President Donald Trump is "the new sheriff in town" and it makes sense for Russia to play ball with him, former Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., told Newsmax TV.
"There's no reason why Russia would want to get into any kind of a long, drawn-out confrontation with the United States in places potentially like Afghanistan [and] Syria," the Hoekstra told Bill Tucker, guest host of Thursday's "America Talks Live."
"We have a common enemy in other parts of the world, which is called ISIS, and so . . . a stand-off between the United States and Russia is not to either one of our best interests.
"But there is a new sheriff in town, and he's going to re-exert American influence for our national security and also for our economic benefit."
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Hoekstra is former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a senior fellow at the Investigative Project on Terrorism.
He is also the author of "Architects of Disaster: The Destruction of Libya," written with Teri Blumenfeld and published by The Calamo Press.
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