ORLANDO, FL—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, yesterday joined The Ingraham Angle on Fox News live from CPAC to discuss the Biden Administration’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its influence on Communist China.
Partial Transcript
Hagerty on the Biden Administration’s policies funding Putin’s aggression: “My reaction is very simple, Laura. Your discussion with Peter [Doocy] underscores it, but we’re actually funding the war machine that [Vladimir] Putin is using and unleashing on Ukraine right now. You think about the short-sided policies—these green policies that the Biden Administration began at the outset of their Administration to wage war on the oil and gas industry here—have driven energy prices up around the globe. That windfall has come straight to Vladimir Putin, and here we are: buying his energy and continuing to fund these activities. The sanctions are going to take a long time to work now because Putin has built up a heck of a war chest, and we’ve now supported 190,000 troops on the borders of Ukraine. This is where their policies have led us.”
Hagerty on Biden’s weak response to Russia emboldening Communist China: “What we’ve done is actually pushed Russia closer to China through these activities. Again, Putin has seen the weakness that the Biden Administration has demonstrated, nowhere worse than the fall of Afghanistan when so many other things began to ratchet up against us around the world. China is watching this very closely. And again, China and Russia have been even closer through the process of this engagement here. I think if you look at what the [Chinese Communist Party] must be thinking about this, they’re eyeing Taiwan very closely. They want to see what the world’s reaction is going to be to this, and it’s not working out well for the rest of the world, and certainly not working out well for Taiwan. But our strategic interests are much greater with respect to China. If you think about Taiwan, the semiconductor industry there, we could be in much deeper trouble strategically if China decides to take a move based on what they see happening here with Ukraine.”
Hagerty on the Biden Administration’s inadequate sanctions: “They’re taking credit for the sanctions that they’re imposing now when they should have done the sanctions months ago, if not weeks ago. I was calling on them to do that. The Biden Administration has been so feckless in this. Finally, they’ve come around to imposing sanctions, but a little bit too late, a little bit too late. That had no deterring effect at this point. Now they’re just going to punish, and not to a very great extent.”
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