A: Well, I think that he's clearly an adversary. He is a competitor. But I think that we also have to be smart about diplomacy, too. Just because we don't like somebody doesn't mean that we can't occasionally engage in conversations with them. And I think it's important if we're ever going to end the war in Ukraine, we're going to have to engage in some sort of negotiation between Ukraine, Russia, our NATO allies in Europe.
A: When you say that he's an adversary, you're not willing to call him an enemy?
Q: I don't want to be in a war with Vladimir Putin's Russia. I think that we should try to pursue avenues of peace. I'd also call China a competitor, but we're not in a war with China either. I do think, though, that China constitutes the biggest threat that we have for the United States of America. And I think that we have to be serious about it. But I think we have to be careful about the language that we use in international diplomacy.
TRUMP: Well, I don't comment on that, but I will tell you that. If I did, it's a smart thing. If I'm friendly with people, if I can have a relationship with people, that's a good thing, not a bad thing, in terms of a country. He's got 2,000 nuclear weapons, and so do we. China has a lot less, but they'll catch us within five years. Russia never had a president that they respect so much, but more importantly, or less importantly, I guess, I went into Russia, and people said, oh, he likes Putin, and Putin likes him.
KAMALA HARRIS: I believe that Donald Trump has this desire to be a dictator. He admires strong men and he gets played by them, because he thinks that they're his friends and they are manipulating him full time--and manipulating him by flattery and with favor. And so in the midst, to your point, as reported by Bob Woodward, in the height of the pandemic, and remember, people were dying by the hundreds. Everybody was scrambling to get these kits, the tests, the COVID test kits. Couldn't get them anywhere.
HOWARD STERN: Right.
KAMALA HARRIS: And this guy who is president of the United States is sending them to Russia, to a murderous dictator for his personal use.
VANCE: Governor Walz just accused Donald Trump of being an agent of chaos, Donald Trump actually delivered stability in the world, and he did it by establishing effective deterrence.
WALZ: We had a coalition of nations that had boxed Iran's nuclear program in. Donald Trump pulled that program and put nothing else in its place. So Iran is closer to a nuclear weapon than they were before because of Donald Trump's fickle leadership.
WALZ: Israel's ability to defend itself is absolutely fundamental. What we've seen out of Vice President Harris is we've seen steady leadership. Our allies see Donald Trump turn towards Vladimir Putin, turn towards North Korea--fickleness around holding the coalitions together.
VANCE: Gov. Walz just accused Donald Trump of being an agent of chaos, Donald Trump actually delivered stability in the world, and he did it by establishing effective deterrence. People were afraid of stepping out of line. Iran, which launched [against Israel today's missile] attack, has received over $100 billion in unfrozen assets thanks to the Kamala Harris administration. What do they use that money for? They use it to buy weapons that they're now launching against our allies and, God forbid, potentially launching against the United States as well. Donald Trump recognized that for people to fear the United States, you needed peace through strength.
The letter criticizes Trump for praising "adversarial dictators" including China's Xi Jinping, North Korea's Kim Jung-un, and Russia's Vladimir Putin, "as well as the terrorist leaders of Hezbollah," while denigrating the U.S.
"The contrast with Mr. Trump is clear: where Vice President Harris is prepared and strategic, he is impulsive and ill-informed. We do not agree on everything, but we all adhere to two fundamental principles," the letter said. "First, we believe America's national security requires a serious and capable Commander-in-Chief. Second, we believe American democracy is invaluable."
"Our endorsement of Harris is an endorsement of freedom and an act of patriotism. It is an endorsement of democratic ideals and of relentless optimism in America's future."
KAMAL HARRIS: I actually met with Zelenskyy a few days before Russia invaded. Days later I went to NATO's eastern flank, to Poland and Romania. And because of our support, because of the air defense, the ammunition, the artillery, the Javelins, the Abrams tanks that we have provided, Ukraine stands as an independent and free country. If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now. And understand what that would mean. Because Putin's agenda is not just about Ukraine. Putin would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe. Starting with Poland.
DONALD TRUMP: I want the war to stop. I will get it settled before I even become president. If I win, when I'm President-Elect, and what I'll do is I'll speak to one, I'll speak to the other. I think it's in the U.S. best interest to get this war finished and just get it done. Negotiate a deal. Because we have to stop all of these human lives from being destroyed.
Q: Would you deal with Vladimir Putin any differently from what we're seeing from President Biden?
KAMALA HARRIS: I believe the reason that Donald Trump says that this war would be over within 24 hours is because he would just give it up. And that's not who we are as Americans. Let's understand what happened here. I actually met with Zelenskyy a few days before Russia invaded, tried through force to change territorial boundaries [defying] international rules. Days later I went to NATO's eastern flank. And we brought 50 countries together to support Ukraine in its righteous defense.
His remark came just hours after the Biden administration accused Moscow of a widespread, sophisticated election interference campaign. U.S. intelligence agencies believe Putin is hoping for Trump to take the White House in November, given his skepticism over U.S. funding of Ukraine's war machine.
"I told you our favorite, if you can call it that, was President Biden. He's now out of the race, but he asked his supporters to back Ms. Harris, so we'll do the same," Putin said with a wry smile. "The choice is ultimately up to the American people, and we will respect that decision. Favorites aren't for us to decide--it's the American people's choice," he added.
In response, a U.S. national security spokesman said, "Putin should just stay out of our elections."
[Newly unsealed] court documents contain a treasure trove of documents, outlining the Kremlin's tactics to influence the outcome of the 2024 US election.
The records also reveal the plan was discussed at the highest levels of the Russian government, appearing to show that President Vladimir Putin may have been updated.
The orchestrators of the campaign targeted existing divisions within US society, using racist stereotypes and far-right conspiracies to target supporters of former president Donald Trump.
The plan lists a variety of targeted audiences, including residents of swing states, American Jews, "US citizens of Hispanic descent," and the "community of American gamers."
TRUMP: As far as Russia and Ukraine, if we had a real president, a president that knew--that was respected by Putin, he would have never--he would have never invaded Ukraine. A lot of people are dead right now, much more than people know. You know, they talk about numbers. You can double those numbers, maybe triple those numbers. [Biden] did nothing to stop it. In fact, I think he encouraged Russia from going in.
Q: Are Putin's terms acceptable to you, keeping the territory in Ukraine?
TRUMP: No, they're not acceptable. But look, this is a war that never should have started. I will have that war settled between Putin and Zelenskyy as president-elect before I take office on January 20th. I'll have that war settled. People being killed so needlessly, so stupidly, and I will get it settled and I'll get it settled fast before I take office.
TRUMP: No, they're not acceptable. But look, this is a war that never should have started. I will have that war settled between Putin and Zelenskyy as president-elect before I take office on January 20th. I'll have that war settled. People being killed so needlessly, so stupidly, and I will get it settled and I'll get it settled fast before I take office.
BIDEN: The fact is that Putin is a war criminal. He's killed thousands and thousands of people. And he has made one thing clear, he wants to re-establish what was part of the Soviet Empire, not just a piece, he wants all of Ukraine. That's what he wants. And then do you think he'll stop there? Do you think he'll stop if he takes Ukraine? What do you think happens to Poland? What do you think of Belarus? What do you think happens to those NATO countries?
Of the threat of Russian expansion into other European countries, Vance said: "We have to analyze these things in their own historical context. And Vladimir Putin might be a bad guy, and in fact I think he is, but he's not nearly as powerful in relative terms as Hitler‘s Germany was in the late 1930s. So the idea that he poses a risk to the broader European continent is just absurd to me."
"I've been trying to make sure we don't take an escalatory posture," Vance said. The best role for the United States, he said, is to help facilitate a peaceful resolution to the Russian-Ukraine conflict--which Trump claims he could do as president--and "prevent this thing from escalating into World War III."
FactCheck (CNN June 11, 2024): A federal jury has convicted Hunter Biden on all three federal felony gun charges he faced, concluding that he violated laws meant to prevent drug addicts from owning firearms. The conviction marks the first time a president's immediate family member has been found guilty of a crime during their father's term in office, though his crimes predate Joe Biden's tenure as president. The jury returned guilty verdicts on all three charges, which stemmed from a revolver Hunter Biden bought in October 2018.
But now, assistance to Ukraine is being blocked by those who want to walk away from our world leadership. I wasn't a long ago when a Republican president named Ronald Reagan thundered, "Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall."
Now, my predecessor, a former Republican president, tells Putin, "Do whatever the hell you want." That's a quote. A former president actually said that bowing down to a Russian leader, I think it's outrageous, it's dangerous, and it's unacceptable. America is a founding member of NATO.
CNN FactCheck 2/10/24: "NATO was busted until I came along," Trump said at a rally in South Carolina. "I said, 'Everybody's gonna pay.' They said, 'Well, if we don't pay, are you still going to protect us?' I said, 'Absolutely not.' They couldn't believe the answer." Trump said "one of the presidents of a big country" asked him whether the US would still defend the country if they were invaded by Russia even if they "don't pay."
"No, I would not protect you," Trump recalled telling that president. "In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. You got to pay your bills." [Conclusion: Yes, Trump said Russia could do what they want, but only to NATO members who didn't pay their bills.]
The way to freedom is an America that is proud and secure in its place in the world, unflinching in the face of tyranny, slow to anger, quick to aid its allies, but always willing to extend the hand of diplomacy to anyone who will take it in good faith.
HALEY (on DeSantisLies.com): DeSantis long opposed ethanol before he decided to run for president. In 2015, DeSantis introduced legislation to repeal the Renewable Fuel Standard, and cosponsored five pieces of legislation to repeal it.
DESANTIS: I supported Trump's policy vis-a-vis Russia & Ukraine, and it was successful. You know, the Biden policy has not been. But, Nikki Haley is basically a carbon copy of what Biden is. It's an open-ended commitment. They want another $108 billion. We need to find a way to end this. But, we also have to look at what's the top threat to this country. It's the Chinese Communist Party. We are not doing what we need to do to have adequate hard power in the Indo-Pacific... I'm a Navy guy. We need more sea power. We're going to build that up and we're going to have a strategy to deny their ability to invade Taiwan or to get beyond the first island chain. On the current course, they're going to take advantage of Biden.
HALEY: I don't think we should give cash to any country, friend or foe, because you can't follow it. You can't hold it accountable. I don't think we need to put troops on the ground. But, dictators always say what they're going to do. China said they were going to take Hong Kong. They did. Russia said they were going to invade Ukraine. We watched it. China says Taiwan is next. We better believe them. Russia said once they take Ukraine, Poland and the Baltics are next. Those are NATO countries, and that puts America at war. This is about preventing war. It's always been about preventing war. If we support Ukraine, that's only 3.5% of our defense budget. Biden and no one else is telling the American people the truth about that.
We've got to get the foreign infiltration out of our country, whether it's in our schools, whether it's on our social media, whether it's we need to stop all foreign lobbying that's happening to members of Congress, and we need to start America again. Until we do that, we are going to be at threats.
We've got to look at, Iran, China and Russia want to destroy the West. We have to start acting strong again. We've got to start protecting Americans. Right now, Americans don't feel protected, and we're not doing anything to strengthen it. So, Joe Biden continues to be a problem, that'll change on election day.
Chris Christie: Make sure that we continue to isolate Iran, work with the reasonable nations in the Middle East, the other Arab nations who want to partner with you and make sure that we continue to isolate Iran so that their only friends in the world are the part of the evil foursome, China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
Gov. Christie: Let's remember the last time that we turned our back on a shooting war in Europe. It bought us just a couple of years and then 500,000 Americans were killed in Europe to defeat Hitler. This is not a choice. This is the price we pay for being the leaders of the free world. And the fact is this alliance is not just with Russia and China. Iran is in the middle of this as well, and so is North Korea. And the reason they're doing it is because dictators work together. People who believe in democracy work together. We must stand with all of those that are standing up for democracy and freedom in this world. And let's remind everybody of this: In 1992, this country made a promise to Ukraine. We said if you return nuclear missiles that were part of the old Soviet Union to Russia and they invade you, we will protect you. An American promise that's 31 years old--we need to stand by it.
And at the core of all that is energy policy, because China imports 10 million barrels of oil a day. They're the largest import in the world. And we have had four Cabinet members from the Biden administration there this summer, and none of them talked about U.S. energy.
The first one to go to each of those countries was [Climate Envoy John] Kerry to talk about the folly of the climate policy, which is making the world less stable. It's empowering dictators. It's not about climate change that we need to be worried about. It's about the Biden climate policies that are actually the existential threat to America's future.
Gov. Ron DESANTIS [R-FL]: We're not going to get it back.
SCOTT: It's not actually going to be paid by Ukraine. It's paid our NATO allies. Our national vital interests is in degrading the Russian military. By degrading the Russian military, we actually keep our homeland safer.
Vivek RAMASWAMY [R-OH]: China is the real enemy. And we're driving Russia further into China's arms. Just because Putin is an evil dictator does not mean that Ukraine is good.
Gov. Nikki HALEY (R-SC): A win for Russia is a win for China.
RAMASWAMY: Nope. The Communist China of Party is the real enemy. We need a reasonable peace plan to end this.
PENCE: Vivek, if you let Putin have Ukraine, that's a green light to China to take Taiwan. Peace comes through strength.
RAMASWAMY: The Communist China of Party is the real enemy.
Gov. Ron DESANTIS (R-FL): We are not going to have a blank check.
Sen. Tim SCOTT (R-SC): By degrading the Russian military, we actually keep our homeland safer, and reduce if not eliminate an attack on NATO territories.
Vivek RAMASWAMY: China is the real enemy. And we're driving Russia further into China's arms. We have to level with the American people on this issue. The reality is just because Putin is an evil dictator does not mean that Ukraine is good. This is a country that has banned 11 opposition parties...
Gov. Nikki HALEY (R-SC): A win for Russia is a win for China.
RAMASWAMY: That is not true.
HALEY: But I forgot; you like China.
RAMASWAMY: Nope. The Communist China of Party is the real enemy. We're driving Russia into China's arms. We need a reasonable peace plan to end this. [Ukraine's] president just last week was hailing a Nazi in his own ranks.
