President Joe Biden, while calling for Russian President Vladimir Putin to be stopped, is giving Putin "ammunition" to use to justify his aggressions, Rep. Guy Reschenthaler tells Newsmax.
"It's the opposite of Teddy Roosevelt's call to 'speak softly and carry a big stick,' " the Pennsylvania Republican said Tuesday on Newsmax's "John Bachman Now." "What Joe Biden is doing is he's screaming at the Russians."
Further, Reschenthaler said he's giving Putin "ammunition to go back to the oligarchs and say See? The West is after me. They want to dismantle Russia. They never want us to regain our superpower status. It's fueling Putin and solidifying his power at home."
Biden, faced tough rebukes after promoting regime change in Russia during his speech in Warsaw on Saturday with his call to stop Putin.
On Monday, Biden said he doesn't favor regime change but that he said it's time for Putin to go to convey his outrage at the Russian leader over his aggressions against Ukraine.
"If he wants to send a message to Putin, how about you get the MiG-29s from Poland to Ukraine?" Reschenthaler said. "How about we send more Javelin missiles? More Stinger missiles, small arms? How about we engage in electronic work there and jam the Russian planes to stop the civilian casualties? Joe Biden can do all of that."
Instead, the congressman said Biden is choosing weakness and vacillation.
"Arguably Joe Biden's words are much more damaging to the war effort than anything else, but the left will get him a free pass," and "forget their rhetoric that we saw for four years of Donald Trump."
Reschenthaler also spoke out against Biden's proposed budget and his policies that allow oil to be imported from foreign countries while investing in green energy that is made in China.
"I can tell you what the value is. It's going to increase the value of Hunter Biden's billion-dollar Chinese hedge fund," said Reschenthaler. "This might be good for the economy, just the Chinese economy. If you look at the tax rates, Joe Biden wants to take the corporate tax rate to above what it is in Communist China. It would be devastating. You'd have jobs leaving for China."
Further, the measures come while China is bringing coal-fired plants online while telling the United States it should switch with wind and solar power, said the congressman.
The budget proposal also calls for dropping the number of active-duty Army soldiers down to below 1 million and cutting the procurement budget from $22 billion to $21 billion, and Reschenthaler commented that now is not the time for such measures, considering what is going on in Ukraine and the threat posed by China.
"We also have a China that's run by a Communist Party that has said openly, they want to replace the U.S. as the world superpower," he said. "They want to project power in the Pacific … and what does Biden do? What did the Democrats do? They draw down military spending."
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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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