MSNBC interviewed Tea Party insurgent David Brat about his views on a variety of topics including minimum wage, economics and foreign policy. At one point during the interview, Brat is asked whether he would arm the Syrian rebels, with Chuck Todd framing the question in terms of being an isolationist or an interventionist. Brat replies that not every issue can be framed in such binary terms.
Brat does strike a strong interventionist tone in the interview saying, “I think the press is in the habit of doing juxtapositions like that that don’t capture reality well. I’m a Ph.D. in economics and so you analyze every situation uniquely because very international situation is unique. And so I don’t have a pattern that fits every single incidence. But I think it’s absolutely necessary that the United States does project its power abroad. I think our defense department is bigger than the next ten combined. And without that I think you would have chaos without our commitment to rights abroad and keeping the peace.”