CHRISTIE: No, they're all connected. The Chinese are paying for the Russian war in Ukraine. The Iranians are supplying more sophisticated weapons.
I understand people want to go and talk to Putin. Guess what? So did George W. Bush. So did Barack Obama. So did Donald Trump. And so did Joe Biden. Every one of them has been wrong.
We need to say right now that the Chinese-Russian alliance is something we have to fight against. And we are not going to solve it by cuddling up to Vladimir Putin. Putin is murdering people in his own country; he's now going to Ukraine to murder innocent civilians. And if you think that's where it's going to stop, if we give him any of Ukraine, next will be Poland. Putin in 1991 said that the darkest moment in world history when the Soviet Union fell. Listen, everybody, he wants to put the old band back together. And only America can stop it. And when I'm president, we will.
DESANTIS: It is in our interest to the end this war, and that's what I will do as president. We are not going to have a blank check. We will not have U.S. troops. We are going to make the Europeans do what they need to do.
Meanwhile, our own country is being invaded. We don't even have control of our own territory. We have got to defend the American people before we even worry about all these other things. These guys in Washington, D.C. don't care about the American people. They don't care about the communities being overrun because of this border. So as commander-in-chief, I will defend this country's sovereignty.
U.N. Ambassador Nikki HALEY: But it's not a territorial dispute. It's never been a territorial dispute.
Gov. Ron DESANTIS (R-FL): We are not going to have a blank check. We will not have U.S. troops. We are going to make the Europeans do what they need to do.
SCOTT: 90% of the resources that we send to Ukraine is guaranteed as a loan--
DESANTIS: We're not going to get it back.
SCOTT: It's not actually going to be paid by Ukraine. It's paid our NATO allies. Our national vital interests is in degrading the Russian military. By degrading the Russian military, we actually keep our homeland safer, we keep our troops at home, and we all understand Article Five of NATO. If you want to keep American troops at home, the attack on NATO territory would bring us and our troops in. By degrading the Russian military, we reduce if not eliminate an attack on NATO territories.
Vivek RAMASWAMY (R-OH): China is the real enemy. And we're driving Russia further into China's arms.
It is Russia alone that stands in the way of peace because Russia's price for peace is Ukraine's capitulation, Ukraine's territory, and Ukraine's children. Russia believes that the world will grow weary and allow it to brutalize Ukraine without consequence. But I ask you this: If we abandon the core principles of the [U.N. Charter] to appease an aggressor, can any member state feel confident that they are protected? If we allow Ukraine to be carved up, is the independence of any nation secure?
KENNEDY: Nobody wanted an alternative to the U.S. dollar. This happened because of our weaponization of the U.S. dollar and unilateral weaponization of our control of the world currency. We were pounding people's personal assets if the government misbehaves and do it unilaterally. We need to deescalate our violence around the world which has driven the creation of BRICS. [China] wants to bury us but they want to do it on an economic playing field. And they need us. You know, they cannot survive without us.
If we give in to Putin to give him his land [in Ukraine], it's not going to be too long for he rolls across a NATO border. And frankly, our men and women of our armed forces are going to have to go and fight him. I want to let the Ukrainians fight and drive and the Russians back out.
Vladimir Putin has been saying he wants to reestablish the old Soviet sphere of influence. He is a dictator and a murderer and the United States of America needs to stand against authoritarianism.
Give them a promise that Ukraine will never be an NATO. We achieve peace through strength. And America needs to stand for freedom.
A: I would not support it. I think that this is disastrous, that we are protecting against an invasion across somebody else's border, when we should use those same military resources to prevent across the invasion of our own southern border. We are driving Russia further into China's hands. The Russia-China alliance is the single greatest threat we face. And I find it offensive, that we have professional politicians on the stage that will make a pilgrimage to Kyiv, to their Pope, Zelenskyy, without doing the same thing for people in Maui or Chicago. Ukraine is not a priority for the United States. And I think that the same people that took us into Iraq War--you not start another no-win war. And I do not want to get to the point where we're sending our military resources abroad when we could be better using them here at home.
Ukraine is not a priority for the United States of America. And I do not want to get to the point where we're sending our military resources abroad when we could be better using them here at home to protect our own borders.
However, Oliver said the United States should be focused on "working to get every single refugee" out of Ukraine, along with Russian dissidents, and granting them asylum in the U.S.
BURGUM: I think he's running a large criminal organization. And I think we're seeing the tip of that with the Wagner Group. I mean, it's like we can't think of Russia today under Putin like a country. The Wagner Group was operating 65 shell companies all over the world. They controlled gold mines in Central African Republic. When they were down helping out in Syria, there's contracts where they took over 25% of the oil production in Syria. That's a large criminal organization.
Q: Right. So in a President Burgum administration, does Ukraine support change?
BURGUM: Well, we have to win the war in Ukraine.
Q: Period?
BURGUM: Period. We have to do that. And it's unfortunate that we're even in this spot.
KENNEDY: Number 1, the policies on the war. I think it's very clear that this has little to do with protecting the Ukraine. It's more to do with the neocon ambition of deposing Vladimir Putin, which I think is very problematic. It's clear from Pres. Biden's direct statements that that is why he believes we should be in Ukraine.
Q: So, would you withdraw military aid to Ukraine?
KENNEDY: I would end the war. I would negotiate a peace.
Q: Would you allow a peace that allowed much of eastern Ukraine and Crimea to remain in Russian hands?
KENNEDY: The Russians had come to two different peace agreements, both of which were eminently reasonable. I consider the terms of the Minsk Accords fair. And that's what Russia already offered to sign.
[OTI FactCheck: The Minsk Accords would grant Donbas self-determination on independence from Ukraine, and would leave Crimea annexed to Russia].
"I abhor Russia's brutal and bloody invasion of that nation," Kennedy told the crowd. "But we must understand that our government has also contributed to its circumstances through repeated deliberate provocations of Russia going back to the 1990s."
Kennedy has been a frequent critic of America's involvement in supporting Ukraine from Russia's invasion, which he has repeatedly referred to as a "proxy war" that he claims is being fought "all for the sake of U.S. (imagined) geopolitical interests."
"They wanted war as part of their strategic grand plan to destroy any country such as Russia that resists American imperial expansion," Kennedy tweeted in May. "They only pretend to think it was unprovoked. They are lying to us, manufacturing consent for war."
If I were President Zelenskyy, I'd want everything too. But there's going to come a point, if Ukraine is aggressive enough and we're giving them the arms and support that they need, that both Ukraine and Russia are going to understand that it's time to end the killing and there may have to be some kind of compromise. That's what we should be in the middle of trying to foster, once we get in a position where Ukraine can protect the land that's been taken by Russia in this latest incursion.
That Trump wouldn't back Ukraine "was the most stunning moment in the debate," Christie said. "If you don't say that you think Ukraine should win the war, I don't know where you stand with Putin."
And no other candidate in either party is talking about this. I think that's the top threat we face. And that's the focus of my foreign policy.
RAMASWAMY: I do not think it is a top foreign policy priority for us. I don't think it is preferable for Russia to be able to invade a sovereign country that is its neighbor. But I think the job of the U.S. president is to look after American interests.
So when you're dealing with Russia and China, I'll give you an example. The Russian plane knocked down our U.S. drone a couple of weeks ago. Remember that? What do we do about it? Nothing. You know what I would have done if I was president? Put two drones up there in a fighter jet and put our naval fleet back in the Black Sea because it never should have left in the first place.
TRUMP: Because we're giving away so much equipment, we don't want have ammunition for ourselves right now. But I were president, this would have never happened. Now, here's the problem. We've given so far $171 billion. The European Union, which is approximately the same size altogether as our economy, they've given about $20 billion.
Q: But would you give Ukraine weapons and funding if you were elected?
TRUMP: If I'm president, I will have that war settled in one day, 24 hours.
Q: How?
TRUMP: I'll meet with Putin, I'll meet with Zelenskyy. And within 24 hours, that war with be settled. It'll be over.
Q: Do you want Ukraine to win this war?
TRUMP: I don't think in terms of winning and losing. I think in terms of getting it settled, so stop killing all these people.
Newt GINGRICH: Here are facts. The widow of the Moscow mayor sent millions of dollars to Hunter Biden. He got money from Kazakhstan. He got money from Ukraine and served on a board about which he knew nothing. He got a lot of money from China. And it's a fact that $3 million that has been disclosed that went to the Biden family from a Chinese billionaire. Now, you can decide that none of this stuff matters. But the fact is, you have the Vice President taking his son on Air Force Two into China where his son was making business deals. And he's a sex addict, he's an alcoholic, he's a drug addict.
Q: Is nepotism a crime?
GINGRICH: If you listen to his description of Hunter, why would anyone invest in Hunter? They were investing in Joe.
The reality is, we need defense capabilities of the homeland, nuclear defense capabilities, cyber defense capabilities, super EMP, electromagnetic pulse capabilities, that could take out our electric grid. We are way behind. And so the hallmark of my foreign policy is going to be you don't mess with the homeland. Start with that first.
We stood with the Ukrainian people. Tonight, we are once again joined by Ukraine's Ambassador to the United States. She represents not just her nation, but the courage of her people. Ambassador, America is united in our support for your country. We will stand with you as long as it takes.
Ryan called for a "swift and significant response" if that occurs and argued Vance is weak on Russia. The congressman also criticized his opponent for saying he doesn't "really care what happens to Ukraine."
"I've been to Parma," said Ryan, referring to the Cleveland suburb with a large Ukrainian- American population. "I've met with the refugees. I meet with the women and the daughters and sons because the husbands are in Ukraine fighting. That's the kind of freedom we need to support, and J.D. Vance would let Putin roll right through Ukraine."
Rep. Phillips became an original cosponsor of H.R.6470 Defending Ukraine Sovereignty Act of 2022: To counter the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and Eastern European allies, to expedite security assistance to Ukraine to bolster Ukraine's defense capabilities, and to impose sanctions relating to the actions of the Russian Federation with respect to Ukraine, and for other purposes. The bill has been referred to a few committees. - Jan. 21, 2022
On March 7, 2022, I called on the Minnesota Legislature to act to withdraw state investments in Russian businesses and institutions. This week, the Legislature passed a bill to withdraw state investments from Russian & Belarusian entities. MN Laws 2022, Chapter 43, codifies the directives in Executive Order 22-03. As a result of this codification into Minnesota law, Executive Order 22-03 is no longer necessary.
I urge all people in Minnesota to support their Ukrainian neighbors and donate to organizations supporting Ukrainian humanitarian efforts. I also urge Minnesotans to support our fellow Russian Minnesotans, many of whom are horrified and alarmed by the Russian government's aggression toward Ukraine.
He thought he could roll into Ukraine and the world would roll over. Instead he met a wall of strength he never imagined. He met the Ukrainian people. From President Zelenskyy to every Ukrainian, their fearlessness, their courage, their determination, inspires the world. Groups of citizens blocking tanks with their bodies. Everyone from students to retirees teachers turned soldiers defending their homeland.
Let each of us here tonight in this Chamber send an unmistakable signal to Ukraine and to the world. Throughout our history we've learned this lesson when dictators do not pay a price for their aggression they cause more chaos. They keep moving. And the costs and the threats to America and the world keep rising.
That's why the NATO Alliance was created to secure peace and stability in Europe after World War 2. It matters. American diplomacy matters. American resolve matters.
Together with our allies--we are right now enforcing powerful economic sanctions. The U.S. Department of Justice is assembling a dedicated task force to go after the crimes of Russian oligarchs.
Together with our allies we are providing support to the Ukrainians in their fight for freedom. Military assistance. Economic assistance. Humanitarian assistance. We are giving more than $1 Billion in direct assistance to Ukraine.
Let me be clear, our forces are not engaged and will not engage in conflict with Russian forces in Ukraine. As I have made crystal clear the United States and our Allies will defend every inch of territory of NATO countries with the full force of our collective power.
"This playbook is all too familiar to us all," she said of the events unfolding near Ukraine's borders. "Russia will plead ignorance and innocence. It will create false pretexts for invasion, and it will amass troop and firepower in plain sight."
Ms. Harris argued in her speech that the crisis had driven NATO allies together. "As President Biden has said, our forces will not be deployed to fight inside Ukraine," she said, touching on--but not exploring--the decision to leave the fighting to Ukraine's own military. "But they will defend every inch of NATO territory."
Putin may be a liar and a demagogue, but it is hypocritical for the US to insist that we do not accept the principle of "spheres of influence" [which Putin claims as the rationale for keeping Ukraine out of NATO].
To put it simply, even if Russia was not ruled by a corrupt authoritarian leader like Vladimir Putin, Russia, like the United States, would still have an interest in the security policies of its neighbors. Does anyone really believe that the United States would not have something to say if, for example, Mexico was to form a military alliance with a US adversary?
With that said, I am extremely concerned when I hear the familiar drumbeats in Washington, the bellicose rhetoric that gets amplified before every war, demanding that we must "show strength", "get tough" and not engage in "appeasement". A simplistic refusal to recognize the complex roots of the tensions in the region undermines the ability of negotiators to reach a peaceful resolution.
One of the precipitating factors of this crisis, at least from Russia's perspective, is the prospect of an enhanced security relationship between Ukraine and the US and western Europe, including what Russia sees as the threat of Ukraine joining NATO
Independent experts say the report--"No 32-04\vd"--appears to be genuine.
The UK's former ambassador in Moscow said, "There is no sense Russia might have made a mistake by invading Ukraine. There is a good deal of paranoia. They believe the US is responsible for everything."
Trump did not initially respond to a request for comment. Later, his spokesperson, issued a statement: "This is disgusting. It's fake news, just like RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA was fake news. It's just the Radical Left crazies doing whatever they can to demean everybody. It's fiction, and nobody was tougher on Russia than me, including on the pipeline, and sanctions. At the same time we got along with Russia. Russia respected us, China respected us, Iran respected us, North Korea respected us. And the world was a much safer place than it is now with mentally unstable leadership."
