Big Names on Right Come to Defense of Leaker

The 21-year-old Air National Guardsman accused of leaking Pentagon documents online faces serious charges under the Espionage Act. But Jake Teixeira already has some big-names on the right coming to his defense, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson of Fox News. "Jake Teixeira is white, male, christian, and antiwar," Greene tweeted. "That makes him an enemy to the Biden regime." The real villain in all this, she suggested, is not Teixeira but an "administration that is waging war in Ukraine, a non-NATO nation, against nuclear Russia without war powers."

Both Greene and Carlson praised Teixeira for posting a document suggesting that 14 US special forces were stationed in Ukraine. However, the Hill notes that the Pentagon has publicly stated since last year that a team of Marines has been deployed at the US embassy in Ukraine. Carlson and other critics of the US support of Ukraine see it as a bigger deal: “The United States is a direct combatant in a war against Russia," he said Thursday night, per Rolling Stone. "This is a hot war between the two primary nuclear superpowers on Earth. And yet, this war has never been formally declared. It has not been authorized by Congress. And for that reason, this war is a violation of American law. It is a crime.”

Mediaite notes that other figures on the right, including Mike Cernovich, are making similar points. But Republican lawmakers may not share the view. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner “told me the charges will likely reveal Teixeira 'betrayed his country,'" tweeted Jake Tapper of CNN, in response to Greene's tweet. (More Jack Teixeira stories.)