At South by Southwest, Seth Moulton warns of ‘nuclear war’ with Russia, makes fun of Paul Ryan’s workout routine
"I'll just say Paul Ryan and I are not in the same workout group."
Rep. Seth Moulton shared some wide-ranging thoughts Monday at South by Southwest, the annual Austin, Texas, festival and latest stop along the Salem Democrat’s recent meteoric rise.
In a live-taping of Pod Save America — a popular liberal advocacy podcast hosted by former aides to President Barack Obama — Moulton talked about how he got into politics, President Donald Trump’s travel ban, and his relationship with other members of Congress.
The generally light-hearted interview hit its most serious note, however, when Moulton was asked about his most serious foreign policy concern.
The former Marine and member of the House Armed Services Committee had a one-word answer: “Russia.”
“In the short term, it’s Russia trying to undermine our democracy; in the medium term, it’s Russia not just trying to undermine our democracy, but other democracies across the world; and in the long term, it’s Russia because we might not even get to the long term because we could literally have a nuclear war with Vladimir Putin,” Moulton said.
Moulton acknowledged that the possibility he raised “was a pretty strong statement,” but explained his fears of a “tactical nuclear war” were underlined by Russia’s willing to escalate international relations, as well as Trump’s “sole decision-making authority over nuclear weapons.”
As NPR recently reported, Moulton recently asked the Pentagon to confirm reports that Russia was violating the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty by testing land-based cruise missiles. The defense department’s response: Yes. It was the first official confirmation that Russia was violating the treaty.
“This is a big deal, folks,” Moulton said Monday.
“Russia is violating a nuclear weapons treaty, and what has Trump done about it? I mean, he hasn’t even tweeted about it. That’s how out to lunch he is.”
Moulton said the lack of a response could allow Putin to try other aggressive actions, similar to Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Asked about what conversations he was having with Republicans on the topic of Russia, Moulton praised Sens. John McCain and Lindsay Graham for their outspokenness, but otherwise said “courage seems to be in short supply in Washington these days.”
The Massachusetts congressman then took the conversation on an unexpected turn.
“In the House gym — I go every day, in fact I’m part of a bipartisan workout group,” Moulton said, elaborating that there are two different groups in Congress that work out together.
“There’s one that does this P90X that’s kind of like dancing around and whatnot,” he said, referring to House Speaker Paul Ryan’s well-publicized workout routine. “And then there’s one that does CrossFit.”
“And I’ll just say Paul Ryan and I are not in the same workout group,” Moulton said.
The Democrat went on to say that his peers across the aisle are “pretty real” in the gym setting and acknowledge their concerns about Trump — unlike later when they “put on a suit on.”
Moulton later added that he prefers free weights.