PROMISE KEPT: (CNN, 4/15/21): The Biden administration slapped sweeping sanctions on Russia over Moscow's alleged interference in the 2020 election, the massive SolarWinds hack and the ongoing occupation of Crimea, signaling it is adopting a tougher posture toward the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
ANALYSIS: President Trump denied all sanctions against Russia for interference in the 2016 presidential election; that was the focus of the first Trump impeachment. The Mueller Report detailed Russian interference, but Trump referred to it as "the Russia Hoax" and "Fake News." Biden's action signifies that the United States no longer considers Russian actions to be a hoax.
PROMISE BROKEN: (CNN, 4/15/21): A senior Biden administration official said the US intelligence community had only "low to moderate confidence" in the information about bounties, and said Biden was not taking action to punish Moscow on the issue. "We have conveyed through diplomatic and intelligence channels strong direct messages on this issue," a senior administration official said, saying that if a pattern of behavior continues--presumably with a greater degree of confidence--the US would respond.
We must meet the new moment accelerating global challenges--from the pandemic to the climate crisis to nuclear proliferation--challenging the will only to be solved by nations working together and in common. We can't do it alone. We must start with diplomacy rooted in America's most cherished democratic values: defending freedom, championing opportunity, upholding universal rights, respecting the rule of law, and treating every person with dignity.
That's the grounding wire of our global power. That's our inexhaustible source of strength. That's America's abiding advantage.
At the same time, I made it clear to President Putin, in a manner very different from my predecessor, that the days of the United States rolling over in the face of Russia's aggressive actions--interfering with our elections, cyberattacks, poisoning its citizens--are over. We will not hesitate to raise the cost on Russia and defend our vital interests and our people. And we will be more effective in dealing with Russia when we work in coalition and coordination with other like-minded partners. The politically motivated jailing of Alexei Navalny and efforts to suppress freedom of expression are a matter of deep concern.
"It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon," Trump tweeted. "Congratulations to @GenFlynn and his wonderful family!"
Flynn is the 2nd Trump associate convicted in the Russia probe to be granted clemency by the president. Trump commuted the sentence of longtime confidant Roger Stone just days before he was to report to prison. It is part of a broader effort to undo the results of an investigation that for years has shadowed his administration and yielded criminal charges against a half dozen associates.
The action voids the criminal case against Flynn. Democrats lambasted the pardon, calling it undeserved & unprincipled.
BIDEN: Climate change is an existential threat to humanity. I was able to get environmental organizations--as well as people worried about jobs--to support my climate plan. Because it will create millions of new good paying jobs, we're going to take 4 million buildings and 2 million homes and retrofit them so they don't leak as much energy, saving hundreds of millions of barrels of oil in the process and creating significant number of jobs.
BIDEN: I asked everyone to take the pledge: Any country, no matter who it is, that interferes in American elections will pay a price. They will pay a price. And it's been overwhelmingly clear this election--I won't even get into the last one--this election, that Russia has been involved, China's been involved to some degree, and now we learn that Iran is involved. They will pay a price if I'm elected. They're interfering with American sovereignty. That's what's going on right now. They're interfering with American sovereignty. I don't think the President has said anything to Putin about it. I don't know why he hasn't said a word to Putin about it. His buddy Rudy Giuliani--he's being used as a Russian pawn. He's being fed information that is Russian that is not true. And then what happens? Nothing happens.
BIDEN: Every single person, when he was going through his impeachment, said I did my job impeccably, not one single solitary thing was out of line. The guy who got in trouble in Ukraine was this guy trying to bribe the Ukrainian government to say something negative about me, which they would not do and did not do because it never ever, ever happened.
TRUMP: I was put through a phony witch hunt for three years. It started before I got elected. They spied on my campaign. Let me just say this, Mueller and 18 angry Democrats and FBI agents all over the place spent $48 million. They went through everything I had, including my tax returns, and they found absolutely no collusion and nothing wrong.
TRUMP: I'm very underlevered. I have a very, very small percentage of debt compared. In fact, some of it, I did as favors to institutions that wanted to loan me money. $400 million compared to the assets that I have, all of these great properties all over the world, and frankly, The Bank of America building in San Francisco.
Q: Are you confirming that you do owe some $400 million? TRUMP: It turned out that I am under audit. No person in their right mind would release, prior to working out the deal with
the IRS. Q: There is no law or rule that prohibits you from releasing your tax returns. TRUMP: No, except common sense, and intelligence. I would love to release them, and as soon as we come to a conclusion, I will release them, and very gladly.
PENCE: My son is in captain in the United States Marine Corps. My son-in-law's deployed in the United States Navy. I can assure all of you with sons and daughters serving in our military, President Donald Trump, not only respects,
but reveres all of those who serve in our armed forces and any suggestion, otherwise is ridiculous. Let me also say the American people deserve to know-
BIDEN: Putin knows me; the reason he doesn't want me as president: he knows I mean it [when I say that Russia] attempting to interfere
with our election is a violation of our sovereignty. I don't mean war. But they'll pay a price. They'll pay a price for it, and it'll be an economic price. I've made it clear, early on, there will be a price to pay. And if it's done again, which it
appears to be being done, there will be a price to pay. Q: Can you be more specific? What is the price to pay? BIDEN: It wouldn't be prudent for me to be more specific. But I assure you, they will pay a price. Q: Do you believe Russia is an enemy?
BIDEN: I believe Russia is an opponent. I really do. Putin's overwhelming objective is to break up NATO, to fundamentally alter the circumstance in Europe, so he doesn't have to face an entire NATO contingent, any one country he is stronger than.
BIDEN: I believe Russia is an opponent. Q: Do you view China as an opponent? The President says you've been too cozy with China, too accepting of them in the international community. BIDEN: I'm not that guy.
We now have a larger trade deficit than we've ever had with China. [Trump in a negative way] keeps going on about the World Trade Organization; they just ruled that his trade policy violated [WTO rules with its tariffs on China]. In our Administration,
when the WTO [was dealing with China], we sued. We went to the World Trade Organization 16 times, 16 times. Q: Do you view China as an opponent? BIDEN: I view China as a competitor. Q: Competitor? BIDEN: A serious competitor. That's why,
I think, we have to strengthen our relationships and our alliances in Asia. As you may recall, when I was in China, I said to Xi, "We're going to abide by international norms. That's what we're going to do and insist that they do."
BIDEN: One of the things we have to do is make sure that we investigate exactly what involvement there has been in our election and
to protect against it. One of the things we have to do as well is provide the states with the wherewithal to be able to upgrade their [voting] lists, their machinery, and to make sure their encryption is safe for the voting rolls,
and makes it more difficult to have cyber intrusions into anything that's being done. That requires money. There is a plan that's been put together in the Senate, by the Democrats, and I would push that plan. But it requires us to help states
provide for the wherewithal to change the nature of the machinery. And I think we have to be able to be in a position where you have a paper ballot left after what happens with regard to the actual counting and the voting machine.
Furthermore, a better measurement of testing would count a per capita basis, the number of tests per million population, as World-o-Meter does. On that scale, the USA is in 39th place, just behind Germany, well behind Russia & Italy.
BIDEN: Well, I think they are. They're acts that are violating our sovereignty. I'm the guy who went over to our NATO colleagues and worked out an agreement before their last series of elections a year and a half ago, where we got everybody running
for office to take a pledge that they would let anyone know that if there was any interference taking place, they would reject any outside help. And one of the very reasons why the president got impeached is because he went to outside folks, seeking
help in our election. Putin is a guy who, in fact, is not anything remotely approaching a democrat with a small "d." His entire objective is to weaken Eastern Europe, bring down NATO, so that he does not have to face the constituency he faces now.
BIDEN: In retrospect, there is something. We were informed by the director of central intelligence, that there was evidence
that they were interfering in electoral process, trying to break in everything from machines, to changing voter registration. That was in August; Barack Obama was worried, if we spoke out against it, without having more proof and support, then what
would have happened is they'd say we're trying to interfere in the election. And so it wasn't until after [the election]--before we left the White House--that we knew the detail of how deep they were. But we went to the Republican leadership in the
House, they said, "no, we don't want any part of pointing this out." We had clear, overwhelming circumstantial evidence that it was being done. And Obama did confront Putin, saying that stop it. Putin denied he was doing it. We believed he was doing it.
Trump's former Russia expert, Fiona Hill, called the idea that Ukraine meddled in 2016 a "fictional narrative" promoted by Russian intelligence and rebuked House
Republicans for using it to defend the president against impeachment. "In the course of this investigation,
I would ask that you please not promote politically driven falsehoods that so clearly advance Russian interests," Hill said in her opening statement to Congress. "I refuse to be part of an effort to legitimize an alternate narrative that the
Ukrainian government is a U.S. adversary, and that Ukraine--not Russia --attacked us in 2016."
This claim is false, according to the unanimous assessment of the U.S. intelligence community and the former special counsel Robert Mueller, who spent two years investigating
Russia's election interference effort. The Russian government, not Ukraine, interfered in the 2016 election "in sweeping and systematic fashion," the
Mueller report concluded, working to boost Trump's bid while damaging his Democratic rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Trump repeatedly pushed or referenced a conspiracy theory that
Ukraine and the Democrats framed Russia for election meddling in an attempt to discredit his presidency.
Joe Biden: I think I may be, doesn't make me any better or worse, but may be the only person who spent extensive time alone with Putin, as well as with Erdogan. And Erdogan understands that. You talk about should he stay in or out of NATO?
He understands that he's out of NATO, he's in real trouble. But the fact of the matter is we have been one willing in this administration because we have an erratic, crazy President who knows not a damn thing about foreign policy, and operates out of
fear for his own reelection. Think what's happened. The fact of the matter is you have Russia influencing and trying to break up NATO. What does the president do? He says, "I believe Vladimir Putin. I don't believe our intelligence community."
"I believe the United States and EU must respond with deeds more than words to strengthen our economic and strategic defenses,"
Pence said in the prepared remarks his team leaked to Fox News. "I believe we must take immediate steps to deploy a robust missile defense in Europe, especially in Poland, and
the Czech Republic-to protect the interest of our Nato allies and the United States in the region. Stronger economic ties and stronger defense is the strategic response to Russian aggression.
Representative Mike Quigley,
Democrat of Illinois, questioned Mueller on Mr. Trump's response to WikiLeaks. Mr. Mueller did not mince words: "It's problematic -- is an understatement, in terms
of what it displays in terms of giving some hope or some boost to what is and should be illegal activity," Mr. Mueller responded.
A: It's Donald Trump. You want to talk about North Korea, a real threat in terms of nuclear arsenal, but what does he do? He embraces Kim Jong-un, a dictator, for the sake of
a photo op. Putin--you want to talk about Russia? He takes the word of the Russian president over the word of the American intelligence community when it comes to a threat to our democracy and our elections.
Trump: I think maybe you do both. I think you might want to listen.
There's nothing wrong with listening. If somebody called from a country, Norway, "We have information on your opponent."
Oh, I think I'd want to hear it. It's not an interference. They have information. I think I'd take it. If I thought there was something wrong,
I'd go maybe to the FBI. The FBI doesn't have enough agents to take care of it, but you go and talk honestly to congressmen. They all do it; they always have.
TRUMP: I think maybe you do both. I think you might want to
listen. There's nothing wrong with listening. If somebody called from a country, Norway, "We have information on your opponent." Oh, I think I'd want to hear it. STEPHANOPOULOS: You want that kind of interference in our elections?
TRUMP: It's not an interference. They have information. I think I'd take it. If I thought there was something wrong, I'd go maybe to the FBI. If I thought there was something wrong. But when somebody comes up with oppo research, right, that they come
up with oppo research. "Oh, let's call the FBI." The FBI doesn't have enough agents to take care of it, but you go and talk honestly to congressmen, they all do it, they always have. And that's the way it is. It's called oppo research.
Supplemental information and analysis:A senior prosecutor in the Special Counsel's Office said that the Aug. 2 meeting goes "very much to the heart of what the Special Counsel's Office is
investigating." Caveats:Although Kilimnik and Manafort shared the view that Trump's support for the Ukraine peace plan would help it succeed, "the investigation did not uncover evidence of Manafort's passing along information about
Ukrainian peace plans to the candidate or anyone else." The Report then notes that Manafort lied to the Special Counsel Office about the peace plan & his meetings with Kilimnik. Also, Kilimnik continued "to promote the peace plan into the summer 2018."
On May 9, 2017, Trump snapped; the president unceremoniously fired Comey. He conveyed the news in a terse letter, hand-delivered to FBI headquarters. Trump's closest aides had warned him that the
move could trigger a political uproar and lead to an expansion of the Russia inquiry--and it did. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill cried foul. The FBI, already deep into its investigation of election interference, now feared that the most powerful man in the
country was trying to obstruct its work. Robert Mueller was appointed to lead an independent investigation of interference in the 2016 election and other matters that might stem from the inquiry. It was a broad mandate.
The IRA's Twitter operations created individual U.S. personas, and also
operated a "hot network" of automated Twitter accounts, that enabled the IRA to amplify existing content on Twitter. The IRA continuously posted original content to the accounts while also communicating with U.S. Twitter users directly (through public
tweeting or Twitter's private messaging). The IRA used many of these accounts to attempt to influence U.S. audiences on the election. The IRA provoked reactions from users and the media. Multiple IRA-posted tweets gained popularity. U.S. media outlets
also quoted tweets from IRA-controlled accounts and attributed them to the reactions of real U.S. persons. Individualized accounts included @MissouriNewsUS (an account with 3,800 followers that posted pro-Sanders and anti-Clinton material).
Mueller's team racked up an extraordinary record. His prosecutors charged thirty-four people, including twenty-six Russian nationals. They secured guilty pleas from
seven people, including a former national security adviser and the chairman of Trump's campaign. They reconstructed day-to-day interactions of Trump's closest aides and his adult children, exploring dozens of instances of Russian contacts with the
Trump campaign. They documented the Russian attack on American democracy in breathtaking detail, even tracing individual keystrokes of Russian military officers in Moscow.
Mueller's 24-page statement of offenses describes all of Paul Manafort's crimes. He agreed that he conspired against the US by illegally laundering
through offshore accounts the $60 million he earned in Ukraine from 2006 to 2016. He evaded $15 million in US taxes. He failed to register as a foreign lobbyist while helping his Ukraine clients press their views in Washington. The conduct outlined by
Mueller painted a devastating portrait of Donald Trump's campaign chairman. Manafort had volunteered to work for Trump for free but was drowning in debt at the time. He appeared eager to use his campaign role to angle for money from his wealthy patrons
in Ukraine and Russia, working in concert with an alleged Russian intelligence asset. His service for Trump coincided with the ramp-up of Russians intervention in the US election and a ratcheting-up of Trump's pro-Russia campaign rhetoric.
