Welcome to Pushback. I'm Aaron Matte. Joining me is Dennis Kucinich. He is a former Democratic

member of Congress from Ohio and the former mayor of Cleveland. Dennis Kucinich, thanks so much

for joining me. Thank you very much. Aaron's good to be on your show. I look forward to our discussion.

You in Congress led the peace movement inside Congress when you were there over a decade

and led the opposition to the Iraq War. And when this debacle just happened with congressional

progressives issuing a letter, calling on Biden to pursue diplomacy

with Russia, not threatening to stop approving military spending for Ukraine, just asking him

politely to pursue diplomacy.

They withdrew it after 24 hours.

And I was just curious, having led the peace wing of Congress when you were there, your response to this debacle.

Well, it's a new chapter in the cancel culture.

The progressive congressional caucus looks like it's been canceled.

And the efforts, which on their part were were rather straightforward yet make to ask for diplomacy,

were not just casually pushed aside, they were crushed.

It's really important for people to understand the significance

of what happens when 30 members of Congress sign a letter to the President

saying, look, we support you.

At the same time, we really feel that we're in a moment

where diplomacy needs to be exercised

in order to avoid a wider war.

Now, when that kind of a very straightforward and mild request by members of Congress

gets not just what the side to crush, we all need to reflect on where we're going with this

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