It's time for President Joe Biden to quit reacting to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his threats, and instead start leading, Rep. Michael Waltz said on Newsmax Thursday.
"Putin is living rent-free inside Biden's head. He is determining what we do and what we don't do with his nuclear blackmail," the Florida Republican, who served as a Green Beret, said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "The first rule of warfare is to make your enemy react to you.
"In this entire crisis, Biden has been reacting to Putin. Putin has been setting the agenda. Enough is enough. We're the United States of America. Start setting the terms."
Biden, after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's address to Congress Wednesday, announced another $800 million in military aid for Ukraine, but Waltz said the move is not enough because the Biden administration has been "dragging their feet" on the air defense systems and planes the embattled country needs to defend its skies.
"What they need are the S-300 [missile system] which President Zelenskyy mentioned specifically, former Russian air defense systems that can shoot higher and further than the Stinger shoulder-fired system," said Waltz. "The Russians are bombing Ukrainian cities into rubble, and they need the air defense systems."
Ukraine also needs to receive the former Russian MiG fighter jets from Poland that the administration has blocked, said Waltz.
He added that he does not agree that the United States should institute a no-fly zone, but he does believe that Ukraine should be given what they need and that the Biden administration must "stop making these false distinctions" and claims about which weapons systems would escalate the war and which ones would not.
"It's a ridiculous distinction, and this administration is allowing Putin to draw lines and for Putin to determine what we do and what we don't do to support Zelenskyy in Ukraine," said Waltz.
The congressman said he believes Zelenskyy, in his address to Congress, "reminded us who we are as Americans" and called on Biden not to just lead the United States, but to act as the leader of the free world.
Waltz added that he believes there is a "real consensus" in Congress to give Ukraine what it needs to fight for its freedom.
"There is real frustration at the administration that's trying to split hairs on this weapons system or that weapons system," said Waltz. "It is constantly on its back foot and being dragged into doing the right thing."
Congress, by bipartisan agreement, has pushed the administration into the ban of Russian oil and into sending more lethal aid to Ukraine, he continued, and he believes it will "push him to send the dadgum MiGs."
The one place where the United States must further intervene, he added, is if Russia uses chemical or biological weapons.
"I think at this point, Biden says all options are on the table, including U.S. intervention," said Waltz. "That doesn't have to mean hundreds of thousands of American boots on the ground, but it could mean cyber or other types of activities to shut down Putin's use of WMD on the ground in Ukraine."
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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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