No member of Congress has been more shameless in trying to build inroads with extremist world leaders than Rep. Anna Paulina Luna.
The Florida congresswoman — of the supposedly “America First” Republican Party — has been busy deepening her ties to far-right figures abroad. Earlier this month, she staged a photo op with a pro-Russian Romanian lawmaker at the Kennedy Center, where they celebrated President Donald Trump’s threats to acquire Greenland through force. She also was the honorary chair for a “sovereignty” conference hosted recently by Turning Point USA, which was basically a gathering in Washington for far-right lawmakers and activists from around the world.
And just last week, Luna and four House colleagues hosted several U.S.-sanctioned Russian officials for a private tour of the Capitol and a brief stop at the Trump-commandeered U.S. Institute of Peace — while Russia continues its deadly invasion of Ukraine. The bizarre meetup also came amid a host of Russia-friendly concessions the president has made as his war with Iran rages on.
As The Hill noted, Luna’s meeting has faced bipartisan backlash:
‘Russia is an adversary,’ said Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.), Luna’s colleague on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. ‘Obviously, we are — and this administration — is supporting the Ukrainian resistance to Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine. … I would have questions about what the objectives are.’
Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), a hawkish supporter of Ukraine, told The Hill he equates a meeting with members of the Duma ‘to having visitors of the Third Reich,’ referring to the Nazi regime in Germany between 1933 and 1945.
‘I don’t know her personally,’ he said of Luna. ‘I just disagree that working in any way with the Putin regime, they have every intent to promote the Iranian goal of death to America, death to Israel.’
The Hill also reported on backlash from multiple Democrats and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., who sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanding to know how and why the sanctioned Russians were allowed to enter the country.
‘Because these individuals are subject to U.S. sanctions imposed in response to Russia’s full-scale, unjustified invasion of Ukraine, their entry into the United States would have required the issuance of sanctions waivers,’ the letter reads. The lawmakers added: “At a minimum, the American people and Congress deserve full accounting of how and why this decision was made,” the letter continues. “The credibility of U.S. sanctions policy — and our broader commitment to holding aggressors accountable — depends on consistent and principled application.” One of the House Republicans involved in the meetup, Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin, was quoted telling The Hill that he thought one of the invitees was a former KGB agent. “But pleasant enough,” he said. How assuring. For her part, Luna has responded to the backlash by saying the gathering was done in the name of peace — and by making an absurd, Kremlin-esque claim that Ukraine’s government funneled American taxpayer money intended for its war defense to then-President Joe Biden’s 2024 re-election bid.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog. 
