Victoria Spartz: Does her party share her commitment to defeating Putin?
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2022
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Stephen Sackur is in Washington to speak to the Ukrainian born Republican Congresswoman Victoria Spartz. She is an ardent advocate of US support for Kyiv in the war with Russia. Does her party and in particular Donald Trump, share her commitment to defeating Putin?
(Photo: Victoria Spartz, Republican Congresswoman)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. |
| 0:04.8 | My guest today is a U.S. politician with a unique perspective on Ukraine's war with Russia. |
| 0:11.3 | Victoria Sparts is the only member of the U.S. Congress to be born in Ukraine when it was a constituent part of the former Soviet Union. |
| 0:22.5 | Sparts emigrated to America in her early 20s, settling in her husband's home state of Indiana. There she trained as an accountant, |
| 0:29.4 | set up several businesses, and then decided to enter politics as a committed, small state, |
| 0:35.2 | low-tax, Republican. In 2020, she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. |
| 0:41.3 | Fast forward 18 months, and she finds herself one of her party's highest profile voices on the Ukraine war, |
| 0:49.5 | an ardent advocate of ramping up American support for Kiev's defiant stand against |
| 0:56.1 | Vladimir Putin's invasion. But how does that position fit with her wider worldview? Her commitment |
| 1:03.5 | to Donald Trump's brand of America First politics and her deep mistrust of big government. Well, Congresswoman Victoria Sparts |
| 1:14.5 | joins me now. Welcome to Hard Talk. Thank you. Let me start with Ukraine. The White House and you |
| 1:22.2 | guys on Capitol Hill have worked together to put together a massive aid package for Ukraine. It's almost |
| 1:28.4 | $40 billion, military assistance, financial assistance, humanitarian assistance as well. |
| 1:34.7 | Are you personally satisfied with what the government is doing right now? |
| 1:38.8 | I think our government is moving in the right direction. I think, like in any crisis, |
| 1:44.0 | speed agility, and really |
| 1:45.4 | strengths, peace for strength is the main deterrent to any war in any crisis. So I think we, |
| 1:50.8 | you know, this administration has been very slow. West has been very slow, but with pressure |
| 1:55.5 | from the American people in Congress, I think now we're in much better shape. And I think |
| 2:00.6 | this administration now understands that if we're in much better shape. And I think this administration now understands |
| 2:02.3 | that if we're not decisive and if we don't deal with it effectively, it will escalate further. |
| 2:08.7 | And they're taking it much more seriously right now. So I think it's much better. |
... |
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