Free Republic

Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) is bucking critics and calling for Europe’s NATO members scale back reliance on America — including by increasing their defense spending and growing their militaries — following his lone vote Wednesday opposing growing the alliance to include Finland and Sweden. Hawley, in an interview with Breitbart News, said America’s current NATO arrangement is spreading resources too thin and in a region that is not of primary national security concern — calling the European theatre a “big distraction from what our principle overseas challenge is, which is China.”