Posts from the IRA-controlled Twitter account @TEN_GOP were
cited or retweeted by multiple Trump Campaign officials, including Donald J. Trump Jr., Eric Trump, & Kellyanne Conway. These posts included allegations of voter fraud, as well as allegations that Secretary Clinton had mishandled classified information.
In sum, the [Mueller] investigation established that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election through
the social media campaign carried out by the IRA. IRA employees violated US law through these operations, principally by undermining through deceptive acts the work of federal agencies charged with regulating foreign influence in U.S. elections.
Within 5 hours of Trump's statement, GRU officers targeted for the first time Clinton's personal office. After candidate Trump's remarks, Unit 26165 created and sent malicious links targeting 15 email accounts.
The investigation did not find evidence of earlier GRU attempts to compromise accounts hosted on Clinton's email domain. It is unclear how the GRU was able to identify these email accounts, which were not public.
Although the President publicly stated during and after the election that he had no connection to
Russia, the Trump Organization, through Michael Cohen's repeated briefings, was pursuing the proposed Trump Tower Moscow project through June 2016. In addition, some witnesses said that Trump privately sought information about future WikiLeaks
releases [of Russian email hacks]. More broadly, multiple witnesses described the President's preoccupation with press coverage of the Russia investigation and his persistent concern that it raised questions about the legitimacy of his election.
That weekend, the President called McGahn and directed him to have the Special Counsel removed because of asserted conflicts of interest. McGahn did not carry
out the instruction for fear of being seen as triggering another Saturday Night Massacre and instead prepared to resign. McGahn ultimately did not quit and the President did not follow up with McGahn on his request to remove the Special Counsel.
To reach larger U.S. audiences, the IRA purchased advertisements from Facebook that promoted the IRA groups on the newsfeeds of U.S. audience members. According to Facebook, the IRA purchased over 3,500 advertisements, and the
expenditures totaled approximately $100,000. IRA-purchased advertisements referencing candidate Trump largely supported his campaign. The first known IRA advertisement explicitly endorsing the Trump Campaign was purchased on April 19, 2016, for its
Instagram account "Tea Party News" asking US persons to upload photos with the hashtag "#KIDS4TRUMP." In subsequent months, the IRA purchased dozens of advertisements supporting the Trump Campaign, predominantly through the Facebook groups.
As part of our military build-up, the US is developing a state-of-the-art Missile Defense System. Decades ago the United States entered into a treaty with Russia in which
we agreed to limit and reduce our missile capabilities. While we followed the agreement to the letter, Russia repeatedly violated its terms. That is why I announced that the United States is officially withdrawing from the
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or INF Treaty. Perhaps we can negotiate a different agreement, adding China and others, or perhaps we can't--in which case, we will outspend and out-innovate all others by far.
He said the US has
adhered to the pact for more than 30 years, "but we will not remain constrained by its terms while Russia misrepresents its actions. We cannot be the only country in the world unilaterally bound by this treaty, or any other." NATO said that if
Moscow failed to destroy all new missile systems that Washington insists violate the treaty, "Russia will bear sole responsibility for the end of the treaty." An American withdrawal had been expected for months, after years of unresolved dispute over
Russian compliance with the pact. It was the first arms control measure to ban an entire class of weapons: ground-launched cruise missiles with a range between 500 kilometers and 5,500 kilometers. Russia denies that it has been in violation.
James Lankford and I were the only members of the Senate who served on both the Homeland Security and
Intelligence Committees. As such, we were uniquely suited to come together in a nonpartisan way to develop legislation to combat these attacks. At the end of December 2017, we introduced the Secure Elections Act, to protect the U.S. from future foreign
interference in our elections. The legislation would establish clear expert guidelines for securing election systems--including, for example, the need for paper ballots. Russia might be able to hack a machine from afar, but it can't hack a piece of
paper. And it would provide $386 million in grants for cybersecurity improvements. It would also establish what's known as a bug bounty program for election infrastructure--where hackers are paid for identifying software vulnerabilities.
SANDERS: It makes me think that either Trump doesn't understand what Russia has done--not only to our elections, but through cyber-attacks against all parts of our infrastructure--or perhaps he
is being blackmailed by Russia, because they may have compromising information about him. Or maybe he admires the kind of government that Putin is running in Russia. We have got to make sure that Russia does not interfere, not only in our elections, but
in other aspects of our lives. Q: How do you protect yourselves in the next race against something like that happening? SANDERS: We need a president who is going to do everything to work with statewide officials all over this country to make sure
that, when people cast a vote, that vote is going to count. Congress has allocated money to strengthen the protection of our electoral system. The president has got to be aggressive in implementing that. The integrity of American democracy is at stake.
TRUMP: Well, I think we have a lot of foes. I think the European Union is a foe, what they do to us in trade. Now, you wouldn't think of the European Union, but they're a foe.
Russia is a foe in certain respects. China is a foe economically, certainly. They're a foe. But that doesn't mean they're bad. It means that they're competitors. They want to do well, and we want to do well. And we're starting to do well. Q: A lot of
people might be surprised to hear you list the E.U. as a foe before China and Russia. TRUMP: No, I look at them all. Look, E.U. is very difficult, I want to tell you. Don't forget, both of my parents were born in E.U. sectors, OK? I mean, my mother
was Scotland. My father, Germany. And, you know, I love those countries. I respect the leaders of those countries. But, in a trade sense, they have really taken advantage of us, & many of those countries are in NATO. And they weren't paying their bills.
"Heading to Helsinki, Finland--looking forward to meeting with President Putin
tomorrow," Trump tweeted. "Unfortunately, no matter how well I do at the Summit, if I was given the great city of Moscow as retribution for all of the sins and evils committed by Russia over the years,
I would return to criticism that it wasn't good enough--that I should have gotten Saint Petersburg in addition!" "Much of our news media is indeed the enemy of the people and all the Dems know how to do
is resist and obstruct!" Trump added. "This is why there is such hatred and dissension in our country--but at some point, it will heal!"
The named defendants in the lawsuit include Trump's son
Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law Jared Kushner, former campaign chief Paul Manafort and campaign official Richard Gates, and Trump ally Roger Stone. Also named is the Russian Federation, the general staff of the Russian armed force, a
Russian intelligence services hacker known as Guccifer 2.0., Wikileaks and its leader Julian Assange, and 10 unidentified people. "No one is above the law," the suit says. "In the run-up to the 2016 election, Russia mounted a brazen attack on American
Democracy. The opening salvo was an attack on the DNC, carried out on American soil." The suit alleges claims that include conspiracy, computer fraud and abuse, misappropriation of trade secrets, trespass, and other violations of the law.
HALEY: Obviously this was cumulative. Assad had been using chemical weapons multiple times. But more
so, this was about the Security Council resolutions--Russia had vetoed all of them. So we felt like we had gone through every diplomatic measure of talking that we could, and it was time for action. We hope Assad got the message [that] the international
community will not allow chemical weapons to come back into our everyday life, and the fact that he was making this more normal and that Russia was covering it up, all of that has to stop. Q: Are there any consequences for Assad's patrons,
Russia and Iran, who continue to protect him? HALEY: Absolutely. So, you will see that Russian sanctions will be coming down. They will go directly to any sort of companies that were dealing with equipment related to Assad and chemical weapons used.
For this reason, I am asking the Congress to end the dangerous defense sequester and fully fund our great military.
As part of our defense, we must modernize and rebuild our nuclear arsenal, hopefully never having to use it, but making it so strong and powerful that it will deter any acts of aggression.
Perhaps someday in the future there will be a magical moment when the countries of the world will get together to eliminate their nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, we are not there yet.
BIDEN: I think that'd be a little bit of an exaggeration. The Cold War was based on a conflict of two profoundly different ideological notions of how the
world should function. This is just basically about a kleptocracy protecting itself. That's a vast oversimplification. It's much easier if you're dealing with 28 different nations not in union with one another, not a Western economy that is coordinated.
BIDEN: We're talking about Russian interference in the United States, whether there was collusion between the Trump administration and Russia. That's obscured a much larger discussion that should be taking
place about whether or not what Russia is doing in the rest of the world right now and what Russia is doing in Europe right now. Q: There is bipartisan legislation in the Senate that would put in place sanctions that would snap in place on
Russia if in the future any determination is made that foreign election interference has happened. Do you think this is an appropriate step?
BIDEN: I think it is an appropriate step. I'm sure there are consequences that could flow that are ones we did not anticipate, but were I in the Senate, I'd be supporting that legislation.
I was the point man for our administration
on the crisis, which was exactly where I wanted to be. There were academics in the news saying Ukraine was bound to be a defeat for the West, & it would be an unwelcome albatross on my neck if I ran for president in 2016. "He's tied to Ukraine policy,"
a presidential scholar from Pennsylvania told a reporter. "So he could be vulnerable." I didn't much care. There was an important principle at stake: big countries ought not to beat up smaller ones, especially after they had given their word not to.
Ukraine had given up its nuclear weapons program years earlier--in return for a guarantee from the U.S., the United Kingdom, AND RUSSIA to respect its borders and its sovereignty. Two of the three larger countries had kept that promise.
"I did stand here six years ago and in the first major foreign policy address of our administration, I spoke about the 'reset,'" We have moved from resetting this important relationship to reasserting the
fundamental bedrock principles on which European freedom and stability rest. And I'll say it again: inviolate borders, no spheres of influence, the sovereign right to choose your own alliances. I cannot repeat that often enough. We need
to remain resolute and united in our support of Ukraine. What happens there will resonate well beyond Ukraine. It matters to all--not just in Europe, but around the world--all who may be subject to aggression."
HALEY: Because there was no change to policy. Of course, we believe in article 5. I just met with all of my NATO ambassadors yesterday. We said, a threat on one of us is a threat on all of us. NATO is going to continue to be strong.
It's going to continue to be united. Russia's going to try and divide us. But the truth is, we've never swayed from article 5. We honestly still believe it. The President didn't mention it because he wasn't changing it.
The Russia reversal and the NATO turnabout were inherently linked, of course. As Russia appears more ominous, NATO seems more necessary. But the shift in attitude
also offered one of the starkest examples yet of Trump's evolving views: "We must not be trapped by the tired thinking that so many have, but apply new solutions to face new circumstances throughout the world," Trump said at his news conference with the
NATO secretary general. Trump's campaign criticism of NATO stunned many at home and abroad, especially when he suggested conditioning America's commitment to defend its treaty allies on whether they had met their financial obligations.
The missile strike, in response to a chemical weapons attack, was intended to be a limited, one-time operation, and the president seemed determined to quickly move on. Critics, including Senator Marco Rubio, argued that Syria's
President Assad felt free to launch a chemical attack precisely because the Trump administration had given him a green light. Trump's action in Syria was welcomed by many traditional American allies who had fretted over Obama's reluctance to take a
greater leadership role in the Middle East. After the missile strike, Israeli news outlets were filled with headlines like "The Americans Are Back," and European leaders expressed relief both that he had taken action and that he had not gone too far.
CHRISTIE: No. Q: Why not? CHRISTIE: Because the Justice Department has shown itself to have the ability to investigate these type of things. Whether you're a
Republican or a Democrat--we've seen it happen on both sides--when a special prosecutor gets involved, the thing gets completely out of control. And I think that doesn't serve anybody's purposes. We have a lot of important problems to deal with in this
country. I'm not saying that is not one of them, but I believe the Justice Department can handle it. Q: White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus reached out to the FBI to try to get them to tell reporters that the FBI was not investigating Russian
contacts.... CHRISTIE: I don't think that Reince thought he was doing anything wrong. But if I were sitting in that position, I just would say, "you know what, talk to the White House counsel about that," out of an abundance of caution.
PENCE: That quote was a commitment to explore the possibility of starting anew and looking for common cause with Russia and with
President Putin. Q: Doesn't that put the US on moral par with Putin's Russia? PENCE: I simply don't accept that there was any moral equivalency in the president's comments. Q: President Obama was criticized consistently by conservatives for not
praising American exceptionalism. PENCE: We recognize the extraordinary superiority of the ideals of the American people and the implementation of those ideals. Q: Do you think America is morally superior to Russia? PENCE: I believe that the
ideals that America has stood for throughout our history represent the highest ideals of humankind. Q: But America morally superior to Russia, yes or no? PENCE: I think it is without question.
CHRISTIE: I did. Q: When asked about Russia being "killers," Pres. Trump responded, "What, you think our country is
so innocent?" Is that consistent with your view of America's moral voice? CHRISTIE: Listen, there is no question in my mind that America is the moral leader of the world. And that America is morally superior to Russia. Q: What about the president's
comments that we must respect Vladimir Putin, who has basically broken apart Russian democracy? What kind of a moral signal does that send? CHRISTIE: I have known the president for 15 years, and I know exactly what he meant. He respects Vladimir Putin
because he believes that the leaders of countries deserve to get treated with respect. But it doesn't mean that he agrees with him. It doesn't mean that he won't fight him, and it doesn't mean that he won't stand up to him.
PENCE: The president-elect is willing to approach this terrible relationship the United States has with Russia today with fresh eyes and to at least be open to a better relationship with Vladimir Putin and
with Russia. Look, we have some common interests that would be well served if we were able to improve our relationship with Russia. The president-elect is determined to re-engage the world, put America first, and see if we can make progress for the
security and peace of the world. Q: Does Donald Trump demand that Russia get out of eastern Ukraine? PENCE: Whether it be eastern Ukraine or Crimea, that the action by the Russians has demonstrated the absence of American leadership over the last
eight years-- Q: What does the new leadership want to do? PENCE: I think America is going to be more respected in the world the very moment that Donald Trump takes the oath of office as the 45th president of the United States.
