat radical Islam and to pull China back a bit, well that’s a good thing, and that’s what this is all about,” he said. “Russia is no longer the Soviet Union. There’s a bunch of people here who want to treat it like it’s still the Soviet Union and get in the Cold War. That’s not what Donald Trump wants, it’s not good for America, and it’s better to cooperate with them to actually take on real enemies.”

Rohrabacher frequently took stabs at China in the interview, calling their government “the gangster in Bejing.” When Yahoo News and Finance Anchor Bianna Golodryga pressed him, Rohrabacher, who has been referred to as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “favorite congressman” by Politico, asked Golodryga where she was from, and accused her of being biased because she immigrated from the former Soviet Union.

“When you talk about human rights abusers in China, much can be said about Russia as well in that regard,” Golodryga said.

“Oh, baloney ― where do you come from?” Rohrabacher asked.

“I come from the former Soviet Union, that’s where I came from,” Golodryga replied. “I came here as a political refugee. That’s where I came from.”

“Oh, OK. What country did you say you came from?” he asked again.

“I come from the former Soviet Union, from Moldova,” Golodryga said again.

“Oh, well then that’s good, then the audience knows that you are biased,” Rohrabacher sniped.

“I’m biased because I am an American citizen who was born in a foreign country?” Golodryga asked.

Rohrabacher and Golodryga went back and forth, comparing China and Russia’s records on human rights abuses and treatment of journalists, when Rohrabacher, who was a speechwriter for the Ronald Reagan White House, said that Reagan would “love” his thoughts on Putin.

“Maybe you forgot that Ronald Reagan was the one who reached out to (former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.) with his hand open and—” Rohrabacher said.

“Are you comparing Gorbachev to Vladimir Putin?” Golodryga asked.

“Absolutely I am,” Rohrabacher replied.

Watch the entire segment below via Yahoo:

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: