Russia's downing of an American MQ-9 Reaper surveillance drone over the Black Sea earlier this week came as no surprise, as "the Russians no longer fear us" under President Joe Biden, Rep. Tim Burchett said Friday on Newsmax.
Part of the issue, the Tennessee Republican told Newsmax's "Wake Up America," is that the Biden White House is "focused on a lot of different things, and American sovereignty and our superiority and the military is not one of them."
He said he expects the administration to "write those nasty Russians a strong letter," adding sarcastically that "I'm sure that will bring Putin to his knees."
The United States' enemies, he added, are no longer afraid and its friends are embarrassed.
"It's not like it was in the Trump administration," he added. "This would never have happened under that administration."
Meanwhile, China's President Xi Jinping is scheduled to travel to Russia next week, and Burchett agreed that the weakness of Biden on the world stage is opening the door for relations between Russia and China.
"If they weren't in bed together, they're in the honeymoon phase right now," the congressman said. "China is just watching everything we do in Ukraine and watching our military."
Further, China has its allies lined up for when it makes its move on Taiwan, said Burchett.
"They're lining up people in Central America, where they're getting rare Earth minerals … we don't have the guts to do anything down there as well," he said.
And now, world leaders are looking at the United States and wondering what happened to the once-powerful nation, Burchett added.
He pointed to the Chinese spy balloon that traversed the country before it was shot down off the East Coast in early February as an example.
"We weren't even allowed to shoot it down until it left our land space," said Burchett. "We're going to see more of this. I think this is just the start of it. I think the balloon incident showed the gutless nature that we have in the White House now. Our military is completely compromised. It almost feels like things have ramped up since that spy balloon."
Burchett also talked about a trip he made to the nation's southern border earlier this week and called the situation there "just pitiful."
"We've got some real problems on our border," he said, adding that he doesn't know if Biden could "find it on a map."
The border, he added, is wide open, even though the Border Patrol agents are "doing great work," but "they're put in a horrible, horrible situation … it's just a total capitulation at our border, and it's a disgrace."
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