In a tweet that offered no details, Trump said, "The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding
nukes." During the campaign, Trump talked in one debate about the need to modernize the country's infrastructure of nuclear weaponry, saying the US is falling behind. Trump's tweet came shortly after Putin, during a defense ministry meeting,
said, "We need to strengthen the military potential of strategic nuclear forces, especially with missile complexes that can reliably penetrate any existing and prospective missile defense systems."
TRUMP: I don't know Putin. He said nice things about me. If we got along well, that would be good. He has no respect for our president. He has no respect for [Hillary Clinton].
CLINTON: Well, that's because he'd rather have a puppet as president of the United States. TRUMP: No puppet. You're the puppet! CLINTON: It's pretty clear you won't admit that the Russians have engaged in cyberattacks against the
United States of America, [but] we have 17 intelligence agencies, civilian and military, who have all concluded that these cyberattacks come from the highest levels of the Kremlin and they are designed to influence our election. TRUMP: She has no
idea whether it's Russia, China, or anybody else. Q: Do you condemn any interference by Russia in the American election? TRUMP: By Russia or anybody else. Let me tell you, Putin has outsmarted her and Obama at every single step of the way.
STEIN: If you watched the debate the other night, you would have heard Trump saying that he's looking for collaboration with Putin. But I consider the
threat of nuclear war not trivial at all, and this is one of the most clear and present dangers to our surroundings. Q: Why is it more likely under Clinton, though? This is about Trump's hair-trigger temper generally, not just with Putin.
STEIN: Put it this way: The most likely nuclear threat right now is with Russia. And when you have Hillary Clinton then beating the war drums against Russia, and essentially saying that if she's elected that we will declare war on Russia--because that's
what a no-fly zone over Syria amounts to. Shooting down Russian warplanes. Q: Not if the Russians adhere. STEIN: But our no-fly zone does not adhere to international law. Syria--for better or for worse--invited Russia there.
STEIN: That certainly needs to be revisited, yes it does.[We should] work with Europe to transfer NATO to being a European defense organization that doesn't involve us. We're not funding it, we're not
using it to do an end-run around the need for Congress to approve our foreign policy. We shouldn't be making foreign policy through NATO. Q: You don't think that NATO gives us leverage in Europe, particularly in regards to Russia? STEIN: We promised
Gorbachev that we would not be moving one step to the east. Remember, the Warsaw Pact was the counterweight to NATO. The Warsaw Pact went away, and what did NATO do? NATO expanded and went east. We said we wouldn't move one inch to the east; we have.
Q: Countries were under Soviet control, though. STEIN: That was the reason for NATO, right? That reason went away, yet NATO only got bigger. So it's really important not to think like the only show in town here.
TRUMP: Assad turned out to be a lot tougher than she thought. Everyone thought he was gone two years ago. He aligned with Russia. He now also aligned with
Iran, who we made very powerful. We don't know who the rebels are. But if they overthrow Assad, as bad as Assad is, and he's a bad guy, but you may very well end up with worse than Assad. CLINTON: I think a no-fly zone could save lives and could
hasten the end of the conflict. I'm aware of the concerns that you have expressed. This would not be done on the first day. This would take a lot of negotiation. And it would also take making it clear to the Russians and the Syrians that our purpose
here was to provide safe zones on the ground. TRUMP: We are so outplayed on missiles, on cease-fires. But our country is so outplayed by Putin and Assad, and by the way--and by Iran. Nobody can believe how stupid our leadership is.
Jill Stein: A no-fly zone means we'll be shooting down Russian planes.
Donald Trump: She talks tough against Russia. But our nuclear program has fallen way behind, and they've gone wild with their nuclear program. We're exhausted in terms of nuclear. A very bad thing.
Jill Stein: I don't know which is scarier, Hillary who wants to start an air war in Syria or Trump talking about more nuclear weapons.
TRUMP: He and I haven't spoken, and I disagree. Q: You disagree with your running mate? TRUMP:
I think you have to knock out ISIS. Right now, Syria is fighting ISIS We have people that want to fight both at the same time. [OnTheIssues note: Russia & the Assad regime are bombing both ISIS & the Syrian rebels; the US is bombing ISIS but supports
the Syrian rebels]. TRUMP: But Syria is no longer Syria. Syria is Russia and it's Iran, who [Hillary] made strong and Kerry and Obama made into a very powerful nation. I believe we have to worry about ISIS before we can get too much more involved.
I just have to tell you that the provocations by Russia need to be met with American strength. It begins by rebuilding our military. And the Russians & the
Chinese have been making enormous investments in the military. We have the smallest Navy since 1916. We have the lowest number of troops since the end of the Second World War. We've got to work with Congress, and Donald Trump will, to rebuild our
military & project American strength in the world. We've just got to have American strength on the world stage. When Donald Trump becomes president, the Russians and other countries in the world will know they're dealing with a strong American president.
I just have to tell you that the provocations by Russia need to be met with American strength. It begins by rebuilding our military. And the Russians & the
Chinese have been making enormous investments in the military. We have the smallest Navy since 1916. We have the lowest number of troops since the end of the Second World War. We've got to work with Congress, and Donald Trump will, to rebuild our
military & project American strength in the world. We've just got to have American strength on the world stage. When Donald Trump becomes president, the Russians and other countries in the world will know they're dealing with a strong American president.
Instead of spending a
trillion dollars creating a new generation of nuclear weapons and modes of delivery, it's time to instead change direction here and move as quickly as humanly possible towards nuclear disarmament. And instead of blaming the Russians, we need to
acknowledge it was actually the Russians who tried to engage us in a nuclear disarmament process, again, several decades ago. We need to revive that proposal, take them up on it and move to nuclear disarmament as quickly as we possibly can.
A: We should be better than anybody else, and perhaps we're not. I don't think anybody knows it was Russia that broke into the DNC. She's saying "Russia, Russia, Russia," but I don't. Maybe it was. I mean, it could
be Russia, but it could also be China. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, OK? We came up with the Internet, and Clinton and myself would agree very much, when you look at what
ISIS is doing with the Internet, they're beating us at our own game. So we have to get very, very tough on cyber and cyber warfare. It is a huge problem. The security aspect of cyber is very, very tough. And maybe it's hardly doable.
But I will say, we are not doing the job we should be doing. But that's true throughout our whole governmental society. We have so many things that we have to do better and certainly cyber is one of them.
A: I've built a great company. I've been all over the world. I've dealt with foreign countries. I've done tremendously well dealing with China and with many of the
countries that are just ripping this country. I think the main thing is I have great judgment. Q: What steps would you take to bring Putin back to negotiating table? A: I would have a good relationship with Putin. Take a look at what happened with
their fighter jets circling one of our aircraft in a very dangerous manner. Somebody said less than 10 feet away. This is hostility. Russia wants to defeat ISIS as badly as we do. If we had a relationship with Russia, wouldn't it be wonderful if we
could knock the hell out of ISIS? Q: Putin called you a brilliant leader. A: When he calls me brilliant, I'll take the compliment. The fact is, look, it's not going to get him anywhere. I'm a negotiator. We're going to take back our country.
At the Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow in 2013,
Trump said he was in serious talks about building a skyscraper in Moscow. Trump made a series of complimentary comments about Putin.
Trump would express admiration for Putin's leadership, despite his record of prosecuting and persecuting journalists and political opponents. Still, no Trump Tower rose over Moscow.
The now-famous DNC emails that we later learned
were stolen by hackers working for a Russian intelligence agency had been released at the start of the convention. The content of these emails, which were not a shock to me, showed that the leadership of the
DNC had tilted the playing field during the primary in favor of Hillary Clinton's campaign. As a result, the chair of the DNC,
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, was forced to resign. Many of my delegate, who were not great fans of Hillary Clinton or the democratic establishment to begin with, were further enraged.
TRUMP: What we want to do, when we want to do it, and how hard do we want to hit? We are going to have to hit hard to knock out ISIS. We're going to have to learn who our allies are.
We have allies, we have no idea who they are in Syria. Do we want to stay that route, or do we want to go and make something with Russia?
Q [to Trump]: You said that you could get along very well with Vladimir Putin. You did say let Russia take care of ISIS. TRUMP: Jeb is so wrong. You fight
ISIS first. You have to knock 'em out. You decide what to do after, you can't fight two wars at one time. If you listen to him, that's why we've been in the Middle East for 15 years, and we haven't won anything. We've spent $5 trillion dollars in
the Middle East with thinking like that. We've spent $5 trillion dollars; we have to rebuild our country. We have to rebuild our infrastructure. you listen to that you're going to be there for another 15 years. You'll end up with world war three.
SANDERS: No I don't. I worry about Putin and his military adventurism in the Crimea, but
I worry more about an isolated country. Russia lives in the world. China lives in the world. North Korea is a strange country because it is so isolated, and I do feel that a nation with nuclear weapons, they have got to be dealt with.
SANDERS: I think we do have an honest disagreement: in the incredible quagmire of Syria, where it's hard to know who's fighting who and if you give arms to this guy, it may end up in ISIS' hand the next day. And we all know--the secretary is absolutely
right--Assad is a butcher of his own people, a man using chemical weapons against his own people. But I think in terms of our priorities in the region, our first priority must be the destruction of ISIS. Our second priority must be getting rid of Assad,
through some political settlement, working with Iran, working with Russia. But the immediate task is to bring all interests together who want to destroy ISIS, including Russia, including Iran, including our Muslim allies to make that the major priority.
"You know, last year, Vice President Biden said that, with a new moon-shot, America can cure cancer. Last month, he worked with this Congress to give scientists at the National Institutes of
Health the strongest resources that they've had in over a decade. . "So tonight, I'm announcing a new national effort to get it done. And because he's gone to the mat for all of us on so many issues over the past 40 years, I'm putting Joe in
charge of mission control. For the loved ones we've all lost, for the families that we can still save, let's make America the country that cures cancer once and for all. What do you think? Let's make it happen. And medical research is critical."
SANDERS: I have a difference of opinion with Secretary Clinton
on this. I worry that Secretary Clinton is too much into regime change without knowing what the unintended consequences might be. Yes, we could get rid of Saddam Hussein, but that destabilized the entire region. Yes, we could get rid of Gadhafi, a
terrible dictator, but that created a vacuum for ISIS. Yes, we could get rid of Assad tomorrow, but that would create another political vacuum that would benefit ISIS. Getting rid of dictators is easy. But before you do that, you've got to think about
what happens the day after. We need to put together broad coalitions to [avoid having a] political vacuum filled by terrorists. In Syria the primary focus now must be on destroying ISIS and [it's a] secondary issue to get rid of Assad.
CHRISTIE: Not only would I be prepared to do it, I would do it.
A no-fly zone means a no-fly zone. That's what it means. See, maybe because I'm from New Jersey, I just have this kind of plain language hangup. But I would make very clear--I'd say to Vladimir Putin, "Listen, there's a no-fly zone in
Syria; you fly in, it applies to you." And yes, we would shoot down the planes of Russian pilots if in fact they were stupid enough to think that this president was the same feckless weakling that the president we have in the Oval Office is right now.
PAUL: Well, I think if you're in favor of World War III, you have your candidate. Russia already flies in that airspace. If we announce we're going to have a no-fly zone, it is a recipe for disaster. It's a recipe for World War III.
TRUMP: As far as Syria, if Putin wants to go and knock
the hell out of ISIS, I am all for it, 100%, and I can't understand how anybody would be against it. Q: They're not doing that. TRUMP: They blew up a Russian airplane. He cannot be in love with these people.
He's going in, and we can go in, and everybody should go in. As far as the Ukraine is concerned, we have a group of people, and a group of countries, including Germany--why are we always doing the work? I'm all for protecting Ukraine--but, we have
countries that are surrounding the Ukraine that aren't doing anything. They say, "Keep going, keep going, you dummies, keep going. Protect us." And we have to get smart. We can't continue to be the policeman of the world.
CLINTON: We have an opportunity here--and inside the administration this is being hotly debated--to get that leverage to try to get the
Russians to have to deal with everybody in the region and begin to move toward a political, diplomatic solution in Syria. Q [to Sanders]: Putin in Syria? SANDERS: I think Mr. Putin is going to regret what he is doing. Q: He doesn't seem to be the
type of guy to regret a lot. SANDERS: I think he's already regretting what he did in Crimea and what he is doing in the Ukraine. I think he is really regretting the decline of his economy. And I think what he is trying to do now is save some face.
But I think when Russians get killed in Syria and when he gets bogged down, I think the Russian people are going to give him a message that maybe they should come home, maybe they should start working with the United States to rectify the situation now.
CLINTON: I applaud the administration because they are engaged in talks right now with the Russians to make it clear that they've got to be part of the solution to try to end that bloody conflict. And, to provide safe zones so
that people are not going to have to be flooding out of Syria at the rate they are. SANDERS: Well, let's understand that when we talk about Syria, you're talking about a quagmire in a quagmire. You're talking about groups of people trying to overthrow
Assad, other groups of people fighting ISIS. You're talking about people who are fighting ISIS using their guns to overthrow Assad, and vice versa. I will do everything that I can to make sure that the U.S. does not get involved in another quagmire like
we did in Iraq, the worst foreign policy blunder in the history of this country. We should be putting together a coalition of Arab countries who should be leading the effort. We should be supportive, but I do not support American ground troops in Syria.
CHRISTIE: Well, we don't need to be friends with Vladimir Putin and we don't need to be worried
about whether he's in a quagmire. After 40 years, we allowed Russia back into the Middle East. And now who are they partnered with? Iran. Q: So how do you push them out?
CHRISTIE: America's got to re-establish its presence in that area. We should be the ones leading the fight on ISIS. And by the way, we know Putin's not fighting ISIS. Putin's there to prop up Assad.
Q: Would you put in a no-fly zone? CHRISTIE: Absolutely. And I'll tell you this, there's now 300,000 nearly dead in Syria because of Assad and now Putin is going in and teaming with the Iranians to prop up Assad.
TRUMP: I want our military to be beyond anything, no contest, and technologically, most importantly. But we are going to get bogged
down in Syria. If you look at what happened with the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, that's when they went bankrupt. Q: So, you think Putin's going to get suckered into-- TRUMP: They're going to get bogged down. Everybody that's touched the
Middle East, they've gotten bogged down. Now, Putin wants to go in and I like that Putin is bombing the hell out of ISIS. Putin has to get rid of ISIS because Putin doesn't want ISIS coming into Russia. Q: Why do you trust him and nobody else does?
