Lieu: ‘Romney Was Right When He Called Russia the Number One Geopolitical Foe’

On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) stated that the recent actions by Russia’s Vladimir Putin are further confirmation that Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) “was right” when he said that Russia was America’s top geopolitical foe when he was running for president back in 2012, remarks that were criticized by then-Vice President Joe Biden.

While discussing Russia ordering troops into areas of Ukraine that they recognized as independent and Russia possibly moving more troops into the country, Lieu said, “[T]his action by Putin further confirms that Mitt Romney was right when he called Russia the ‘number one geopolitical foe.’ Now, depending on where their forces go, it could determine whether we enter a very large war or not. If Putin merely sends their forces into the existing regions in Donbas where the Russian-backed separatists already control those regions, that would be different than if he sent his forces into the regions of which the Ukrainian forces currently control. That could be very bad.”

Back in 2012, Biden said that Romney “acts like he thinks the Cold War is still on [and] Russia is still our major adversary. I don’t know where he has been. I mean, we have disagreements with Russia, but they’re united with us on Iran. … [O]ne of only two ways we’re getting material into Afghanistan to our troops is through Russia. They’re working closely with us. They have just said to Europe, if there is an oil shutdown in any way in the Gulf, they’ll consider increasing oil supplies to Europe. That’s not — this is not 1956.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett