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INHOFE URGES BIDEN
WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today joined 12 of his Republican colleagues to call on President Biden to do more to support Ukraine and stop Russian President Vladmir Putin’s invasion at a press conference in Washington, DC.
“We have Russia, they're continuing to build up. We know what they're doing. We see every day the Ukranian borders. The best way the United States can support our friends in Ukraine is to quickly deliver additional aid and bolster Ukraine's defenses. The administration is about three months behind where they should be at this time.
“Sadly, this is history repeating itself. When Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, the Obama administration initially failed to send military aid. Only after my colleagues and I set a legal minimum on funds for lethal defenses, with defensive aid, back in [2015] did things really get started, and you might remember that was when we had our defense authorization bill, the NDAA, where we put the legal minimum on funds for lethal defense to make sure that got done.
“Many of those Obama-era officials, including the president himself, are back in the White House, showing the world that they didn't learn any lessons from 2014. Worse, when the Biden administration had done everything in its power to support the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that this was going on. This project would line the pockets of Putin, we all know what this would do and the results that they would have.
“Many of my Democratic colleagues who are quick to criticize President Trump, claiming that he didn't do enough initially to push back harder on the Russian aggression. And now they realize how much more he did than the Democrats did during their timeframe.
“I'd hope to pass bipartisan support for Ukraine, that it would continue but sadly, it has not. Last week, many of my Democrat colleagues opposed the legislation that would have stopped the pipeline.
“Deterrence is critical because we know that Russia won't stop with Ukraine. And when I was in Romania, last summer, they made that very clear. ‘They may be talking about Ukraine right now, but I'm next.’ And I think most of the others agree with that. So that's a major problem that we have right now.
“My last comment would be that the administration is finally started taking this situation more seriously, but they're mostly focused on what the U.S. would do after Russia invades, not what they’re going to do to stop Russia from invading.”