Sen. Lindsey Graham's call for the assassination of Russian President Vladimir Putin is wrong, as "we should not be calling for the assassination of other world leaders, no matter how barbaric" they are being, Rep. Rob Wittman said on Newsmax Friday.
"There are a number of things that we can do to affect him as a leader of Russia, unfortunately, to affect Russia, but that's the way ultimately that we have to address that," the Virginia Republican told Newsmax's "National Report."
"This is a slippery slope, when you begin to call for the assassination of leaders that are doing things around the world that are either as barbaric as what Putin is doing or things that the nation sees as contrary to our values."
Graham, R-S.C., made his comments during a televised interview and on Twitter Thursday night, drawing fire from Democrats and Republicans alike.
Graham appeared to walk back that comment on Friday saying that Putin must go to jail, and rejected complaints from Anatoly Antonov, Russia's ambassador to the United States.
Antonov said the senator's comments were "criminal" and "outrageous and unacceptable," and said he must apologize.
Graham told Fox News' "Fox and Friends" that Antonov is guilty of "supporting a war criminal in Putin. Your country is engaged in war crimes … you, my friend, are the one who needs to apologize."
Wittman also on Friday called the White House's comments on rising gas prices, "ingenious," after press secretary Jen Psaki's claims that allowing construction to resume on the Keystone XL pipeline would not have an immediate effect.
Biden canceled the pipeline a year ago, so if it had been allowed to proceed, "it would have had an impact today," Wittman insisted. "We need to go back to constructing the pipeline. That provides the long-term certainty for energy in this nation."
The administration has also effectively shut down domestic energy production, including new development wells and exploration, "because of the incredible bureaucratic minefields that they put out there for companies," said Wittman.
But the Biden administration could immediately lift the bureaucratic impediments they put in place, he added, and restoring construction of the pipeline would have an effect because it would affect the future supply of oil, said Wittman.
The congressman also commented on statements Biden made in his State of the Union address about restoring industry to the United States and said his plans sound much like what Republicans have been saying for some time.
"All those things are conservative fiscal policies," said Wittman. "I'm glad that the president is talking about them. I don't hold out a whole lot of hope, though, the president's actually going to act upon them.
"I believe that if we actually did those things that the president talked about, and if he had done them leading up to this point, we wouldn't find ourselves in such dire straits with 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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