TRUMP: I don't trust him. But the truth is, it's not a question of trust. I don't want to see the United States get bogged down. We've spent now $2 trillion in Iraq, probably a trillion in Afghanistan. We're destroying our country.
TRUMP:
Well, I had heard that he wanted to meet with me. And certainly I am open to it. I don't know that it's going to take place, but I know that people have been talking.
We'll see what happens. But certainly, if he wanted to meet, I would love to do that. You know, I've been saying relationship is so important in business, that it's so important in deals, and so important in the country.
And if President Obama got along with Putin, that would be a fabulous thing. But they do not get along. Putin does not respect our president. And I'm sure that our president does not like him very much.
TRUMP: Number one, they have to respect you. He has absolutely no respect for President Obama. Zero. I would talk to him. I would get along with him.
I believe I would get along with a lot of the world leaders that this country is not getting along with. I think I will get along with Putin, and I will get along with others, and we will have a much more stable world.
Bernie is against the expansion of NATO because it provokes
unnecessary aggression from Russia. Moreover, he believes European nations should fund more of the costs of an alliance primarily intended to protect their continent. Q: What is Bernie's opinion on NATO expansion? A: He's against it, claiming it is a
waste of taxpayer dollars and not geo-politically sound. In 1997, Bernie said: "After four decades of the cold war and trillions of taxpayer dollars allocated to compete in the arms race, it is not the time to continue wasting billions helping to defend
Europe, let alone assuming any costs associated with expanding NATO eastward." Bernie opposes eastward expansion because he's not interested in revisiting the Cold War era when Russia and the US were constantly pitted against each other.
TRUMP: I'm a little concerned about NATO from this standpoint. Take Ukraine. We're leading Ukraine. Where's Germany? Where are the countries of Europe leading? I don't mind helping them. Why isn't Germany leading this charge? Why is the
United States? I mean, we're like the policemen of the world. And why are we leading the charge in Ukraine? Q: So you wouldn't allow Ukraine into NATO? TRUMP: I would not care that much. Whether it goes in or doesn't go in, I wouldn't care. Look,
I would support NATO. Q: It sounds like you're not a fan of NATO TRUMP: I'm a fan of fairness. I'm a fan of common sense. I'm certainly not a fan of us being against Russia. Why are we always at the forefront of everything?
Stein: We should encourage Ukraine to be neutral--we helped foment a coup against a democratically-elected government, [resulting in a government] where ultra-nationalists and ex-Nazis came to power.
Imagine the inverse: if Russia did that in Canada--installed a government hostile to us--we saw something like that in Cuban Missile Crisis--that would not be acceptable to us. So let's not be single-issue--instead of fomenting a hostile Ukraine we
should be leading the way in establishing a neutral Ukraine that would allow Russia to not feel under attack. We've made great strides--Putin is not a hero--but as Noam Chomsky points out, the Doomsday clock has moved closer to midnight than it has been
since 1983. The hostile faceoff with Russia causes that and is entirely misplaced--led by war hawks in Obama administration--especially [Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs] Victoria Nuland, who cheered on an overthrow in Ukraine.
Stein: I think this is an issue where something does need to be said--but it's important to understand where they are coming from. The United States, under Bush 1, had an agreement when
Germany joined NATO--Russia agreed with the understanding that NATO would not move one inch to the east. Since then NATO has pursued a policy of basically encircling Russia--including the threat of nukes and drones and so on.
Trump has said that the U.S. is mishandling current Iran negotiations and should have walked away from the table once Tehran reportedly rejected the idea
of sending enriched uranium to Russia. He would increase sanctions on Iran. Trump has been sharply critical of the Obama administration's handling of relations with Israel and has called for a closer alliance with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.
It came out recently they have equipment that is 30 years old. They don't know if it worked. And I thought it was horrible
when it was broadcast on television, because boy, does that send signals to Putin and all of the other people that look at us and they say, "That is a group of people, and that is a nation that truly has no clue. They don't know what they're doing."
According to an audio recording of the event, he said
Putin had taken the measure of Obama. "I don't believe, given who I am, that he would make the same judgment," Christie said. "Let's leave it at that." One attendee described Christie's answer as disturbingly heavy on swagger and light on substance.
Christie places tremendous value on the personal projection of authority, as evidenced by his suggestion that Putin would think twice about challenging him. "Foreign policy, in my view, is about human relationships," Christie said at an American
Enterprise Institute conference. "Men and women across the world judge each other," Christie said, "and they take a measure of the person based on your actions and your words." With Obama, he said mockingly, "words matter more to him than actions."
PENCE: I think we need less talk and more deeds. And by deploying a robust missile shield throughout
Europe including in Poland and the Czech Republic that was off-lined in 2009, I think would send a very strong message to Putin and to Russia that NATO countries and the United States are going to respond by growing stronger economically and
strategically. And I believe that's going to have a lot more influence in the long haul than more sanctions and more talk. Let's allow Poland and the Czech Republic to have that missile shield that they were entitled to by joining NATO.
But we are not naive--neither Russia
or the US. We will not agree with Russia on everything. For example, the US will not recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states. These differences are real. But we continue to see opportunities for the US & Russia to partner in ways that
advance our mutual security interest & the interest of the international community--whether by safeguarding and reducing nuclear arsenals, or boosting our trade & investment to help each other unlock the enormous innovative potential of our societies.
While we no longer considered each other enemies, you couldn't always tell that from the rhetoric flying back and forth. Ironically, this came at a time when American and Russian security interests, as well as economic interests, were more closely
aligned than ever. That's why Pres. Obama made it a priority to reset our relationship with Russia--and asked me to launch it just three weeks into the new administration at the Munich Security Conference. I said then that "the United States and
Russia can disagree and still work together where our interests coincide. And they coincide in many places." We focused the reset on concrete outcomes that serve both countries' interests--"win-wins," as President Obama calls them.
A: Clarity. Prevention, not preemption. An absolute repudiation of this president's doctrine, which has only three legs in the stool: 1) don't
talk to anybody; 2) preemption; & 3) regime change. I would reject all three. We need a doctrine of prevention. The role of a great power is to prevent crises. And we don't have to imagine any of the crises. You have Pakistan, Russia, China, Darfur.
A: The biggest threat to the US is, right now, North Korea. Iran not as big a threat, but a long-term threat.
And quite frankly, the tendency of Putin to move in a totalitarian direction, which would unhinge all that's going on positively in Europe.
Although a public poll said that 75% of the American people were opposed to giving Russia more money, and we were already in a hard
fight for the economic plan, I felt we had no choice but to press ahead. American had spent trillions of dollars in defense to win the Cold War; we couldn't risk reversal over less that $2 billion and a bad poll.
To the surprise of my staff, the congressional leaders, including the Republicans, agreed with me. At a meeting I convened to push the plan, Senator Joe Biden, the chairman of the
Foreign Relations Committee, strongly endorsed the aid package. Newt Gingrich was passionately in favor of helping Russia, saying it was a "great defining moment" for American and we had to do the right thing.
Two dealmakers have served as president-one was Franklin Roosevelt, who got us through WWII, and the other was Richard Nixon, who forced the Russians to the bargaining table to achieve the first meaningful reductions in nuclear arms.
A dealmaker can keep many balls in the air, weigh the competing interests of other nations, and above all, constantly put America’s best interests first. The dealmaker knows when to be tough and when to back off. He knows when to bluff and he knows
when to threaten, understanding that you threaten only when prepared to carry out the threat. The dealmaker is cunning, secretive, focused, and never settles for less than he wants. It’s been a long time since America had a president like that.
Few respect weakness.
Ultimately we have to deal with hostile nations in the only language they know: unshrinking conviction and the military power to back it up if need be. There and in that order are America’s two greatest assets in foreign affairs.
HARRIS: There was a counter strike on our troops in Iraq, and they suffered serious brain injuries, and do you know what Donald Trump dismissed them as? Headaches. This is a pattern where he referred to our men who are serving as
suckers and losers. Public reporting said Russia had bounties on the heads of American soldiers. Donald Trump had talked at least six times to Vladimir Putin and never brought up the subject.
Trump does not care about troops' injuries or deaths
On socialism: "There's not one single syllable I've ever said that could lead you to believe that I was a socialist or a communist," Biden declared. "Do I look like a socialist? I'm the guy who ran against the socialist,"
Biden noted of his primary victories over now loyal supporter Sen. Bernie Sanders. "I've taken on the Castros of this world, the Putins of this world," Biden added. "I'm no more socialist or communist than Donald Trump is .well, I won't say it."
Do I look like a socialist? I've taken on Castro & Putin
If we would've listened to [Biden and the Democrats], the country would have been left wide open, millions of people would have died, not 200,000. And one person is too much. It's China's fault.
It should have never happened. They stopped it from going in, but it was China's fault.
And, by the way, when you talk about numbers, you don't know how many people died in China.
You don't know how many people died in Russia. You don't know how many people died in India. They don't exactly give you a straight count, just so you understand.
COVID: We don't know how many died in China, Russia, India
Q: Why should voters elect you President as opposed to President Trump?
Under Trump we're weaker, sicker, poorer, and more divided
BIDEN: Under this president, we've become weaker, sicker, poor, more divided and more violent.
Q: The FBI Director said that Russia has been "very active in its efforts to influence the election & denigrate" you.
Russia is an opponent, not an enemy
Q: Do you believe Russia is an enemy?
China is a competitor, not an opponent
Q: How will you handle Russia's interfering in the election and compromising the voting system of the United States?
Push plan to make voting machinery & process secure
Unlike the Obama administration, the Trump administration had actually taken a hard line against Russia, which the media hardly ever reported because it didn't fit their Trump-Russia collusion narrative. Since taking office, President Trump had imposed
crippling sanctions on Russia; closed Russian diplomatic properties in the United States and expelled Russian spies pretending to be diplomats; approved the sale of lethal arms to Ukraine to defend against Russian aggression; persuaded
NATO allies to increase their military spending to deter Russia; isolated and sanctioned Russia's worst proxies: Iran and Venezuela; made
America the number one producer of oil and gas, lowering the cost of energy and hurting the Russian economy; and rebuilt our military so that neither Russia nor any other foreign adversary could challenge the United States.
Hard line against Russia: sanctions & diplomatic expulsions
One of Trump's more recent foreign policy scandals was the suggestion that Russia had been paying bounties to Taliban fighters in Afghanistan for dead U.S. troops, which is believed to be linked to several American deaths in Afghanistan. "Under
President Biden, America will not turn a blind eye to Russian bounties on the heads of American soldiers," the former vice president said. "Nor will I put up with foreign interference in our most sacred democratic exercise: voting."
Don't turn a blind eye to Russian bounties on US soldiers
Tweet from @realDonaldTrump: "@washingtonpost Headline reads, 'A BOOST IN TESTS, BUT LACK OF TAKERS.' We have done a great job on Ventilators, Testing, and everything else. Were left little by Obama. Over 11 million tests, and going up fast. More than
all countries in the world, combined."
Falsely claims US did more tests rest of world combined
OnTheIssues FactCheck: According to WorldOMeters.info, tests as of May 18:
Just those three countries combined total more tests
than the USA, so "more than all countries in the world combined" is false. Worldwide, the current total is 61M tests. Trump's figures would indicate the USA has performed over 50% of the world's tests; in fact USA is under 20%.
World leaders held an online summit aimed at galvanizing global efforts to develop a coronavirus vaccine. At the end of the three-hour meeting, billions of dollars had been pledged to fund the efforts. Notably absent
from the meeting were any officials from the Trump administration in the U.S., the country with the highest confirmed death toll from the new disease by far. Russia also declined to join the meeting.
Administration didn't participate in global vaccine summit
President Trump warned he could veto the newly House-passed Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act bill until the origins of the Russia probe, which he called an "attempted coup," are investigated. "Many
Republican Senators want me to Veto the FISA Bill until we find out what led to, and happened with, the illegal attempted 'coup' of the duly elected President of the United States, and others!" Trump tweeted.
May veto FISA bill; unless "attempted coup" against him
NATO is going to crumble if we don't beat Trump. NATO is in real trouble. We need NATO for more reasons than just physical security. We need NATO to make sure that we do not allow Russia to continue to have its influence in Eastern Europe in ways that
it had before. It wasn't just to stop the Soviet Union from coming into the United States, coming into Europe. It was to make sure that we did not have a kleptocracy taking over that part of the world, to unite Europe in our behalf.
NATO will crumble if Trump wins a second term
Q: Russian President Vladimir Putin has interfered with Georgian, Ukrainian, French, German, U.K., and U.S. elections. He has occupied territories of Georgia and Ukraine. What will you do to end all of these attacks, which some have said are acts of war?
Putin wants to weaken NATO and democracy
The president stands on the stage at the G- 20, looks at Vladimir Putin and says, he told me he didn't interfere. When 18 of our security agencies said we have proof, I guarantee you there's proof. And what are we doing? What are our friends in the
Congress doing? They're blocking the ability to make sure we secure the election. I know President Putin, and he knows me. He knows there will be consequences if he tries to interfere with our election.
If Putin interferes, there will be consequences
Q: In the final year of the Obama-Biden administration, was there more you could have done to prevent Russian interference?
We had to wait until after election to tell about it
FactCheck on Claim 1: Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election
OpEd: Trump's attack on Ukraine politically driven falsehood
Claim 1: Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election
Pushed false theory that Ukraine framed Russia over meddling
Trump directed his lawyer, Michael Cohen, to make illegal hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the election to keep her from talking about her alleged extramarital affair with Trump. Trump secretly tried to score a
development project in Moscow that could have earned him hundreds of millions of dollars, and his company asked Vladimir Putin's office for assistance in sealing the deal. (Trump falsely told American voters that he had no business interests in Russia.)
Paid hush money to porn star; lied about Moscow deal
The FBI has great and honorable people, but the leadership was inept and corrupt. I would think that you would personally be appalled by these revelations, because in your press conference the day you announced impeachment, you tied the impeachment
effort directly to the completely discredited Russia Hoax, declaring twice that "all roads lead to Putin," when you know that is an abject lie. I have been far tougher on Russia than President Obama ever even thought to be.
