Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer and retired U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt told Newsmax Friday that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is trying to "blackmail" the nation with "our kids' blood."
During an appearance on Newsmax's "The Chris Salcedo Show," Shaffer said that Tucker Carlson's report about Austin threatening to send the "uncles, cousins and sons" of lawmakers to fight Russia if they don't approve more Ukraine money is entirely accurate.
"It's absolutely true from what I've heard, and I've talked to a few folks who were not in the room but did talk to the people who were essentially talking to the folks in the meeting," Shaffer said. "And so what we see here is essentially blackmail — blackmailing our nation with our blood, our kids' blood. If you don't cooperate, we're going to send your kids to die. That's what this is."
"Lloyd Austin should resign," he continued. "We have a system of discussion, debate, persuasion and consensus. This is fascism. They don't want the debate because they know they're going to lose the debate because Joe Biden does not want to win, and that's what people recognize now."
Carlson made his claims in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday afternoon, confirming again when a seemingly incredulous Elon Musk asked if Austin really made such threats.
"The Biden administration is openly threatening Americans over Ukraine," Carlson wrote. "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."
Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee replied to Carlson, saying "This is how things roll in the #BidenCrimeFamily."
Holt said that the Defense Department is "saying" and "scaremongering that war is in the offing," but "they can't have it both ways."
"You either have a Russian army that has a World War I-style trench line, where they've stalled out, and they can't get very far, or, last year, they said the Russian army has been emaciated with 3% of our defense budget," he said.
"But today, all of a sudden, we're supposed to believe that they can swallow the entirety of Europe and take over Europe. Here's the thing: You want $60 billion for this war to continue that is un-auditable? Go ahead and let's have a draft and let's get everybody's kids into this thing."
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