Gallagher: "Russia is Exploiting Our Weakness"

Yesterday, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) joined America Reports with Sandra Smith and John Roberts to discuss President Biden's video call with Vladimir Putin. Watch the full interviewhere or read highlights from the conversation below.

On the collapse of American deterrence:

"I hope we're going to hear specifics from this administration on what they intend to do to restore our deterrent posture in Ukraine, because it's clear to me that our deterrent posture is collapsing. And it has been for quite some time. The decision to waive sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was a massive geopolitical gift to Vladimir Putin by making Europeans more dependent upon Russian energy production...But it's not just that. They're considering dangerous changes to our nuclear policy that have our European allies extremely worried. And the summer summit that Putin and Biden had was a massive propaganda victory for Putin. Across the board, we look very weak, and Russia is exploiting our weakness. We need to change course before it's too late."

On the need to provide assistance to Ukraine:

"Going forward, we need to do everything we can to arm Ukraine to the teeth. We know that the Biden administration delayed on some of the requests for lethal assistance that the Defense Department submitted. Ranking member Mike Rogers here on the Armed Services Committee sent a letter before Thanksgiving pointing out all of the delays and asked the Biden administration to answer some basic questions. This White House is not acting with a sense of urgency, and we are about to see a massive disaster in Ukraine if we don't change things quickly."