President Joe Biden's executive orders impacting the oil and gas industry "took away the club" the United States had to wield on the world stage, which gave leverage to Russia and allowed it to fill its coffers so it could withstand economic sanctions as it invaded Ukraine, Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., told Newsmax on Monday.
"This goes back to Inauguration Day when President Biden specifically targeted his own personal war on the United States' oil and gas industry," Clyde told "John Bachman Now." "It gave more leverage to Russia, and it took away our leverage, and it gave more money to Russia.
"That's just incredibly poor leadership."
With his moves against fossil fuels, Biden is "bowing to the left, and that's just despicable," Clyde added.
"Green energy is not going to win this battle on the world stage," as Russian President Vladimir Putin "feeds his nation" with oil and gas, the congressman said.
"If the United States had a robust energy policy where we could be net energy exporters, then we could take away that leverage that Russia has," Clyde continued. "Russia never would have invaded Ukraine if we would have had that robust energy policy in place, because we could have crushed them immediately."
But now, the United States is buying energy from Russia, rather than being able to immediately terminate the supply from that country, Clyde said.
The congressman said he does applaud the Ukrainians for their "tremendous courage" while standing up as the underdog against Russia.
"You know, they could win this fight," Clyde said. "Russia has superior weapons, but Ukraine has the will, and that's what it takes on the battlefield. It's not just superior weapons. I mean, we saw that in Afghanistan, the disaster of the withdrawal. The Afghan government had $85 billion of the world's most superior weapons, and they folded in a matter of days to the Taliban. Why? Because there was no will."
Meanwhile, Biden is giving his first State of the Union address Tuesday, and Clyde said the president must use it to "show a strength that he hasn't shown before."
"He needs to ensure that that that he projects a united NATO, a united world against Russia," Clyde said. "He's the leader of the free world and he's going to lead, but he's not doing that very well."
He also said he thinks Biden will use the troubles in Ukraine "as a distraction from the myriad of crises that we are seeing here in the United States," including on energy, the border, and inflation.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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