US should arm Ukraine after Biden’s Russia comments


Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday the US should arm Ukraine, a day after President Joe Biden’s remarks raised questions about an international response to a Russian invasion.

Biden seemed to imply during a news conference on Wednesday that the US and its allies might not be unified in response to Russia if it attacks Ukraine in “a minor incursion.”

The comments, which the president and White House sought to clarify amid backlash, served as a signal to Russia that it was okay to “take some” of Ukraine, McConnell said on Thursday.

“I hope Vladimir Putin doesn’t misunderstand the message: No incursion into Ukraine is acceptable,” McConnell said during an appearance on Fox News’ “Special Report.”

The US should send anti-tank weapons and ground-to-air missiles to protect against helicopters before Russian forces amassed near the Ukraine border launch an offensive, McConnell said.

“They’re testing us to see whether we will do anything of consequence to keep them from gobbling up part of another sovereign country,” McConnell said. “That hasn’t happened since World War II. I don’t think Vladimir Putin understands sovereignty.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell blasted Biden after his remarks seemed to make little of a Ukrainian invasion.
AP J. Scott Applewhite
A Ukrainian soldier stands at the line of separation from pro-Russian rebels in the Donetsk region, Ukraine.
A Ukrainian soldier stands at the line of separation from pro-Russian rebels in the Donetsk region, Ukraine.
AP / Andriy Dubchak

“I think job No. 1 is to make sure that Ukrainians have the tools to inflict severe damage on any Russian troops coming in,” he added. “And, second, to threaten to use — and use if you have to — the kind of economic sanctions the Russians have never been subjected to before.”

Biden had said during his news conference that Russia would be held accountable if it invades Ukraine but he seemed to indicate the severity of the response from the US and its allies would depend on what Russian forces do.

“It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion, and then we end up having a fight about what to do and what not do, etc.,” Biden said. “But if they actually do what they’re capable of doing with the force they’ve massed on the border, it is going to be a disaster for Russia.”

After Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and other leaders reacted to the remarks, Biden clarified that “any incursion” would be met with a coordinated economic response.

A convoy of Russian armored vehicles moves along a highway in Crimea.
A convoy of Russian armored vehicles moves along a highway in Crimea.
AP

McConnell’s comments about Ukraine came as part of an overall response to Biden’s news conference, his first solo meeting with reporters for the year that last nearly two hours.

Fox host Bret Baier asked McConnell about Biden portraying GOP legislators as lined up in obstruction to hobble the Democratic president’s agenda. McConnell noted he had helped pass legislation including the bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan, a vote which drew backlash from some conservatives and former President Donald Trump.

McConnell claimed the president was being pulled leftward politically and prioritizing bills like the massive Build Back Better social spending plan and sweeping voting-rights legislation that didn’t have the votes to pass both chambers of the Democratic-controlled Congress and weren’t popular among many Americans.

“If the president starts acting like a moderate like he campaigned, we can do business,” McConnell said. “The reason we’ve not been speaking recently this year is because he adopted the Bernie Sanders prescription for America.”

When asked, McConnell didn’t directly address questions about his relationship with Trump and the pro-Trump wing of the party, but said he expected the 2022 midterms to be a referendum on Democratic leadership in the federal government.

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