A video unearthed from 2001 by the Republican National Committee’s research team revealed then-Senator Biden praising Russian President Vladimir Putin for embracing the West, heralding his actions as comparable to Peter the Great.
“I’m close to amazed by how far Putin seems to have come in making – throwing – his lot in with the West,” Biden said as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “He seems to have – out of all the briefings I’ve gotten – actually stiff-armed his military and stiff-armed some of the browns and reds in his government and out of government.”
“And made a very – I don’t think anybody since Peter the Great has made such a significant – at least an initial move to the West,” Biden claimed:
Peter the Great was the first Emperor of Russia. Through multiple wars, he expanded the nation into a major European power. He also moved to transpose medieval political systems with the western enlightenment.
Biden’s comparison of Putin with Peter the Great is unfounded. Putin is seeking to restore the lost twentieth-century boundary of the old Soviet Union and denied the “real statehood” of Ukraine in a televised address to the nation on Monday. Putin further stated Ukraine was part of Russia’s “own history, culture, spiritual space.”
Biden has a history of questionable foreign policy judgment and analysis. Robert Gates, George W. Bush and Barack Obama’s secretary of defense, wrote in 2014 that Biden “has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”
Biden’s foreign policy judgment before he became president are as follows:
- Suggested sending $200 million to Iran, “no strings attached.”
- Voted against the successful Persian Gulf War that forced Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait.
- Insisted “the Taliban per se is not our enemy.”
- Opposed the troop surges that brought some stability to both Iraq and Afghanistan
- Claimed he was responsible for ending the genocide in Bosnia
- Voted against trade agreements with Singapore, Chile, Oman, and the Dominican Republic
- Opposed the raid to kill Osama bin Laden, telling Obama “don’t go.”
- Opposed killing Iranian terrorist Qasem Soleimani
On Tuesday, former President Donald Trump asserted that Russia’s “taking over” of Ukraine is due to Biden’s weakness. “I know Vladimir Putin very well, and he would have never done during the Trump Administration what he is doing now, no way!”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) told CBS News Biden’s decisions as president could increase the price for a barrel of oil past $100 and perhaps to $115.
“I don’t believe the sanctions will stop them from doing what their plan is but I do think that if you don’t pay a price for doing this, he’s going to do more of it,” Rubio said. “I think Ukrainians are gonna fight back but this is gonna have an impact on Americans even though it seems to be really far away.”
Gas prices are already at their highest level since 2014.
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