‘Europe Would Be Speaking German’: Rick Scott Shames NATO For Ingratitude and Opposition to US Action in Iran

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) has had enough of NATO leaders failing to wholeheartedly support the U.S. action in Iran, reminding them on Fox Business Network Friday that “Europe would be speaking German” if it weren’t for the U.S.

Fox News’s Cheryl Casone, filling in for Maria Bartiromo, said, “President Trump issuing new threats to NATO saying that the U.S. could withdraw troops from countries deemed unhelpful to us during the conflict.”

She added, “NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte calling out European allies for relying on the U.S. to do all the heavy lifting.”

Casone cut to video of Rutte at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute chastising Europe for relying on U.S. might to keep the world in order.

“Other European allies shifted away from decades of investing in conventional military partnership with the United States to end the Cold War in favor of an unhealthy co-dependence,” Rutte said. “So convinced that peace was permanent and didn’t demand the investment we all know is essential. Western European forces shrank, and defense budgets shriveled into irrelevance. Over reliance of the notion that security was just the new norm, and the United States would take care of any threats…caused Europeans to imagine that hard power was something to be embarrassed by. A relic of a bellicose past human kinds have now outgrown.”

Casone then asked Scott about possible U.S. reprisals over lack of NATO support in the Middle East.

“Well, first off, I mean, Europe would all be speaking German if it wasn’t for American service members and what we did to save their butts in the second World War. For them to not support what we are doing in to Iran to make them safer and Americans safer is just foolish,” Scott said.

He continued:

So, NATO is going to have to change, either they are going to step up and be a partner, and be an ally, or why are we even involved in it? It doesn’t make any sense, them not supporting what we’re doing in Iran, not letting us use military bases. I mean, we built probably most of that stuff, and clearly American dollars went in to all the defense of Europe over the years, so something is going to change.

Rutte met privately with Trump this week at the White House and said the conversation “was really open, was really between friends, but it was really also, clearly, about his disappointment” in NATO.

Watch the clip above via Mornings With Maria on Fox Business Network.

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