During a Tuesday appearance on Fox News, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said former President Ronald Reagan would have ordered a stark and decisive response to that day's incident with Russia, in which two Russian Su-27 aircraft dumped fuel on and flew in front of an unmanned U.S. MQ-9 drone above the Black Sea.
One of the Russian jets struck the American drone and caused it to crash, according to the U.S. European Command.
Fox News host Sean Hannity asked Graham what would have been America's Reagan-era response to a drone takedown, courtesy of the Russians.
Without much deliberation, Graham said, "Well, we should hold them accountable and say that if you ever get near another U.S. aircraft flying in international waters, your airplane would be shot down. What would Ronald Reagan do right now? He would start shooting Russian planes down if they were threatening our assets."
Graham then expanded on his answer.
"American foreign policy is in free fall. ... all I can tell you is that on multiple fronts, we're in a dangerous situation. Weakness breeds provocation. The spy balloon over the United States, shooting down an American drone, multimillion-dollar drone, they know they can get away with it," said Graham.
The South Carolina Republican continued: "Mexico is blaming us for the fentanyl crisis, and [President] Joe Biden is like a deer in the headlights. He needs to up his game quickly."
Graham's comments mark the second time this week a Republican has evoked the spirit of President Reagan to make a point about the necessity of military engagement with the Russians.
Earlier this week, former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' isolationist viewpoint regarding the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, by saying, "DeSantis is wrong and seems to have forgotten the lessons of Ronald Reagan," when dealing with Russia.
In that same article, Graham knocked DeSantis — a likely presidential candidate in 2024 — by comparing him to a former U.K. prime minister from the 1930s and ’40s.
"The Neville Chamberlain approach to aggression never ends well," said Graham. "This is an attempt by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to rewrite the map of Europe by force of arms."
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