MOST AMERICANS DOUBT BIDEN’S MENTAL FITNESS AS UKRAINE FIGHTS FOR FREEDOM
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
185.8161
Summary
A new poll shows that a majority of Americans have questions about whether Vice President Joe Biden has the mental sharpness to be a major national issue in such times, and the answer may lie in the question of whether he is fit to lead the country.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Great America podcast with Lou Dobbs,
00:00:04.200
always in the fight for truth, justice, and yes, our American way of life.
00:00:09.220
And now here he is, the Peabody award-winning voice of truth, the great Lou Dobbs.
00:00:14.500
Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Great America show.
00:00:17.900
Thanks for being with us on what looks to be another day of higher casualties among the
00:00:22.880
Ukrainian defenders and an increasingly desperate need to get as much assistance to the Ukrainian
00:00:28.720
people, their government, and the defenders as quickly as possible.
00:00:33.760
We all have a lot of questions today and too few answers.
00:00:37.880
And the reasons for that go beyond the fog of war.
00:00:42.080
Today, we're dealing with a state of our president's cognitive ability.
00:00:46.700
A new poll shows most Americans have questions about his mental sharpness.
00:00:51.480
Europe is now leading the urgent delivery of weapons and ammunition and food to the
00:00:59.260
But the question now is, will all of that be in time?
00:01:05.580
There's heavy fighting reported throughout Ukraine.
00:01:08.820
Russian invaders are intensifying their bombardments and assault of key large cities.
00:01:14.360
And still, the Ukrainian military and civilian resistance fighters are doing what most military
00:01:20.800
analysts said would be next to impossible before the fighting began.
00:01:28.360
But the Ukrainians at this point are holding on to most of their cities, despite ever larger
00:01:34.380
numbers of Russian troops being thrown into the battle.
00:01:38.040
Putin's forces far outnumber Ukraine's defenders.
00:01:41.680
They are far better trained, far better equipped, far better weaponry.
00:01:48.440
Day five of the invasion and the fight still rages.
00:01:51.560
A big question is whether help will get to the Ukrainians in time.
00:01:57.040
And Putin is reportedly very unhappy, apparently unhappy enough that he's allowed talks to be
00:02:03.780
The Russians and Ukrainian representatives will meet on the Belarus border.
00:02:08.420
No conditions, no agenda, no surrender, just talks and very few expectations.
00:02:14.920
But it does offer hope for something better than the continuation of the Russian onslaught against
00:02:21.380
a brave Ukrainian military and civilian resistance who are still defending their nation and their
00:02:27.300
brave leader, the courageous President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose people are rallying around him
00:02:33.720
for standing with them, for leading them, and asking the West not for a rescue from combat,
00:02:40.980
On the Russian side, Vladimir Putin is not faring as well with his people.
00:02:46.600
In fact, anti-war demonstrations in Russia are increasing in number, and the size of those
00:02:54.460
And it has to be worrying the Kremlin and Putin.
00:02:57.800
Putin is, to this point, hardly unnerved or pausing his attacks.
00:03:02.520
He's ordered in 10,000 more paratroopers to reinforce his soldiers on the front lines.
00:03:08.200
And there are reports Belarus is dispatching their special forces to join up with the Russians
00:03:18.700
Meanwhile, the West has halted Russia's ability to utilize the global financial and trade data
00:03:23.820
and funding clearinghouse known as SWIFT, a further tightening of the Western blockade against
00:03:29.740
Russia by the European nations, including the European Union.
00:03:33.680
It's restricting their airspace and refusing now to allow Russian aircraft to fly overhead.
00:03:39.680
A big blow to Putin, who must be beginning to feel the building pressure as NATO and Europe
00:03:46.620
start shipping billions of dollars worth of weapons and aid.
00:03:50.760
Yes, all of that should have taken place before the invasion, or at least certainly the first day.
00:03:56.800
But at least the Euros are now acting in support of Ukraine, and in fact, leading in the West's response
00:04:06.480
Even Germany, that opposed tough steps initially against Russia, has reversed itself into shipping
00:04:17.480
In the past few days, the White House, you may have noticed, has receded from any form of leadership,
00:04:23.660
perhaps just as well given their missteps and misstatements for the past several weeks.
00:04:29.700
President Biden not even in the White House over the weekend, but at home in Delaware.
00:04:35.540
As over the weekend, Putin ordered his nuclear forces to go on high alert.
00:04:40.560
The Biden administration's silence may well reflect a president whose Washington Post ABC poll numbers
00:04:47.020
have plummeted, plunging to 37%, and a huge chasm for the Democrats to overcome in the midterm elections,
00:04:58.380
It looks as though a disaster looms for the Democrats.
00:05:01.820
And the same poll also shows a majority of Americans now question whether President Biden
00:05:11.960
A president's mental health would be a major national issue in the best of times.
00:05:20.100
These are times of crisis and the possibility of an expanding war in Europe.
00:05:25.640
There is, we must also acknowledge now, even the possibility of a nuclear war with Russian
00:05:34.040
The American people must know whether our commander-in-chief is fit to lead in such times as these.
00:05:40.340
We talked with a man who knows the importance of strong leadership, who is also a retired
00:05:48.200
He also served as the White House physician for three presidents, Presidents Bush, Obama,
00:05:55.460
We're joined now by that distinguished man who spent his life serving this nation and is
00:06:07.600
I know you've had questions about the president's cognitive condition for some time.
00:06:13.100
Out of your concern, you also asked that President Biden take a cognitive test and the White House
00:06:20.520
And in these latest polls now, most Americans agree with your concerns.
00:06:27.680
You know, I've been saying for a long time, even when he was candidate Joe Biden, I was
00:06:30.280
saying, I don't think I think there's something wrong with this man.
00:06:32.780
I don't think he's cognitively fit to be our commander in chief and our head of state.
00:06:36.880
And, you know, I was one of the few people saying it early on.
00:06:39.880
And then as time went on, but he's he's been on display for the entire country and for the
00:06:43.720
Now we've seen firsthand, you know, some of the issues that he's having.
00:06:50.020
And now this this debacle in in Ukraine where they could have done something early on.
00:06:55.360
And a large part of the reason that we didn't do more than we could have is that I just got
00:07:01.040
And I was shocked to find out that, you know, we're not we're not a leader on the world stage
00:07:05.560
The European countries, NATO countries, they're not looking to us for leadership anymore
00:07:09.180
because mainly because Biden is supposed to be providing that.
00:07:19.380
And that's why we're in the situation we're in with Ukraine right now is because they see
00:07:22.740
this as a window of opportunity that won't last much longer.
00:07:25.400
And they're going to strike while the iron is hot.
00:07:27.260
You know, Putin's probably been wanting to do this for for a long, long time to kind of
00:07:30.360
start getting the old Soviet Union back together again.
00:07:32.520
And this is just a window of opportunity that he's going to take advantage of.
00:07:36.320
And, you know, President Xi's going to take advantage of it with Taiwan pretty soon.
00:07:39.220
The Iranians are going to get a nuclear weapon.
00:07:43.360
And, you know, Joe Biden fails every time we get tested.
00:07:46.300
And that's just what he's doing to us internationally.
00:07:48.380
I mean, he's destroying us in a domestic front, too.
00:07:50.760
And so I think that it's it's it's not a you know, it's not a joke.
00:07:55.400
This man's got some serious issues and he's doing great damage to our country and we need
00:08:01.520
This issue of his cognitive ability, how would you say that compares then to the two presidents,
00:08:13.840
Well, I don't think they none of the three of them had any cognitive issues whatsoever.
00:08:17.300
They were they were all very motivated, very top a very but very impressive in their in
00:08:23.120
their abilities cognitively and, you know, and able to multitask and things like that.
00:08:27.320
I tell people all the time, you know, having seen three presidents and been, you know, been
00:08:31.280
the physician for three administrations, I know what it takes physically and mentally
00:08:37.280
I mean, a lot of people that don't have cognitive issues don't have the capacity to do this.
00:08:42.220
And certainly having a president who's diminished is a big problem for us because you do have
00:08:49.380
You have to be able to travel all over the planet, multiple time zones, get off the plane,
00:08:55.480
And there's just no way Joe Biden can do that right now.
00:08:58.820
You know, I wrote a letter, I guess, back in last June demanding that he have a cognitive
00:09:04.080
test, because when I was President Trump's position, the far left just demanded that
00:09:14.420
So I made the same demands of President Biden and it just hadn't happened yet.
00:09:18.020
But since then, public opinion has changed and over 60 percent of the country believes
00:09:22.580
that he's got a cognitive issue and he may not be fit to be our president.
