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Washington, D.C. – House Foreign Affairs Committee Lead Republican Michael McCaul (R-TX) and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Lead Republican Mike Turner (R-OH) hosted a press conference yesterday on President Biden’s national security blunders. 

Watch here

“Putin has always wanted Ukraine, it’s a breadbasket of Russia, he sees it as part of Russia.  It’s just a question of timing and I believe he thought this was the right time to take it back,” Congressman McCaul said. “Juxtapose that to Chairman Xi in China who sees Taiwan in the same way, he’s watching this very closely to see how this experience goes to make a calculated decision if the invasion of Taiwan is fruitful. What worries me the most is this is kind of like my dad’s generation World War II and I never thought I’d see anything like this in my lifetime. To violate territorial sovereignty, such an aggressive invasion, the likes of which we really haven’t seen since World War II. I just got back from [the Poland-Ukraine border] and it was very reminiscent of the Nazis invading Poland. And seeing the refugees as well, [Russia has] created a major major crisis.”

“Today we are less safe because the Administration continues to say what it will not do, continue to say what it is concerned about instead of saying what it will do and making it clear to Russia of the actions that NATO will do in a unified manner if Russia does cross red lines,” Congressman Turner said. “This Administration continues to be in a reacting mode rather than making it clear that there are red lines… an understanding that there are those red lines I think can help deter and contain Russia.”

-Opening Remarks as Delivered-

“We want to talk to you today…about not just China but Russia, Ukraine, emerging threats throughout the world…

We had Condoleezza Rice speak to us earlier and she always taught me you wouldn’t be liked by all countries, but you know what they’re not going to like you and if they don’t, you want them to respect you and if they don’t respect you, you want them to fear you. And I worry that we’re in this situation because the deterrence was not there after Afghanistan and the debacle in Afghanistan signaled weakness. The waiver of the Nord Stream 2 sanctions at the same time signaled weakness to allow Putin to develop his pipeline into Europe that Congress had mandatorily sanctioned. And the New START Treaty without any concessions.

Putin has always wanted Ukraine, it’s a breadbasket of Russia, he sees it as part of Russia. It’s just a question of timing and I believe he thought this was the right time to take it back. Juxtapose that to Chairman Xi in China who sees Taiwan in the same way, he’s watching this very closely to see how this experience goes to make a calculated decision if the invasion of Taiwan is fruitful. What worries me the most is this is kind of like my dad’s generation World War II and I never thought I’d see anything like this in my lifetime. To violate territorial sovereignty, such an aggressive invasion, the likes of which we really haven’t seen since World War II. I just got back from [the Poland-Ukraine border] and it was very reminiscent of the Nazis invading Poland. And seeing the refugees as well, [Russia has] created a major major crisis.”