During a Monday interview on Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) lamented that “weakness” from President Joe Biden has Russian President Vladimir Putin thinking the time is “ripe” to invade Ukraine.
Host Dana Perino asked Cotton if he would support Ukraine joining NATO.
Cotton said that Ukraine “is not ready to join NATO” but advised the issue is that Putin sees a “long train of concessions and weakness demonstrated by Joe Biden” as an opportunity “to do what he’s wanted to do for 20 years, which is go for the jugular in Ukraine.”
“Ukraine is not ready to join NATO today,” Cotton replied. “There are Russian troops on Ukrainian soil. If Ukraine were to join NATO, that would mean right away that Russia and NATO are in open conflict. However, this is not about Ukrainian membership in NATO. President Bush stated it as an aspiration 14 years ago — there is no plan for Ukraine to join NATO. It’s not something that’s coming up.”
“That is all a pretext for Vladimir Putin to do what he has wanted to do since he took power more than 20 years ago, which is reassemble the greater Russian empire,” he added. “He simply believes that now conditions are ripe for him to do so. Unfortunately, a lot of that has to do with the long train of concessions and weakness demonstrated by Joe Biden towards Russia over the last year and then, of course, the humiliating debacle from our withdrawal from Afghanistan in August. Those are reasons why I think Vladimir Putin thinks now is time to do what he’s wanted to do for 20 years, which is go for the jugular in Ukraine.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent