The U.S. green-lit Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine in part because "we let all of Western Europe get dependent on Russian energy," said North Dakota GOP Gov. and presidential hopeful Doug Burgum to Newsmax on Thursday.
"We should be selling energy to our friends and allies, not buying it from our enemies," Burgum said during an appearance on "National Report."
"But if the Biden administration says, 'Oh, we might get Harpoon missiles,' which are anti-ship missiles which could sink Chinese ships, we might get them to Taiwan in 2026 or 2027, that's green-lighting China to move now.
"The CCP [Chinese Communist Party] says 'why would we wait until they have Harpoon missiles?' We should be getting Harpoon missiles to Taiwan today and then announcing tomorrow they're already there. … You win a cold war when you're economically strong, when we win on innovation and when you put deterrence into place, and the Biden administration is 180 degrees wrong on the economy, on energy and on national security, and those three issues are all completely intertwined."
Burgum said he's "staying the course" in the presidential race despite being last in the polls.
"We know that when we're out talking to people in New Hampshire and Iowa, they're concerned about the things that matter to all American people and right now, you know, top of the list, inflation is number one," he said. "I mean, this is just not cutting into people's ability to put food on the table and gas in the car. It's so corrosive. Biden inflation is literally like reaching into their savings accounts and stealing their future.
"And then, of course, China's a hot topic everywhere we go. We're in a cold war with China. We're in a cyberwar with China. We're not talking about that enough at all about the impacts of what that's going to be on us generationally — and then the border."
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Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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