President Joe Biden should have taken strong steps back in October to help Ukraine, including sending additional lethal aid and outlining the exact sanctions Russia would be under if it were to violate Ukraine's sovereignty, Rep. Pat Fallon told Newsmax Wednesday.
But now, there is "no doubt" that Russian President Vladimir Putin lied with his claims of withdrawing troops, when "he was putting fresh ones right on the front line," the Texas Republican said on Newsmax's "John Bachman Now."
"It would have been practical for the Ukrainians to be, you know, well-armed, but it also would have acted as a deterrent to the Russians to say, Well, listen, we're serious about helping Ukraine and will impose sanctions," Fallon said.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's Defense Ministry and other key targets were hit by a cyberattack Tuesday, and Fallon said such things are "typical" for the Russians.
"What the American people need to understand is what Putin has been saying for years now," he continued. "When he was just the prime minister of Russia, he said that the Ukrainians and the Russians aren't brothers; they're in each other's souls.
"He does not look upon Ukraine as another country. He truly looks upon it as part of greater Russia, and we don't know what type of horse-trading is going on [during] his phone calls."
Meanwhile, it is "unfortunate" that European members of NATO, particularly Germany, are the ones meeting with Putin, said Fallon.
"The president of the United States should have said if the Russians invade Ukraine, we're going to sanction your secondary bond market," he continued. "We're going to sanction your banks and corporations, particularly large banks. We're going to punish the oligarchs and the allies of the Putin regime with seizures of assets, denial of visas, and lastly and this is the big stick in the quiver to deny Russia access to SWIFT, which is the electronic global banking system. We did that to Iran and that crippled their economy."
Fallon also discussed reports concerning filings made by special counsel John Durham linking 2016 Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton's campaign to allegations of spying on then-candidate Donald Trump to further the narrative of Russian collusion.
"This is like Watergate," Fallon said of the "tech executive" listed in Durham's report. "He was billing them and they were paying him. He wasn't doing this on spec. And the mainstream media is ignoring this because they have proven once again that they are not journalists looking for the truth."
However, Fallon said he does not think there will be criminal indictments coming, but the findings could end Clinton's political ambitions "once and for all."
"We need a Republican majority in the House and hopefully in the Senate, where we can haul her in under oath in front of a committee, whether its Oversight or Judiciary and ask these questions where she's going to need to finally come clean," Fallon said.
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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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