Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican, blasted President Biden as having “emboldened” Russian President Vladimir Putin through his foreign policies. Blackburn hopped on the phone with Fox News Digital for a Wednesday interview on the situation in Ukraine, just hours before Russia launched a full-scale invasion.
In the interview, the Tennessee Republican said Biden “should have started last fall with sanctions” and the “sales of lethal aid to the Ukrainian army,” as well as giving “a coordinated, cohesive diplomatic message from the U.S. to Ukraine and thereby to our allies so that they would know that Ukraine could depend on us.”
“But President Biden chose not to do that. He chose to let this fester and to go unaddressed,” Blackburn said. “And, instead, what he’s done is to take steps that have emboldened Vladimir Putin.”
“Putin had wanted a five-year extension to New Start, and President Trump very wisely said, ‘You won’t get five years, you’re going to get one year with conditions,'” she continued. “And that was Putin’s number one ask, was that New Start treaty renewal.”
Blackburn also torched Biden for giving Putin five years with “no condition” for the New Start treaty renewal and for giving the Russian president “Nord Stream with no conditions.”