00:09:26.100
You don't think for a moment there is a possibility he'll ever take a cognitive test,
00:09:32.120
And, you know, I'm not even sure we need one anymore, to be honest with you, Lou.
00:09:35.920
He's shown us what he's all about for a while now.
00:09:38.340
And I think most people are convinced there's something there.
00:09:40.540
And I don't think a cognitive test would change that much for most people.
00:09:44.760
I think a cognitive test would be appropriate as well for many of his national security team.
00:09:51.400
We learned that in the issue of Ukraine, that the United States, the Biden administration
00:09:58.100
turned to China for help with Russia because they've known for months that he would he would
00:10:06.340
The Chinese then took that entreaty and the intelligence they shared with the Chinese to
00:10:17.500
It may be simply IQ in this national security team.
00:10:23.600
But they don't they don't know what they're doing.
00:10:25.220
And just like you said, taking our intelligence, sharing it with the Chinese and not assuming
00:10:29.880
that it was just going to end up right funneled immediately to the Russians, which you did.
00:10:33.480
And the Chinese and the Russians are both kind of using it against us now.
00:10:36.320
It's just they just have a basic misunderstanding of of how things work.
00:10:46.520
And people all the time are telling me like, well, Ronnie, what are you doing?
00:10:49.260
You know, you're trying to you know, you're talking about President Biden's cognitive issues
00:10:53.040
and making a case for why he shouldn't be the president anymore.
00:10:56.960
Because Kamala Harris is going to follow him if that happens.
00:10:59.280
I will tell you, I cannot imagine that she can do anything that's worse than what he's
00:11:05.940
So, you know, I don't think she's a she's a she's a better a better choice.
00:11:09.480
But I don't think she's going to damage this country any more than Joe Biden's doing
00:11:13.660
Yeah, it's a difficult it's a very difficult assessment.
00:11:19.260
Because she is always unprepared or perhaps limited in her own fashion, because she does
00:11:26.900
not just does not command the subject matter, nor give anyone confidence that she knows
00:11:39.800
You know, some reports coming from the White House.
00:11:41.520
She doesn't have much of a work ethic, which is a problem.
00:11:46.900
It was like listening to a teenager talk about what's going on in Russia and Ukraine.
00:11:53.200
I had the same reaction to the videos of her performance that I've seen.
00:12:03.220
And as a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, your thoughts on what this country should be
00:12:09.320
doing and, if you will, the situation as you see it right now in Ukraine.
00:12:17.160
Well, like I said, Lou, I think our biggest problem is that we don't we don't have a leadership
00:12:20.680
role in this anymore, whether it's with European countries or whether it's NATO.
00:12:30.680
And I sense that in a big way when I was at the security conference in Munich.
00:12:34.780
But I think that a lot of what we could have done early on, it's not available to us anymore.
00:12:39.680
People were talking about Democrats were talking about, well, you can't use the sanctions.
00:12:51.160
You could have sanctioned the Russian banking system, all of this stuff.
00:12:53.820
And you could have done it when they amassed 200,000 troops, almost 200,000 troops on the
00:12:59.260
You could have said, we're putting these sanctions in place and they'll be removed when you pull
00:13:03.120
your troops off the border and stop threatening Ukraine.
00:13:06.800
And, you know, we would probably would never even got to that point if Donald J.
00:13:10.220
Trump had still been the president because, you know, they feared the man that, you know,
00:13:14.040
if he said he was going to do something, they knew that he was going to do it.
00:13:16.520
They saw him as as decisive and a little bit unpredictable, which was good for us, but unpredictable
00:13:21.000
in a good way, a way that that, you know, that ensured our national security.
00:13:28.320
And so I don't know what's left for us to do other than bolster up some of the NATO countries
00:13:32.900
and, you know, increase the troop numbers there.
00:13:34.840
And but this is how wars get started, to be honest with you, because we can start heading
00:13:38.860
So I'm worried that Joe Biden and his inability to lead and his cognitive issues are going to
00:13:43.600
continue to get worse and things are going to escalate and he's going to end up
00:13:48.080
What message do you believe he sent to Ukrainians as he sees the United States step aside instead
00:13:54.880
of step up, as has always been the custom of the United States?
00:13:59.480
I'm the last person in this country wants to have a war.
