CLAIM: Vice President Kamala Harris claimed at Tuesday’s debate that Russian president Vladamir Putin would “be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe” if former President Donald Trump had been commander-in-chief the past four years.
VERDICT: FALSE. Russia under Putin invaded neighbors during the George Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden administrations but not during the Trump administration.
“If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now and understand what that would mean because Putin’s agenda is not just about Ukraine,” Harris claimed.
Russia invaded Georgia during President George Bush’s administration, took Crimea during the Obama years, and launched his invasion of Ukraine during the Biden-Harris presidency. However, Russia did not invade any neighboring countries during the Trump administration.
Trump has repeatedly said the war would never have begun if he were president, and Hungarian President Viktor Orbán has stated Trump is the only American or European leader who can bring an end to the war.
Harris went on to claim that Putin would not only “be sitting in Kyiv” if Trump were president, but he would have “his eyes on the rest of Europe starting with Poland.”
Putin claimed this year to Tucker Carlson that he would only be prompted to attack Poland if Poland attacked Russia.
“Can you imagine a scenario where you send Russian troops to Poland,” Carlson asked.
“Only in one case, if Poland attacks Russia,” Putin laughed. “Why? Because we have no interest in Poland, Latvia, or anywhere else. Why would we do that?”
Trump emphasized in his rebuttal that Russia has nuclear weapons and cautioned against escalation in the war.
“Nobody ever thinks about that. And eventually, maybe he’ll use them, and maybe he hasn’t been that threatening. But he does have that – something we don’t even like to talk about,” Trump said.