Florida Rep. Michael Waltz (R) commented on the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, saying that the invasion “violates the very fabric of international norms and is a direct threat to our Western values.” With mounting sanctions against Russia and NATO discussing a proper response to the invasion, the Florida Republican directed blame to the President while assessing the global implications of the invasion.
“The United States is now on the verge of losing a second democratic partner in just six months while our global adversaries have expanded their influence of evil around the globe,” said Waltz, adding that “as was the case with Russia after the fall of Kabul- China, North Korean, and Iran will only be further emboldened by the fecklessness of the Biden Administration’s weak response, placing Americans and our national interests in jeopardy.”
GOP members have voiced their disapproval of President Biden’s foreign policy, and Florida Rep. Mario Diaz Balart (R), earlier this week, also directed criticism at the President’s “feckless foreign policy.”
In response to the attack, the President announced a number of sanctions against Russia, but now some political pundits are urging the President to sanction Putin himself.
For Waltz, “this invasion could have been deterred had the Biden Administration maintained sanctions on Nord Stream 2, pressured our NATO allies to move away from energy reliability on Russia, forcefully responded to the Kremlin-linked hacks on the Colonial Pipeline last year, and implemented preventative sanctions on Russia prior to their invasion into Ukraine.”
Waltz also provided a distinction between the Biden Administration and the Trump Administration, expressing that the previous Administration "demonstrated real deterrence by implementing meaningful sanctions, successfully convincing our NATO allies to increase their defense spending, taking the fight directly to Russian mercenaries in Syria, and withdrawing from agreements like INF and Open Skies when it was clear Putin was violating them."