Russia Hoax: I have been far tougher on Russia than Obama
Q: The American Intelligence community says that Russia is trying to capitalize on the power vacuums around the world [left by America's exit from Syria and from alliances]. What would you do as President to check Vladimir Putin's power on the world
stage?
Russia wants to break up NATO; work with Turkey to keep it
On April 10, 2015 , Pence flew with a delegation of Indiana business leaders, political donors, and politicos to Berlin. The formal announcement from the governor's office was that this trip was about trade and nothing else. Meanwhile,
Pence's team pitched the Berlin trip as something else. The national press corps bit.
Robust missile defense in Europe against Russian aggression
One of the almost intangible strengths of America is that we can hold ourselves out as a democracy, imperfect though we may be. So they decide to attack what is the strongest pillar of a democracy, which is free and open elections. And you know what
caught heat? The issue of race. So Russia exposed America's Achilles heel. Now it is also a national security issue. And we need to deal with it.
Russian election interference exploited racial divide
Mueller showed a rare flash of indignation regarding WikiLeaks. Mueller called Mr. Trump's encouragement of WikiLeaks "problematic." WikiLeaks published emails stolen by Russian agents during the 2016 campaign, first from the Democratic National
Committee, then from Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta. Mr. Trump cheered the group on repeatedly, praised its actions and urged voters to read the purloined communications.
2016: cheered on WikiLeaks releasing Hillary's stolen emails
Q: What is the greatest national security threat to the United States?
Trump embracing Korean & Russian dictators is a threat
Q: If foreigners, if Russia, if China, if someone else offers you information on opponents, should they accept it or should they call the FBI?
Would take info on opponents from foreigners, might call FBI
STEPHANOPOULOS: Your campaign this time around, if foreigners, if Russia, if China, if someone else offers you information on opponents, should they accept it or should they call the FBI?
Foreign-provided opposition info? Read it; maybe call FBI
ENDLESS WAR: We will never have a secure peace as long as capitalism's competitive economic structure generates international conflicts and wars. Nuclear-armed capitalist states--including the US, Russia, and China--compete for resources,
markets, cheap labor, and geopolitical military positioning. If we don't replace capitalism's nationalistic competition with socialism's international cooperation, sooner or later these conflicts will end in nuclear annihilation.
Endless war follows from capitalist competition
What the Mueller Report says:The Aug. 2, 2016 meeting included the start of what would be a series of discussions between Manafort & Kilimnik about a so-called peace plan for Ukraine, which Manafort admitted to prosecutors was "a backdoor
means for Russia to control eastern Ukraine."
OpEd: Russia helped Trump so they'd control eastern Ukraine
In his first months in office, Trump had seethed over FBI director James Comey's refusal to tell the world that the president was not being scrutinized personally as part of the bureau's investigation of whether the Trump campaign had coordinated with
Russia to interfere with the 2016 presidential race.
Mueller appointed to investigate Trump after Comey firing
The Internet Research Agency (IRA), based in St. Petersburg, Russia, carried out a social media campaign designed to provoke and amplify political and social discord in the US.
Mueller Report: Russia bought pro-Bernie social media ads
Mueller's work was at times stymied by the lies witnesses told and the communications that they had deleted or failed to maintain. And they said Trump himself, in resisting a sit-down interview, had provided "inadequate" written answers that stated more
than thirty times that he "does not recall" information investigators asked about.
Mueller results: 7 guilty pleas and 34 indictments
Paul Manafort was charged in federal court on October 30, 2017, then convicted on eight felony counts.
Campaign manager convicted: conspiracy with Ukraine & Russia
Contrary to the way this president behaves, I would actually listen to the U.S. intelligence agencies. The U.S. intelligence agencies have an uncommon uniformity on this issue. They're very clear that there has been Russian interference. I will make it
clear to the American people, number one, that I agree with our intelligence agencies that this is happening and, number two, that we're on it. In terms of the voting machines, we must have paper ballots. We absolutely must have paper ballots.
Must address election security & Russian interference
The [Mueller] investigation identified two different forms of connections between the Russia-based Internet Research Agency (IRA) and members of the Trump Campaign. (The investigation identified no similar connections between the IRA and the Clinton
Campaign.) First, on multiple occasions, members and surrogates of the Trump Campaign promoted--typically by linking or retweeting--pro-Trump or anti-Clinton social media content published by the IRA. Additionally, in a few instances, IRA employees
represented themselves as U.S. persons to communicate with members of the Trump Campaign in an effort to seek assistance and coordination on IRA-organized political rallies inside the US.
Russia made up voter fraud story & Trump campaign re-posted
Starting in June 2016, [the Russia-based Internet Research Agency] IRA contacted different persons affiliated with the Trump Campaign, while claiming to be US political activists working on behalf of a conservative grassroots organization. The IRA
requested signs and other materials to use at IRA-organized rallies, as well as requests to promote the rallies. While certain campaign volunteers agreed to provide the requested support (for example, agreeing to set aside a number of signs), the
investigation has not identified evidence that any Trump Campaign official understood the requests were coming from foreign nationals.
Campaign supplied Russians, without knowing it was Russia
On July 27, 2016, [the Russian GRU's] Unit 26165 targeted email accounts connected to candidate Clinton's personal office. Earlier that day, candidate Trump made the following public statement: "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find
the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press." The "30,000 emails" were apparently a reference to emails described in media accounts as stored on a personal server that candidate Clinton had used while
serving as Secretary of State.
Trump challenged Russia to hack Hillary's email; Russia did
The President had a motive to put the FBI's Russia investigation behind him. The evidence does not establish that the termination of Comey was designed to cover up a conspiracy between the Trump Campaign and Russia. But the evidence does indicate that a
thorough FBI investigation would uncover facts about the campaign and the President personally that the President could have understood to be crimes.
Trump: no connection to Russia; Mueller: yes, hotel business
On May 17, 2017, Acting Attorney General Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller as Special Counsel to conduct the Russia investigation and matters that arose from the investigation. The President stated that the Special Counsel's appointment was the end of
his presidency and that Attorney General Sessions had failed to protect him and should resign. Sessions submitted his resignation, which the President ultimately did not accept. The President told senior advisors that the Special Counsel had conflicts
of interest, but they responded that those claims were "ridiculous" and posed no obstacle
Attempted to fire Special Counsel, but staff refused
The Internet Research Agency (IRA), based in St. Petersburg, Russia, received funding from Russian oligarchs with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, to carry out a social media campaign designed to provoke and amplify political and social discord
in the United States.
Mueller Report: Russia bought pro-Trump social media ads
End Syrian conflict; pull out U.S. troops
We have begun to fully rebuild the military--with $700 billion last year and $716 billion this year. We are also getting other nations to pay their fair share. For years, the US was being treated very unfairly by NATO--but now we have secured a
$100 billion increase in defense spending from NATO allies.
Withdraw from INF and develop Missile Defense System
President Trump said that Russia has violated the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty "with impunity, covertly developing and fielding a prohibited missile system that poses a direct threat to our allies and troops abroad."
Russia violates the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty
Given Russia's unprecedented effort to undermine confidence in our election system. There's no question that the Kremlin is emboldened--to try again.
Secure Elections Act: prevent foreign interference
Syrian president Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons on his own people, an act Haley condemned as "a violation of all standards of morality." The Russian ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, began a meeting of the Security Council by criticizing the
United States for making threats. "What is strange is that Russia is ignoring the real threat to international peace and security that has brought us all here, and it is ignoring its own unilateral responsibility for all of it," she said.
Condemned Russia for criticizing US over Syria response
Q: Trump has invited Vladimir Putin to the White House.
Russian cyber-attacks threaten integrity of US elections
Q: Who is your biggest competitor, your biggest foe globally right now?
European Union is a foe in trade, & in lack of NATO payments
President Trump on Sunday again launched a blistering Twitter attack on the media, a day before his highly anticipated meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Our news media is the enemy of the people
The Democratic Party sued President Donald Trump's presidential campaign, the Russian government and the Wikileaks group, claiming a broad conspiracy to help Trump win the 2016 election.
Sued by Democratic Party for 2016 Russia collusion
Q: Since last year, there have been at least 30 chemical weapons attacks in Syria. Why did this particular attack last week warrant military action?
Military action & sanctions against Syrian chemical weapons
Around the world, we face rogue regimes, terrorist groups, and rivals like China and Russia that challenge our interests, our economy, and our values. In confronting these dangers, we know that weakness is the surest path to conflict, and
unmatched power is the surest means of our defense.
Unmatched power is key to defense, including more nukes
Q: Is it accurate or useful to describe where we are with Russia as a second or new cold war?
Easier for Russia to deal with disunified West
Q: What about relations with Russia?
Supports laws sanctioning Russia for election interference
In 2015, Putin-backed separatists made an assault on Ukrainian soldiers. Putin was doing everything he could to destabilize the Ukrainian economy and force a collapse of the newly elected government in Kyiv.
Russia vs. Ukraine: Big country beating up a smaller one
[I presented my views on the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the Senate floor], that it is not the objective to collapse or weaken the Russian economy. But President Putin has to make a simple, stark choice: get out of Ukraine or face continued isolation
and growing economic costs at home.
Inviolate borders for Ukraine; no spheres of influence
At a time when climate change is causing devastating problems here in America and around the world, foreign policy is about whether we work with the international community--with China, Russia, India and countries around the world--
to transform our energy systems away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.
Sensible foreign policy understands that climate change is a real threat to every country on earth, that it is not a hoax, and that no country alone can effectively combat it.
It is an issue for the entire international community, and an issue that the United States should be leading in, not ignoring or denying.
Climate change is issue for entire international community
It sounds strange. The Vice President running against his President for president. But this would never be the case. Instead, should Trump be unable to run for president in 2020 (viz Russia investigation), then Pence would be the obvious frontrunner for
the party. He has started his own PAC named "Great America Committee" and this is likely the beginning of his gathering of funds for a presidential bid in the future. Although it is highly unlikely that Pence would run in 2020, he is still a possibility
due to the investigations surrounding Trump and his administration. Should the GOP want to change course if Trump is not yielding the results they wish or if Trump begins to jeopardize candidates down the ballot (again), Pence could be the person they
turn to. The ultimate question for Pence is: can Trump stay out of trouble and provide the GOP a good chance of maintaining their unified government?
Founded PAC Great America Committee separate from Trump
Q: On NATO: One of the biggest concerns in Europe right now is that President Trump was not willing to publicly reiterate the U.S. commitment to article 5, the principle that an attack on one nation in NATO is an attack on all. Russian President
Vladimir Putin suggested this weekend that these squabbles at NATO are helpful to Russia. I understand that the President wants every country to pay its fair share, of course. But why was the President not willing to underscore the US' commitment to our
allies in NATO?
Recommit that attack on one NATO nation is an attack on all
Trump's about-face in supporting NATO was only part of a day of flip flops: the president determined that China is not a currency manipulator after all, and embraced the Ex-Im Bank that he once called unnecessary. Most striking, he pivoted on Russia,
lashing it for supporting rogue nations after years of praising Pres. Vladimir Putin.
NATO: apply new solutions to face new circumstances
As a private citizen and candidate, Trump argued that Syria's civil war was not America's problem. But as president, Trump launched a missile strike on Russia's ally Assad, after the Kremlin intervened in last year's election on his behalf.
One-time missile strike in response to Syria chemical attack
Q: Do you think that a special prosecutor is needed for Russia's election tampering?
No special prosecutor on Russian election tampering
Q: When asked about Russia being "killers," President Trump responded, "What, you think our country is so innocent?"
America represent the highest ideals of humankind
Q: You said during the presidential campaign, "America is the strongest moral power for what is good and what is right in the world."
America is strongest moral power for what is good and right
Q: What does Donald Trump feel about Russia?
Re-engage the world but put America first
President-elect Donald Trump called for the US to expand its nuclear arsenal, after Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country's nuclear potential needs fortifying, raising the specter of a new arms race that would reverse decades of efforts to
reduce the number and size of the two countries' nuclear weapons.
Expand US nuclear capability; we're falling behind
Q: What about allegations of Russian involvement in this election?
Condemn Russian & any country's involvement in our elections
Q: Why do you think a nuclear war is more likely under a President Clinton than a President Trump?
Syria invited Russia into war; don't threaten no-fly zone
Q: Don't you question our involvement in NATO?
Warsaw Pact ended NATO's reason to exist, then NATO expanded
CLINTON: I think we can take back Mosul, and then we can move on into Syria and take back Raqqa.
If we overthrow Assad, we could end up with worse than Assad
Hillary Clinton: Syria is catastrophic. There is an effort by the Russian Air Force to destroy Aleppo to eliminate the Syrian rebels who are holding out against Assad. I advocate a no-fly zones & safe zones.
Both scary: Hillary wants Syria war & Trump wants more nukes
Q: What would you do about Syria and the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo? And I want to remind you what your running mate said. He said provocations by Russia need to be met with American strength and that if Russia continues to be involved in air strikes
along with the Syrian government forces of Assad, the US should be prepared to use military force to strike the military targets of the Assad regime.
FactCheck: Pence says pressure Assad; Trump focuses on ISIS
There's an old proverb that says the Russian bear never dies, it just hibernates. The weak foreign policy of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has awakened an aggression in Russia that first appeared a few years ago with their move in Georgia,
now their move into Crimea, now their move into the wider Middle East. All we do is fold our arms and say we're not having talks anymore. We need American strength. We need to marshal the resources of our allies in the region.
America is stronger than Russia. Our economy is 16 times larger than the Russian economy. America's political system is superior to the crony, corrupt capitalist system in Russia. When Donald Trump and I observe that the small and bullying leader of
Russia has been stronger on the world stage than this administration, that's stating painful facts. That's not an endorsement of Vladimir Putin. That's an indictment of the weak and feckless leadership.
Fight Russia with strength and allies
Hillary Clinton's top priority when she became secretary of state was the Russian reset. After the Russian reset, the Russians invaded Ukraine and took over Crimea. And the small and bullying leader of Russia is now dictating terms to the US [in Syria].
Look, we have got to begin to lean into this with strong, broad-shouldered American leadership.
