In a Sunday interview on New York AM WABC 770 radio’s “The Cats Roundtable,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) criticized the Biden administration for being “slow” to help Ukraine in defending itself against Russia.
Ernst told host John Catsimatidis that despite knowing Russia was amassing at the border, the White House dragged its feet and failed to do enough to “deter” Russia.
“When we were looking at the situation, we knew that Russia was amassing at the border of Ukraine,” Ernst outlined. “We should have been providing everything necessary to deter Russia. Not only sending in the armaments but also providing sanctions; making sure that we were going after the Russians as quickly as possible, getting those sanctions in place so he’d know there would be repercussions for going into Ukraine.”
“So, the Biden administration was slow on all those fronts, but … we should’ve done more to deter this because we knew that once Russia went into Ukraine, we were going to have a heck of a time trying to get them out,” she added. “We should not send American troops. [Ukraine] is not part of NATO, but they are our friend. And we signed the Budapest agreement with Ukraine in 1994, which basically said if you get rid of all of your nuclear armaments, the United States will defend you. We are obligated to defend Ukraine, but not with our blood. Maybe with our platforms, our weapons systems and so forth.”
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