One of the major themes President-elect Donald Trump has emphasized in the clear mandate he received from the election results is that the United States should prioritize defending its sovereignty and not that of a foreign country, such as Ukraine, Sen. Bill Hagerty told CBS News' "Face the Nation" on Sunday.
The Tennessee Republican stressed that "this is a presidency that has a mandate like we haven't seen ... in 36 years. The American public has spoken loud and clear. And I think ... there are a number of places where Washington has been out of touch with the American people. You mentioned Ukraine; I think that's a great example."
Hagerty declared that "the American people want sovereignty protected here in America before we spend our funds and resources protecting the sovereignty of another nation.
"You think about it — we've sent $175 billion of U.S. aid to Ukraine. That's more than three times the entire annual budget of the U.S. Marine Corps. I've been one of the few senators in the United States Senate who has voted and has opposed every cent of this Ukraine aid. I've been listening to the American people. We need to focus on our own issues first."
He added that "we should never have been in Ukraine. It's a result of failed policies, failed energy policies, the failure in Afghanistan."
When CBS' Margaret Brennan pointed out that there is no U.S. presence in Ukraine, Hagerty reiterated that "no, but our funds. I'm talking about the vast amount of funds, again, $175 billion. That's a tremendous amount, as I said, more than three times the budget of the U.S. Marine Corps.
"The American people want to focus on fixing our problems here, and with the borders collapse, with crime in the cities, we've got to pay attention to America."
The senator stressed that "what it means is that we need to take a very deliberate focus on America first. But we need to be leading from a position of strength. As I said, we would not be in this position."
He argued that "now what we have is an administration that's allowing Russia to sell [oil] at a $60 a barrel cap. The argument they make that reduces Russia's profits. What it does actually, is it subsidizes China to compete again, unfairly against us, with an energy cost advantage. And we keep [Russian President] Vladimir Putin fully funding this war in Ukraine. We need to stop that. We need to go back to producing our own energy and take Russia out."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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