00:14:02.380
But at the same time, I am the last person in the country or among the last who want us
00:14:09.820
There has to be an approach forward that will be supportive of these brave Ukrainians.
00:14:16.320
I hope we can still get some some some armaments and things of that nature to them.
00:14:21.560
Right now, they're actually putting up a pretty good fight right now.
00:14:24.620
And everything they're using right now against the Russians, it came from the Trump administration
00:14:28.280
stuff that he put there, you know, javelin missile or javelins and stinger missiles and
00:14:33.360
Those are mostly from the Trump era that we've got there, because I'm on I'm on foreign affairs
00:14:37.920
And we've had discussions about this over the last few months.
00:14:40.700
And this they were coming out and they were saying, you know, well, the State Department
00:14:43.940
was engineering some of this and like we're going to between State Department and DOD,
00:14:48.680
we're going to get them some first aid kits and things of that nature.
00:14:53.600
You know, we was kind of back in the old in the Obama era where we were providing blankets
00:15:01.160
They need weapons systems to defend themselves.
00:15:03.240
And the only ones they currently have right now are ones that they got from the Trump
00:15:06.540
But hopefully we can find a way to continue to support them in that regard.
00:15:10.180
It's going to be harder now because when we start, you know, rolling in weapons systems
00:15:14.000
that are killing Russian troops in Ukraine, you got to wonder at what point does Putin
00:15:21.640
So it's very dicey right now, but a lot of it is Joe Biden's making.
00:15:26.840
And it is a disaster again and a disaster for his administration, but unfortunately also
00:15:36.000
Congressman, I really appreciate you being with us.
00:15:38.900
I have to say it's frustrating, I'm sure, for nearly all Americans to witness what is
00:15:45.560
This country has now devolved to a level of governance.
00:15:54.080
We wait to see if our name's on a piece of paper that binds us to the Ukrainians.
00:16:03.120
And if it says yes, we still step back, whether it's a 1994 Budapest memorandum or, you know,
00:16:12.520
It seems we have a leader who makes the same choices, irrespective.
00:16:27.180
I just want to tell the American people, you know, there's hope on the horizon.
00:16:33.640
And we're going to officially be able to stop some of this stuff.
00:16:35.880
And we're going to fight hard over the next year or two to get our country back.
00:16:42.000
Thank you for being with us, Congressman, Doctor, and Admiral.
00:16:50.400
As I said at the outset of our show today, there is great urgency to get assistance to
00:16:56.540
And with us today to give us perspective on the battles and cities and towns of Ukraine,
00:17:01.580
the fighting in their streets and the bombardments and bewildered and frightened people still
00:17:11.660
He's a decorated combat veteran, 82nd Airborne, awarded the Bronze Star, worked with the State
00:17:18.240
Department and other government agencies, now running for Congress in Florida, endorsed
00:17:23.140
by Congressman Jim Jordan, the most endorsed congressional candidate, in fact, running.
00:17:34.220
The fight's getting tougher for the Ukrainians.
00:17:36.860
A lot of military analysts didn't expect the Ukrainians to equip themselves this well
00:17:50.560
Now, bear in mind, I was in Ukraine in 2015, and I was talking and working around with a volunteer
00:17:58.220
And they're based on a network of Joe's and their job was to ensure that the invasion
00:18:03.860
that had already occurred under the Obama Biden administration into Donetsk, where they
00:18:08.160
also annexed Crimea, did not expand any further.
00:18:11.380
Now, these were individuals who they were not supported like it was under President Trump,
00:18:16.980
This is under the Obama Biden administration when humanitarian aid for Band-Aids and blankets was
00:18:23.200
So these warfighters, these patriots, these volunteers were selling their homes, selling
00:18:27.140
their businesses, selling their personal belongings and trying to go to surrounding areas who are
00:18:32.480
utilizing close to the same nonstandard ammunitions and then fighting the fight on their own.
00:18:37.260
So we knew the pride of these people, the resolve of these people since 2015.
00:18:42.960
And it wasn't until President Trump, until we approved that lethal aid to get in stinger
00:18:47.900
missiles, to get in anti-tank missiles like the Javelin systems.
00:18:51.200
And I always, I kind of joke around, but this really is part of the Trump resistance.
00:18:54.940
I mean, those weapons that are being utilized are things that was delivered during the Trump
00:18:59.040
And unfortunately, there has not been a whole lot of support from a weakened Biden administration.