Rebuild military and project American strength in the world
Hillary Clinton's top priority when she became secretary of state was the Russian reset. After the Russian reset, the Russians invaded Ukraine and took over Crimea. And the small and bullying leader of Russia is now dictating terms to the US [in Syria].
Look, we have got to begin to lean into this with strong, broad-shouldered American leadership.
Rebuild military and project American strength in the world
Hillary Clinton has said she would like to impose a no-fly zone over Syria, which basically means we are going to war with Russia, because imposing a no-fly zone [means] you shoot down people that are in that airspace. And remember, we have 2,000
nuclear weapons now, between us and the Russians, on hair-trigger alert. So, this is certainly a very dangerous territory, where Hillary Clinton has continued to beat the drums of war, leading us in a very dangerous direction.
Nuclear disarmament with Russia, not threats over Syria
Q: How do we fight a cyber attack?
We invented Internet but ISIS is beating us at our own game
Q: What prepares you to make the decisions that a commander-in-chief has to make?
Russia wants to defeat ISIS as badly as we do; work together
Trump noted that Russia's leader, Vladimir Putin, had been quoted saying that Trump was brilliant. Trump smirked at American media accounts suggesting it maybe wasn't a great thing for a presidential candidate to be praised by the autocratic leader
of one of the country's most difficult rivals. "Oh, isn't it terrible that Putin said nice things?" Trump mocked. "That's not terrible, that's good...Wouldn't it be nice if we could get along with people?"
Reporters were forever twisting his words, making it sound as if Trump supported Putin, he said. "By the way, I hate some of these 'reporters'. But I'd never kill them. I hate them". The cheers reached a new pinnacle, and
Trump, his voice rising with the crowd's lusty shouts, added, "Some of them are such lying, disgusting people, it's true, it's true. But I would never kill them."
It's good that Putin says nice things about me
As early as 1987, Trump had expressed interest in building a Trump Tower in the Soviet Union. That year, on a visit to Moscow and Leningrad--now St. Petersburg--he said Soviet officials had asked him to consider building luxury hotels
there. "There are not too many ideas that I become attracted to, but that is one I think would interest a lot of people," Trump said at the time. "Not purely from an economic standpoint, either."
1987 thru 2013: Tried to build Trump Tower in Moscow
On July 26, 2016, in a prime-time speech at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, I endorsed Hillary Clinton and urged my supporters and the American people to elect her as president.
DNC tilted primary in favor of Hillary Clinton
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton's policies have weakened America's place in the world. Terrorist attacks at home and abroad, grim and heartbreaking scenes from France just a few weeks ago, and the attempted coup in Turkey all attest to a world spinning
apart. History teaches that weakness arouses evil. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's foreign-policy of leading from behind, moving red lines, feigning resets with Russia, and the rise of ISIS are a testament to the truth of history.
Other countries respect strength, not weakness
Q: What three questions do you ask your national security experts?
Figure out who our allies are
Gov. Jeb BUSH: Donald Trump wants to accommodate Russia. Russia is not taking out ISIS. They're attacking our team, the team that we've been training and the team that we've been supporting. It is absolutely ludicrous to suggest that Russia could be a
positive partner in this. I would restore the military; the sequester needs to be reversed.
We've spent $5T in the Mideast and gotten nothing
Russia's aggressive actions in the Crimea and Ukraine have brought about a situation where President Obama and NATO--correctly, I believe--are saying we're going to beef up our troop level in that part of the world to tell
Putin that his aggressiveness is not going to go unmatched. We have to work with NATO to protect Eastern Europe against any kind of Russian aggression.
Beef up NATO against Russian aggression
Q: Secretary of Defence Ash Carter said Russia is the most important national security threat. Do you agree?
I worry about Putin in Crimea but worry more about N. Korea
Secy. CLINTON: Assad has waged one of the bloodiest, most terrible attacks on his own people--250,000-plus dead, millions fleeing. One criticism I've had of Sen. Sanders is his suggestion that Iranian troops be used to try to end the war in Syria.
Work with Russia & Iran to get rid of Assad in Syria
He's killed, now, over a quarter of a million of his own people, and this president has done nothing. In fact, he's done worse than nothing. We have the Russians and the Iranians working together, not to fight ISIS, but to prop up Assad.
You're not going to have peace in Syria with Assad in charge.
There'll be no peace in Syria while Assad is in charge
President Obama: "Sixty years ago, when the Russians beat us into space, we didn't deny Sputnik was up there. We didn't argue about the science, or shrink our research and development budget. We built a space program almost overnight, and twelve years
later, we were walking on the moon.
Increased funding for NIH to highest level in a decade
CLINTON: [In Syria, we should work with Russia to] turn their military attention away from going after the adversaries of Assad, & put the Assad future on the political & diplomatic track.
Think about what happens AFTER we get rid of dictators
There must be an international coalition, including Russia, a well-coordinated effort. This is a war for the soul of Islam. The troops on the ground should not be American troops. They should be Muslim troops.
I believe that countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar have got to step up to the plate, have got to contribute the money that we need, and the troops that we need, to destroy ISIS with American support.
Tell Qatar and Saudi Arabia that they must fight ISIS
Q: If the U.S. imposed a no-fly zone over Syria and a Russian plane encroached on that no-fly zone, would you be prepared to shoot down that Russian plane and risk war with Russia?
Declare no-fly zone in Syria and enforce against Russians
Q: Russia has invaded Ukraine, and has put troops in Syria. You have said you will have a good relationship with Mr. Putin. So, what does President Trump do in response to Russia's aggression?
Let Russia bash ISIS; let Germany defend Ukraine
It's not only Russia [that we're having trouble with]. We have problems with North Korea where they actually have nuclear weapons. You know, nobody talks about it, we talk about Iran, and that's one of the worst deals ever made. One of the worst
contracts ever signed, ever, in anything, and it's a disgrace. But, we have somebody over there, a madman, who already has nuclear weapons we don't talk about that.
We worry about Iranian nukes but why not North Korean nukes?
Q [to Clinton]: What about Putin's actions involving Russia in Syria [bombing ISIS to defend President Assad]?
Putin regrets invading Crimea & the Ukraine
Q: What to do in Syria?
Syria is a quagmire within a quagmire; don't get involved
Q: Let's talk about Syria. Vladimir Putin going in aggressively this week, two or three days of air strikes. If you were president, what would you do?
Push Russia out of Middle East; establish US dominance
Q: You came across to me as if you welcomed Putin's involvement in Syria. You said you saw very little downside. Why?
Good that Russia is involved in Syria
Q: This week we're going to see a lot of world leaders come to Manhattan. Might you have a meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin?
Diplomacy & respect crucial to our relationship with Russia
Q: What would you do right now if you were president, to get the Russians out of Syria?
Putin has no respect for America; I will get along with him
Although Bernie is generally anti-war, he begrudgingly supported NATO's bombing of Serbia in 1999. He voiced concerns, but did not vigorously oppose NATO's 2011 military intervention in Libya.
Begrudgingly supports NATO, but no eastward expansion
Q: You wrote, "Pulling back from Europe would save this country millions of dollars annually. The cost of stationing NATO troops in Europe is enormous. And these are clearly funds that can be put to better use." Would you want to end the NATO alliance
completely?
Support NATO, but it's not us against Russia
OnTheIssues: Should we help Ukraine against Russia?
Work towards neutral Ukraine; don't arm them against Russia
OnTheIssues: What should the U.S. do about Russia?
Expanding NATO threatens Russia and breaks our promise
What does Donald Trump believe? Iran and Israel: Walk away from nuclear talks. Increase sanctions.
More sanctions on Iran; more support of Israel
Our enemies are getting stronger and stronger, and we as a country are getting weaker. Even our nuclear arsenal doesn't work.
Our nuclear arsenal doesn't work; it's 30 years old
A few days after Russian forces invaded Crimea, Gov. Chris Christie was asked at a confidential meeting how he would have handled the situation differently from President Obama.
Given who I am, Putin would not have invaded Crimea
Q: During a recent trade mission to Germany, recently you criticized the way President Obama has been handling Ukraine. You said, "With Putin's aggression in Ukraine, I believe we must take immediate steps to strengthen our mutual security by deploying
a robust missile defense in all of Europe." Does that mean a missile defense in the Czech Republic or Poland? How does missile defense help?
Grow NATO stronger; Poland & Czech missile shield
I believe it is imperative that we who believe in democracy and freedom, stand against the forces that would reshape Europe by aggression. As some claim territorial gains, they forfeit moral ground. I remember too well the efforts by the US to "reset"
our relationship with Russia just a few short years ago. I said then that, "History teaches us that weakness and appeasement invite aggression" and feared that our country was rewarding an increasingly antagonistic Russia. With Russian aggression
on the rise again, it is clear that our policy of conciliatory diplomacy has failed. While new sanctions are of some value, in the interest of our alliance, I believe the US and the EU must respond with deeds more than words to strengthen our economic
and strategic defenses [including] deploying a robust missile defense in all of Europe. Stronger economic ties and stronger defenses are the right policy for our two countries and the right strategic response to Russian aggression.
Russian "reset" is appeasement and invites aggression
[Recent internationally] important step enabled us to do some good things: to negotiate, ratify and implement the New START Treaty; to expand economic and trade relationships--including both Russian accession to the WTO and extension of the permanent
normal trade relations to Russia; to build a bilateral presidential commission that networks Russian and American officials and publics on the broadest cooperative agenda the US and Russia have ever tried to share.
Permanent normal trade relations to Russia
When we came into office two years ago, our relationship with Russia had reached a low point. The war between Russia and Georgia played a role in that decline, but even before that conflict erupted in August 2008, a dangerous drift was under way.
US and Russia can disagree and still work together
conditions adopted by the Senate. For three hours in the Kremlin, he matched wits with Brezhnev and Premier Alexei Kosygin. In the long exchange, Biden wrote, "I did manage to get an unspoken assurance from him that the Soviets would likely accede to
In the summer of 1979, with Senate ratification of the SALT II Treaty signed by Carter and Brezhnev in peril, the president asked Biden to lead a delegation of six young senators to Moscow seeking assurances that the Soviet leaders would abide by new
the treaty modifications the Senate had under consideration. The Soviets wanted the treaty passed, too." In the end, however, after Biden's best efforts to sell ratification, it fell short in the Senate. Nevertheless, when Ronald Reagan won the White
House in 1980, his administration informally complied with the SALT II limits. When in 1986, he threatened to abandon them, Biden along with Republican Senator William Cohen of Maine proposed legislation to prevent him from doing so.
1979: Met with Soviet leaders about SALT II Treaty
Our country is less secure and more isolated that it has been any time it has in recent history. The Bush foreign policy has dug us into a very deep hole, with very few friends to help us climb out. For the last seven years, the administration has failed
to face the biggest forces shaping this century. The emergence of Russia, China and India's great powers, the spread of lethal weapons, the shortage of secure supplies of energy, food and water. The challenge of climate change and the resurgence of
fundamentalism in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the real central front in the war on terror. We once again see the consequences of the neglect of Russia challenging the very freedom of a new democratic country of Georgia. Barack and I will end that neglect.
We will hold Russia accountable for its action and we will help Georgia rebuild. I have been on the ground in Georgia, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and I can tell you in no uncertain terms, this administration's policy has been an abysmal failure.
The US is less secure and more isolated in recent history
Q: When future historians write of your administration's foreign policy, what will be noted as your doctrine?
Doctrine of crisis prevention, not preemption
Q: What three nations, other than Iraq, represent, to you, the biggest threat to the United States?
Biggest threat to US is from North Korea, Iran, & Russia
In March 1993, I got an assistance program I could support: $1.6 billion in direct aid to help Russia stabilize.
1993: Strongly endorsed $1.6B Russia aid package
In the modern world you can’t very easily draw up a simple, general foreign policy. I was busy making deals during the last decade of the cold war. Now the game has changed. The day of the chess player is over. Foreign policy has to be put in the hands
of a dealmaker.
Post-Cold War: switch from chess player to dealmaker
I don’t understand why American policymakers are always so timid in dealing with Russia on issues that directly involve our survival. Kosovo was a perfect case in point: Russia was holding out its hand for billions of dollars in IMF loans
(to go along with billions in aid the U.S. has given) the same week it was issuing threats and warnings regarding our conduct in the Balkans. We need to tell Russia and other recipients that if they want our dime they had better do our dance,
at least in matters regarding our national security. These people need us much more than we need them. We have leverage, and we are crazy not to use it to better advantage.
Support Russia, but with strings attached
Candidates on Foreign Policy:
2024 Presidential primary contenders:
Gov.Doug Burgum (R-ND)
Gov.Chris Christie (R-NJ)
Gov.Ron DeSantis (R-FL)
Larry Elder (R-CA)
Rep.Will Hurd (R-FL)
Gov.Nikki Haley (R-SC)
Gov.Asa Hutchinson (R-AR)
Perry Johnson (R-IL)
Mayor Steve Laffey (R-RI)
V.P.Mike Pence (R-IN)
Rep.Dean Phillips (D-MN)
Vivek Ramaswamy (R-)
Sen.Tim Scott (R-SC)
Secy.Corey Stapleton (R-MT)
Mayor Francis Suarez (R-FL)
Marianne Williamson (D-CA)
2024 Presidential Nominees:
Pres.Joe Biden (Democratic incumbent)
V.P.Kamala Harris (Democratic nominee)
Chase Oliver (Libertarian Party)
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (Independent)
Dr.Jill Stein (Green Party)
Pres.Donald Trump (Republican nominee)
Sen.JD Vance (Republican V.P. nominee)
Gov.Tim Walz (Democratic V.P. nominee)
Dr.Cornel West (People's Party)
2024 Presidential primary also-ran's or never-ran's:
Ryan Binkley (R-TX)
Howie Hawkins (Green Party)
Joe Maldonado (Libertarian Party)
Sen.Bernie Sanders (D-VT)
Kanye West (Birthday Party)
Other Topics in the News:
Afghanistan/Taliban
Black Lives Matter
China
Coronavirus Pandemic
Energy Independence
Gay Rights
Global Warming
Illegal Immigrants
Israel/Palestine
North Korea
ObamaCare
Second Amendment
Supreme Court
Ukraine/Russia
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