Rep. Tenney to Newsmax: Russia's UN Leadership Shows Changes Must Come

It's "absurd" that Russia's ambassador was presiding over Wednesday emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council at the same time attacks were being launched against Ukraine, and that shows that "maybe we need to dismantle this entire apparatus at the U.N. and start over," Rep. Claudia Tenney said Thursday on Newsmax.

"It's almost looking like it's a Kiwanis Club right now, or the Better Business Bureau at the U.N., the New York Republican said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "This is absurd. It's tragic. We spend billions of dollars on an organization that gives a dictator, and a murderous dictator now like Vladimir Putin, international credibility on our soil to preside over this as he was invading Ukraine."

Wednesday night, Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, while holding the rotating chairmanship this month on the Security Council, insisted that Russia had not declared war against Ukraine but had instituted a "special military operation in Dombas," reports Yahoo News.

His claims, echoing Putin's, came as the invasion of Ukraine was beginning, during proceedings during which Ukraine Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya called on Russia's ambassador to deny on the record that the Russian troops were not bombing Ukraine's cities, reports The Hill.

Kyslytsya also questioned Russia's role in the Security Council and demanded that the Russian Federation relinquish its chairmanship of the council.

Tenney pointed out that the Ukrainian diplomats have been pleading with Putin not to come into their country, but "we sat there and allowed this to happen."

"It's just showing why the U.S. taxpayers and why many Americans have no faith in the U.N., and why it's time maybe for the U.N. order to be disrupted," said Tenney. "I've called for the U.N. to remove Russia as a permanent member."

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden is to speak Thursday afternoon about the invasion, but Tenney said he should have already spoken to the nation when the attacks began.

"He's the commander in chief and the leader of the free world who should be sending out a very strong statement and crippling sanctions against Putin," said Tenney. "But it didn't happen. It was too little too late. This was not some 'special military operation.'

"This is the invasion of a sovereign country, an innocent country unprovoked, where people are being killed … news agencies are reporting that numerous people in the Ukrainian military had been killed by this operation. This is a full-scale war against a country in Europe. It is the largest military operation that we've seen an invasion since World War II on the European continent."

But the United States did not take action months ago when Putin started amassing troops and weapons on the Ukraine border, said Tenney.

"We could have put destroyers in the Black Sea to cut off the amphibious action that we're seeing that Putin is using," said Tenney. "Remember, he's using cyber, he's using land, sea, and air to take over this country against international law."

Tenney also noted reports from China in which Beijing is claiming that Taiwan is not like Ukraine, as it's "'always been part of China,'" which points to a potential invasion there as well.

"This is a template for dictators around the world to go in and exert their power and take land while we sit," she said. "President Biden, God knows what he's doing, but he's sleeping or he's not out there messaging to the world that we are going to stand up to the bullies around the world."

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