Rep. Rohrabacher asks @biannagolodryga: Where do you come from?… #morningjoe panel flabbergasted by his remarks https://t.co/kTzTatVBvk
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) December 8, 2016
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) on Wednesday said it was “baloney” to call Russia a human rights abuser, accusing his interviewer of anti-Russia bias because she’s from the former Soviet Union.
{mosads}Rohrabacher, a candidate to be secretary of State under the Donald Trump administration, told Yahoo’s Bianna Golodryga she was “biased” because she immigrated to the U.S. from Moldova.
The interview became contentious when Rohrbacher mentioned human rights abuses in China, and Golodryga replied that “much can be said about Russia as well.”
“Oh, baloney — where do you come from?” Rohrbacher asked.
Golodryga said she came to the U.S. from the Soviet Union as a political refugee.
“Then the audience knows you’re biased,” Rohrabacher retorted.
He said the U.S. should cooperate with Russia and that China is not America’s friend.
“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,” said Rohrabacher.
“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.”
“I have been discussing this with some people high up in the transition team,” he said in the interview. “But I’m really not at liberty to disclose those details.”