00:19:03.100
And there has been very little support from the NATO countries, the European Union.
00:19:08.580
It is remarkable to me, at least, that those countries in direct proximity, contiguous to,
00:19:16.040
in fact, Ukraine, would not be amongst the first to step up and provide aid, to provide
00:19:22.880
military material, weapons, ordnance, you name it, for these people to stand up against the
00:19:31.720
Well, again, you got to think about the fact that, look at Germany as an example, a key
00:19:38.940
They are so dependent upon Russian oil and gas at this stage, after the two decades of
00:19:43.820
getting rid of any type of nuclear and even coal energy, that they really would suffer
00:19:48.220
as a result of their fracture between Russian oil and gas and the EU.
00:19:52.560
So what the American government and everyone else had failed to do was decouple the EU.
00:19:57.180
And again, this really was amplified when you start talking about the fact that it was Joe
00:20:01.600
Biden and his administration who lifted the sanctions necessary for Nord Stream 2.
00:20:07.600
We're actually funding our own adversaries, Lou.
00:20:10.260
I mean, you think about the fact that in October of 2017, we were importing around 17,000
00:20:20.180
We were already up to 217,000 barrels during this time.
00:20:24.500
So we're literally funding adversarial nations.
00:20:27.140
Well, and by the way, it isn't simply Russia that we are funding.
00:20:31.620
We built communist China with our idiotic trade policies, our insane relationship with the
00:20:40.200
Chinese and the resulting dependency of this nation on China for nearly every product, but
00:20:51.360
It is embarrassing, and it should be troubling to everyone who cares about the national security
00:20:58.060
I want to get your assessment right now of what could be done.
00:21:06.660
Should the United States and this administration, for whatever reason, understand the courage
00:21:11.840
like the Ukrainians are displaying every day, they have to have support.
00:21:20.600
And how could we, in all conscience and morality, not support them against a despot and a tyrannical
00:21:29.540
Well, I'll tell you, it's interesting that you bring up the point of kind of America's,
00:21:33.660
you know, dedication or obligation that's on there.
00:21:36.340
I have to go back to recalling on the Budapest memorandum, which the Federation of Russia
00:21:43.100
had signed, which the UK, Northern Ireland had signed, Ukraine, as well as for America.
00:21:47.660
You know, we were one of the tentatories on this.
00:21:52.640
And originally, you know, the idea was it was a nuclear non-proliferation agreement.
00:21:56.120
But in that agreement, it's very explicit in the fact that we will honor, respect and
00:21:59.420
defend the sovereignty in the borders of Ukraine.
00:22:01.720
When the Federation of Russia invaded in 2014, the Obama administration, which I always call
00:22:07.220
this the Obama 2.0 model, but the Obama administration should have gone forward and levied
00:22:13.300
That would allow them to start sanctioning with regards to the five major state banks,
00:22:17.000
freezing the assets of the three major oligarchs, cutting off the SWIFT, which would prevent
00:22:20.980
the incoming and the outgoing transfer of funds, and also go ahead and levy heavier sanctions
00:22:27.300
against the oil and gas utilizations in the EU.
00:22:30.920
So now what we need to be looking at is obviously looking at locking up the SWIFT capabilities
00:22:41.880
SWIFT is the international financial information clearinghouse for import, exports, and trade between
00:22:50.900
And primarily purposely is the source of about 50 percent, if not 60 percent of Russia's revenue.
00:23:04.960
The other thing that we must do at this time is we're going to understand very quickly how
00:23:10.100
much of the actual Ukrainian airspace is being dominated and controlled by Russia.
00:23:14.380
This domination of the airspace will impact our ability to try and help with additional
00:23:19.240
lethal aid or additional munitions and defense products.
00:23:21.900
So now we're going to have to start looking at the Western Front, where we start looking
00:23:25.320
at pushing things through ground supply with Poland.
00:23:27.820
And that becomes a whole different issue in itself.
00:23:29.880
Listen, I know how difficult overland supply chain is because my team and I actually, and
00:23:36.400
I'm not sure if you remember this, Lou, but we actually conducted the very first overland
00:23:39.880
rescue of Americans out of Afghanistan, the mother and her three children.
00:23:43.100
And that could have been a much easier thing if we did the airlift.
00:23:46.600
But I'll tell you, I think that this is going to come to insurgency based warfare, guerrilla
00:23:52.800
We have to bog them down very similar to what happened to them with Chechnya and also what
00:23:57.600
And it has to be such a costly war for Vladimir Putin that this actually becomes domestically
00:24:03.460
But we have to also look at one more quick thing, if I may, which is we need to look at the
00:24:08.040
fact that this is the great superpower resurgence and that China, Russia and Iran,
00:24:14.920
China is looking to advance their one belt, one road initiative.
00:24:18.600
This is essentially like a maritime silk route.
00:24:20.980
And in order to do that, they have to expand their borders for Eurasia.
00:24:24.220
They have to take over Africa and have to control Oceania.
00:24:26.920
Russia is helping them to advance that Eurasian border so that they can go ahead and create
00:24:31.020
and establish this so they can control more on the trade, more on the resources and more
00:24:37.500
This is why we have to get back to increasing and promoting domestic production and locking our
00:24:42.800
And domestic production and also our national security, which is absolutely critical.
00:24:50.660
We have to remove our dependence on China, on any other nation for our critical strategic
00:24:56.020
materials, supplies, and products and services that we desperately need in this country.
00:25:05.080
We have the consequences of an idiotic decision 30 years ago by corporate America to offshore production,
00:25:11.760
to cheap labor markets, to outsource good-paying American middle-class jobs, to overseas markets
00:25:23.040
And that it took years for Donald Trump to appear on the political scene and to actually
00:25:30.040
seize on these issues and take them up and defend the country and absolutely put America
00:25:37.760
It, to me, is a terrific policy and should be a required policy of any president, but he happened
00:25:44.120
to be anomalous in this chain of leaders that, well, we can go into the history later.
00:25:49.600
I want your assessment as to what we need to do right now to help those brave Ukrainians who are fighting the Russians, a superior firepower, superior
00:25:58.960
everything, what can they, what can we do for them?
00:26:04.100
Well, I'll tell you, I think that we need to listen to what President Zelensky, a true leader, by the way, I'm, I'm exceptionally impressed with, with President
00:26:11.060
Zelensky, who had the ability to leave the country and said, no, I don't need a ride.
00:26:17.380
So I think that it's very clear what they need is additional lethal aid.
00:26:20.820
We need to rush in, you know, and support them from an air defense system, whether that's from Poland or whether that's just across the border.
00:26:26.160
We have to get the necessary javelin and the stinger systems in there, which would take down aircraft, take down tanks.
00:26:32.140
Again, we need to arm and equip Ukraine to bog down Russia and prevent their further incursions.
00:26:37.940
And to be clear to everyone on this issue, Biden administration decisions in the first months were to slow walk every piece of aid, military aid to Ukraine.
00:26:54.400
It's and it is not just simply a regrettable error of judgment.
00:26:58.280
This is this will be examined in history and it will be part of the Biden legacy.
00:27:04.220
How fast could we do all of what you're recommending?
00:27:09.620
And I'll tell you right now, part of that slowdown, as you're talking about, Lou, we have to contribute it to where it really comes from.
00:27:16.260
Yes, it's from Joe Biden, who, you know, Secretary Gates told us long ago had been wrong on foreign policy 100 percent of the time.
00:27:23.680
But what this is about, this is the only for 40 years in the military.
00:27:30.440
But, you know, the thing is, is that we have to look at the fact that the new conservatives who are wanting to be warmongers and continues to be a interventionist.
00:27:37.940
And these military industrial complexes, they benefit massively when diplomacy fails.
00:27:41.880
So we need to look at the fact of where this info and all these, you know, kind of false narratives that, oh, they're not going to invade and, oh, we're going to put in the heavy levied sanctions to prevent this.
00:27:52.500
The Biden administration knew what was going to take place.
00:27:54.680
And I think that they're so compromised when it comes to Hunter Biden and the rest that they weren't willing to actually take strong action like President Trump was.
00:28:01.840
Why would we have leaders in the form of Biden, Schumer, Pelosi, Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy?
00:28:11.460
Why would we have leaders who think you have to have your name on a piece of paper to do the right thing?
00:28:17.720
Have we really descended to that level in the United States of America?
00:28:24.040
I can tell you right now what we are absolutely witnessing is a crisis in leadership.
00:28:28.900
We are looking at the fact that we are not leading by example.
00:28:31.940
We're looking at the fact that we are weaker from a national security perspective than I think we've ever been in my lifetime.
00:28:40.060
You have North Korea launching hypersonic missiles, which is a Chinese technology.
00:28:44.160
You have China, who has now surpassed America with regards to the number of naval vessels that are actually able to launch.
00:28:53.940
You have the botched withdrawal in Afghanistan that left $1.3 trillion in lithium to China, as well as for other precious minerals and a very geopolitically strong position with Bagram Air Base.
00:29:03.500
You have Yemen, who is basically starting to allow the Houthis to launch more attacks against the UAE, who was one of the original signatories on the Abrams Accord.
00:29:13.740
And now, believe it or not, we're actually talking about re-entering the JCPOA, who, by the way, is over 60% nuclear enrichment, almost to a weapons grade for the regime in Iran, the largest state sponsor of terror.
00:29:23.840
So you look at this and you contrast that to just over a year ago, when we had President Donald Trump in there, where he withdrawed us from these failed agreements like the JCPOA or Resolution 2231.
00:29:36.300
He withdrew us from the failed Russian agreement with the INF Treaty.
00:29:40.260
He put stronger sanctions and more levies against China to make sure that we offset those trade imbalances.
00:29:46.400
You know, he did more for peace deals and peace accords than any of the previous administrations and by all rights should have gotten the Nobel Peace Prize, by the way, if it wasn't so politicized.
00:29:56.300
But right now, what we have is a complete crisis in leadership, Lou.
00:29:59.580
We don't have anyone who's willing to lead from the front.
00:30:02.020
We don't have anyone who's willing to take those necessary precautions.
00:30:04.320
I think that we're so far down the road now that any American involvement is just going to exacerbate the situation with Russia.
00:30:10.020
I think that we need to allow Poland and the U.K. and other U.N. members and NATO members to actually take the lead with the U.S. probably supporting them, because here's the reality.
00:30:27.120
Do you think that we can mount a supply chain into Ukraine and move humanitarian aid and weaponry and all sorts of necessary military material to the Ukrainians?
00:30:43.900
But the biggest fear that I have personally, Lou, is that I just watched the humanitarian or as the Biden administration called the most successful operational airlift in history, where they were bringing in 83 and over 83,000 unvetted Afghans into America.
00:30:59.780
I do not want to see this same exact thing occur where we have Russian plants and we have different types of covert military operations that are being conducted in a false flag narrative that are going into Poland, going into Belarus, going into all the neighboring countries that are allowing the Ukrainians to come out, only to go ahead and put a footbed in there to start launching and further attack.
00:31:20.120
So I think that we have to be very cautious in our humanitarian support.
00:31:23.760
We have to ensure that we're doing some type of a vetting somewhere.
00:31:26.300
And the difference, however, with this in Afghanistan is that, you know, the Afghans were completely borderlocked where none of the countries were allowing them in.
00:31:39.600
And I think that it's very, very feasible to get the necessary arms in under a lethal aid agreement to help support and to help supply Ukraine to be able to fight this war.
00:31:48.040
This war, do you think that this will do you think that Vladimir Putin intends that this invasion and this war on Ukraine will expand to Belarus, to the Baltic states, to Poland, to to Eastern Europe?
00:32:06.060
I don't think that Vladimir Putin, and again, I could be wrong on this.
00:32:11.420
I mean, I don't know his level of insanity and overall tyrannical, you know, dictatorship policies.
00:32:18.080
I don't see him necessarily stepping on NATO toes to enact the Article 5 agreement.
00:32:23.120
I think that if you activated Article 5 and all the people who are signatories and who are on NATO would have to actually respond with boots on the ground or further firepower.
00:32:30.520
I think he knows that's a lost cause, but I think he will push the borders just like he did in 2014, putting a toe in the water, seeing how far he can go, seeing how far he can push, but not violating NATO to enact the actual Article 5 agreement.
00:32:45.120
A great American, a great patriot running for the United States Congress from the 7th District of Florida.
00:32:52.320
We wish you luck and look forward to our next conversation.
00:32:58.380
Thanks, Corey, and thanks to everybody listening today to The Great America Show.
00:33:03.900
Please join us tomorrow as we continue our analysis and discussion of the Ukrainian crisis and its implications for our great nation.
00:33:16.960
Join us again tomorrow for The Great America Podcast.
00:33:21.100
Truth, justice, and the American way will prevail against all enemies, against all odds.