Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., on Wednesday slammed the Biden administration for failing to help Ukraine before Russian President Vladimir Putin began his unprovoked attack.
Johnson spoke to Fox News Channel as Vice President Kamala Harris prepared to fly to Europe, where Poland proposed transferring its Russian-made fighter planes to a U.S. military base in Germany, from where the jets would be given to Ukrainian pilots trying to fend off Russian forces.
With the Biden administration caught off guard by Poland's offer, Johnson was asked whether he had advice for Harris on how to handle the fighter-jet situation.
"It's kind of too late to do it the right way, which would have been 'quietly,' " Johnson said on "Fox and Friends." "We should have been funneling lethal defensive weaponry into Ukraine as Russia was building up to, again, hopefully change Putin's calculation.
"Now I think we do need to support the Ukrainian people but doing it overtly, like this, is a concern. … Putin, a tyrant on the rise, now a war criminal, is brandishing about his weapons."
Johnson said he was "not expecting much" from Harris.
"Remember, they put Vice President Harris in charge of the [southern] border," Johnson told Fox News. "That has been a complete fiasco, and if you really think about it, it's in those early days in the Biden administration, when he canceled the Keystone XL pipeline, opened up our borders, started pushing for out-of-control deficit spending, which has sparked 7.5% inflation, a 40-year high.
"All these policies, decisions have weakened America, it's emboldened our enemies, it's basically tempted tyrants to take advantage of the situation."
Johnson also blasted the administration for two other decisions following Putin's attack on Ukraine — letting Russia affect negotiations on a new Iran nuclear deal, and talking to Venezuela about possibly buying oil.
"Actually, they're not negotiating with Iran. Russia is negotiating for us with Iran," Johnson told Fox News. "Do you think maybe Russia perceives a little weakness in the fact that we’re letting them negotiate the Iran nuclear deal with Iran? This is absurd.
"They’re going down to Venezuela, a nation that should be sanctioned ... it is sanctioned, because [Venezuelan President Nicolas] Maduro is a tyrant. Trying to get oil from both Iran and Venezuela?"
Russia has demanded a U.S. guarantee that the sanctions Moscow faces over the Ukraine invasion would not hurt its trade with Iran, Reuters reported.
"It is a disastrous deal," Johnson told Fox News. "They’re going to lift sanctions on all these terrorists. They’re going to funnel tens of billions of dollars into Iran to strengthen the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] and the other terrorists that is the Irianian state. This is disastrous."
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