Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “The Faulkner Focus,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) weighed in on Russia’s growing aggression toward Ukraine.
According to Cotton, Russian President Vladimir Putin has seen President Joe Biden’s first year in office and “thinks he can get away” with invading Ukraine.
“There’s not much question that Joe Biden’s first year in office when he was weak and conciliatory and appeased Vladimir Putin has contributed in large measure to the crisis we now see in Eastern Europe,” Cotton outlined.
“Vladimir Putin has watched Joe Biden for a year appease and conciliate with him. That’s why he thinks he can get away with this invasion of Ukraine,” he added. “It has nothing to do with short-term considerations like Ukraine joining NATO or NATO exercising in Ukraine — that’s simply not happening. Ukraine doesn’t have a plan to join NATO; we’re not conducting exercises in Ukraine. This is about Vladimir Putin’s long-standing desire to reassemble the Russian empire and to create a buffer of non-Democratic states around his autocratic rule. The question is, why does he think he can go for the jugular in Ukraine now? And I think the answer is that he’s seen Joe Biden’s performance over the last year, and he thinks that he can get away with it.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent