Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / UKRAINE FIGHTING BACK, as Putin is ENRAGED! K. T. McFarland, Former Deputy National Security Advisor for the Trump Administration, joins me to explain what's next!
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Ukraine not screwing around. The National Guard has now shared
- 0:04Speaker 1: a video of fighters greasing bullets in pig fat for
- 0:11Speaker 1: the Muslim Chechens that are organizing against them to come
- 0:16Speaker 1: in an attack. That's right. The National Guard Ukraine has
- 0:20Speaker 1: shared a video footage of their fighters greasing bullets with
- 0:24Speaker 1: pigs fat for the Chechen Muslims deployed in their country
- 0:27Speaker 1: on their verified Twitter account. They're not screwing around, and
- 0:32Speaker 1: now we are even seeing the United Nations do something
- 0:36Speaker 1: which is condemned what has happened in Ukraine at the
- 0:41Speaker 1: hands of Vladimir Putin. Now joining me in just a
- 0:44Speaker 1: moment is former National Security advisor under Donald Trump, Katie McFarlane,
- 0:50Speaker 1: and I want to make sure that you hear what
- 0:52Speaker 1: she has to say. She has amazing insight into what's
- 0:56Speaker 1: happening Ukraine. We were speaking backstage at sepack and I said, Katie,
- 1:00Speaker 1: can you please come on and talk to the country
- 1:05Speaker 1: on my podcast about what we were talking about backstage?
- 1:09Speaker 1: And she said yes, And we're gonna be joined by
- 1:11Speaker 1: her in a second. So make sure you share this
- 1:14Speaker 1: podcast with your family and your friends right now. Hit
- 1:17Speaker 1: that little forward button, that little share button, so you
- 1:19Speaker 1: can hear a brilliant former national security adviser, a woman
- 1:25Speaker 1: that knows an awful lot about Russia, about Putin, and
- 1:29Speaker 1: I'm going to have her with us in just a moment. Also,
- 1:33Speaker 1: make sure you hit that download or auto subscribe auto
- 1:36Speaker 1: download button wherever you're listening to this podcast, so you
- 1:40Speaker 1: get this podcast each and every day. Now, the people
- 1:43Speaker 1: in Russia are very clearly right now. The people I
- 1:48Speaker 1: say in Ukraine are very clearly right now fighting back
- 1:53Speaker 1: and it is obvious that this is not the way
- 1:56Speaker 1: that Russia thought this war was going to go. Now,
- 2:00Speaker 1: Ukrainian National Guard is standing firm, the people are standing firm,
- 2:07Speaker 1: And what we are seeing right now is there are
- 2:10Speaker 1: people that are dying, and their apartment buildings that are
- 2:12Speaker 1: being attacked, and there are children now in the hundreds
- 2:17Speaker 1: who have been wounded. This is how evil Vladimir Putin is.
- 2:25Speaker 1: What we also know right now is that China is
- 2:28Speaker 1: the only country so far major country to not condemn
- 2:33Speaker 1: what is happening, but the United Nations as a whole
- 2:36Speaker 1: is coming together to condemn. Now. The Russian Army is
- 2:40Speaker 1: also ratching things up because apparently Vladimir Putin is furious
- 2:46Speaker 1: and the human rights abuses and the human rights charges.
- 2:50Speaker 1: They clearly don't seem to be carrying or worrying about it.
- 2:54Speaker 1: At this point. Russian Army has now deployed its toss
- 2:58Speaker 1: one tshe on heavy flame thrower. This flamethrower is not
- 3:04Speaker 1: something that you would see in wars passed. It is
- 3:08Speaker 1: capable of vaporizing human bodies. They have now deployed it
- 3:12Speaker 1: near the Ukrainian border. Footage is now showing this. It's
- 3:18Speaker 1: very clear. CNN has even confirmed the toss dash one
- 3:23Speaker 1: heavy flamethrower being deployed near the Ukrainian border. There the
- 3:27Speaker 1: same people that told you that Donald Trump was the
- 3:29Speaker 1: worst person in the world because of mean tweets, and
- 3:31Speaker 1: now we're seeing what happens when you have a weak
- 3:34Speaker 1: man be president and Joe Biden. We also are finally
- 3:38Speaker 1: starting to send some help to Ukraine in the form
- 3:42Speaker 1: of weaponry that we should have said over the last year.
- 3:45Speaker 1: And I think it's also very clear the reason why
- 3:47Speaker 1: we did not send that weaponry over the last year
- 3:51Speaker 1: is because we had a present that didn't really like Zelenski.
- 3:55Speaker 1: I think it was personal. Zelenski had that phone call
- 3:59Speaker 1: with Donald Trump that Democrats try to impeach Trump over
- 4:03Speaker 1: a phone call that Zelenski actually said. There was nothing
- 4:06Speaker 1: inappropriate about or wrong with it. We saw the transcript.
- 4:09Speaker 1: There was nothing inappropriate or wrong with it. But the
- 4:11Speaker 1: media wanted you to believe that he was trying to
- 4:14Speaker 1: attack Joe Biden before the election and his family, and
- 4:17Speaker 1: he was abusing his power as the president United As America.
- 4:19Speaker 1: So therefore we should impeach him again. CBS News also
- 4:24Speaker 1: reporting now that Ukraine's presidents Lynsey is agreed now to
- 4:28Speaker 1: negotiations with the Russian officials without preconditions. That certainly could
- 4:35Speaker 1: be a good sign, could be a very good sign
- 4:40Speaker 1: if things move forward the way that they should. Now,
- 4:44Speaker 1: if you look at what this means, it could also
- 4:46Speaker 1: be and I don't get too excited over this. And
- 4:48Speaker 1: the reason why I say that is because it could
- 4:50Speaker 1: also just be employed by Russia to buy time while
- 4:53Speaker 1: they reorganize because their initial invasion is not gone as planned.
- 4:59Speaker 1: Take a listen into this breaking news, and Agon is
- 5:02Speaker 1: criticizing Vladimir Putin's decision to put his nuclear forces on
- 5:06Speaker 1: high alert as quote unnecessary and escalatory. This as US
- 5:11Speaker 1: and European allies seek to further punish Russia for its
- 5:14Speaker 1: invasion of Ukraine. That includes tough new financial sanctions and
- 5:19Speaker 1: new flight bands. Still, Russian forces are pushing deeper into Ukraine.
- 5:24Speaker 1: Resistance has reportedly been fears and in some places the
- 5:28Speaker 1: fighting street to street, but Russia's forces are advancing. These
- 5:32Speaker 1: new satellite images you see there show columns of military
- 5:36Speaker 1: equipment forty miles outside the capital Kiev and closing in. Today,
- 5:41Speaker 1: Ukraine's President, vladimir's Alinsky, agreed to negotiations with Russian officials
- 5:47Speaker 1: without preconditions. As the fighting rages, the United Nation reports
- 5:51Speaker 1: nearly four hundred thousand people have fled the country, most
- 5:55Speaker 1: of them women and children. We begin to Night on
- 5:59Speaker 1: the ground in Ukraine with CBS's Hally Williams. In just
- 6:04Speaker 1: a few short days, Ukraine has transformed into a war zone.
- 6:10Speaker 1: One Russian missile hitten oil depot on the outskirts of
- 6:13Speaker 1: the capital Kiev early this morning, according to Ukrainian officials,
- 6:18Speaker 1: and in Harkiv, just twenty miles from the Russian border,
- 6:21Speaker 1: there's been fighting on city streets. The Ukrainian authorities said
- 6:25Speaker 1: today they were still in control. Yesterday in Kiev, the
- 6:29Speaker 1: battle came very close to us. We're hearing a lot
- 6:33Speaker 1: of gunfire, obviously fighting taking place. We think about three
- 6:36Speaker 1: blocks from here. We were inside a private hospital which
- 6:40Speaker 1: has now canceled all elective surgeries. Instead. Doctor Elizabetta Platista
- 6:46Speaker 1: told us they've prepared to treat combat injuries. Why are
- 6:50Speaker 1: you staying? You could leave. It's my whole. I'm my
- 6:56Speaker 1: own country. I was born here, and I always lived
- 6:59Speaker 1: here for all my time, all my life, even if
- 7:02Speaker 1: that means dying here, if it's mean fighting for my home.
- 7:07Speaker 1: Ukraine's resistance has been determined and may have taken Moscow
- 7:11Speaker 1: by surprise. Videos shared online appear to show killed and
- 7:15Speaker 1: captured Russian soldiers and destroyed Russian military hardware. Ukrainian volunteers
- 7:21Speaker 1: have taken up arms and made molotov cocktails at the
- 7:24Speaker 1: request of their government. Now we're doing this and it
- 7:28Speaker 1: seems like the only important thing to do. Now. Many
- 7:33Speaker 1: of the bottles they're using to make those cocktails are
- 7:38Speaker 1: Russian vodka bottles, which I just love that you listen
- 7:44Speaker 1: to that doctor that refuses to leave, and they said,
- 7:46Speaker 1: are you willing to die or choose? This is my home.
- 7:48Speaker 1: I'm going to defend my home. One of the other
- 7:51Speaker 1: thing that's amazing is the people that are leaving the
- 7:55Speaker 1: Ukraine are the women and the children. It's not the men, folks.
- 8:00Speaker 1: The men are not leaving. I want to make that
- 8:02Speaker 1: very clear. The men are like, all right, well, we're staying.
- 8:06Speaker 1: We're staying, and we're gonna fight and we're gonna defend
- 8:08Speaker 1: because we don't want our children to grow up under Russia,
- 8:12Speaker 1: under the USSR. We don't want them to grow up.
- 8:15Speaker 1: We are a free people, and we are willing to
- 8:17Speaker 1: fight because we are a free people. That is what
- 8:22Speaker 1: we are going to do. We are not going to
- 8:24Speaker 1: back down. We're not going to stop. This is how
- 8:28Speaker 1: we fight. I think the whole world has been shocked
- 8:31Speaker 1: by this. The fact that Zelenski wouldn't get on that
- 8:34Speaker 1: plane and said, don't send me a plane to get
- 8:36Speaker 1: me out. What an amazing leader. Give me a gun
- 8:41Speaker 1: and give me weapons, give me ammunition, give me what
- 8:43Speaker 1: I need to fight back. Now, the initial good news
- 8:49Speaker 1: that I've been able to tell you could change easily.
- 8:52Speaker 1: You hear now that Vladimir Putin has put his nuclear
- 8:54Speaker 1: weapons on high alert to be able to use those.
- 8:58Speaker 1: We hear that they're sitting in a much more soldiers,
- 9:00Speaker 1: because I think he's furious that he actually looks weak
- 9:03Speaker 1: and now he's probably going to double down a good
- 9:06Speaker 1: friend of mine who I feel like it's a family
- 9:09Speaker 1: reunion every time I go to Sea Pack because I
- 9:12Speaker 1: get to see and talk and learn from some of
- 9:15Speaker 1: the most brilliant minds in the world, especially about foreign policy.
- 9:21Speaker 1: And this week was a very special week for that because, unfortunately,
- 9:26Speaker 1: with what was happening in Ukraine, there was a lot
- 9:30Speaker 1: of conversations that I would have never had about Putin
- 9:33Speaker 1: about Russia and joining me now as one of those
- 9:35Speaker 1: brilliant minds. Katie McFarland is a former Deputy National Security
- 9:40Speaker 1: Advisor of the United States of America. Hunter Donald Trump
- 9:44Speaker 1: and Katie, I appreciate you coming on this evening to
- 9:47Speaker 1: talk about this, and I want to start with asking
- 9:52Speaker 1: you a bigger question that seems to be coming up,
- 9:57Speaker 1: and that is, did this admitted ustration purposely walk away
- 10:02Speaker 1: from the Ukrainian people because of a personal beef was Zelenski.
- 10:07Speaker 1: They were angry Zelensky for saying that there was nothing
- 10:10Speaker 1: wrong with that phone call that they try to use
- 10:12Speaker 1: to impeach Donald Trump. That phone call talking about what
- 10:16Speaker 1: the corruption in his country, and was this a you know,
- 10:21Speaker 1: a personal thing. Maybe with this administration it was like,
- 10:23Speaker 1: you know what, We're gonna let you sweat a little
- 10:25Speaker 1: bit over there in Ukraine instead of backing and supporting him,
- 10:28Speaker 1: realizing that Ukraine was standing up to Vladimir Putin in
- 10:32Speaker 1: Russian I want to start with that your thoughts. I
- 10:35Speaker 1: think it's probably a combination of several things. One, yes,
- 10:40Speaker 1: I think the Biden administration, in particularly Hunter Biden's relationship
- 10:44Speaker 1: with the very corrupt former Ukrainian officials ways into it.
- 10:49Speaker 1: But I also think this administration is practically criminally incompetent
- 10:54Speaker 1: when it comes to dealing with most things, but most
- 10:56Speaker 1: especially in dealing with international security. Ukraine, the Ukraine cause,
- 11:02Speaker 1: if you were, it was really damaged, if not lost.
- 11:05Speaker 1: A year ago when Joe Biden came into office, energy
- 11:08Speaker 1: oil prices were at forty dollars of barrel. Russia was
- 11:12Speaker 1: back in its cage, the Chinese were back in their cage.
- 11:15Speaker 1: We had a secure southern border of the economy was
- 11:18Speaker 1: in great shape. And what did Vladimir Putin do? He
- 11:21Speaker 1: turned off the single most important thing, not only in
- 11:25Speaker 1: international relations but in the US economy, and that's American
- 11:29Speaker 1: energy independence. We were independent because we had our own
- 11:32Speaker 1: oil and natural gas and we were exporting it to Europe.
- 11:36Speaker 1: We were building liquifide natural gas terminals, and we were
- 11:39Speaker 1: selling energy to the Europeans. Joe Biden, for whatever reason.
- 11:45Speaker 1: Part of it may be Ukraine, part of it may
- 11:47Speaker 1: be the Green New Deal. Part of it maybe just
- 11:49Speaker 1: his perversive hatred of anything that Donald Trump did. He
- 11:53Speaker 1: just reversed course. You know, the United States in the
- 11:56Speaker 1: last decade has had the most incredible opportunity. Our engineers
- 12:01Speaker 1: and scientists have figured out how to get oil and
- 12:04Speaker 1: natural gas out of rocks. It's called shale oil, shale gas.
- 12:08Speaker 1: Only in America. Can you do it? Only our technology,
- 12:12Speaker 1: only our geography and geology. Our guys figured it out,
- 12:16Speaker 1: and it has been a bonanza for the United States,
- 12:19Speaker 1: not only to make its energy independent, but it pushes
- 12:23Speaker 1: down the price of oil natural gas, thereby bankrupting countries
- 12:26Speaker 1: like Iran and particularly Russia. So that was number one.
- 12:30Speaker 1: Biden went back to the pre Trump policies on energy.
- 12:35Speaker 1: As a result, predictably, prices of oil and natural gas
- 12:39Speaker 1: have doubled and if not tripled, So he gave Putin,
- 12:42Speaker 1: whose only main export is oil and natural gas. You
- 12:46Speaker 1: know who buys Russian computers, right, both Russian cars. They're
- 12:50Speaker 1: only export is oil and natural gas. And so Putin
- 12:53Speaker 1: all of a sudden it's sitting on a windfall. His
- 12:56Speaker 1: income from oil and natural gas has doubled. It's tripled
- 12:58Speaker 1: in the last year. When when Putin, when Russia has
- 13:02Speaker 1: high energy prices, it usually invades someplace. It uses that
- 13:06Speaker 1: when their energy prices are low, they can't have flied
- 13:10Speaker 1: to it. So number one the Bible, and I want
- 13:13Speaker 1: to I want to expand into that just a little
- 13:15Speaker 1: bit because oil and gas. You know that. And we
- 13:18Speaker 1: saw the incompetence this week of John Carey coming out
- 13:21Speaker 1: there saying that that and this was his genuine appeal.
- 13:24Speaker 1: He actually said, you know, I appeal to the Russians
- 13:28Speaker 1: and Vladimir Putin to stop this because it's gonna have
- 13:32Speaker 1: a negative impact. This is this is his words, he
- 13:35Speaker 1: said this, it's going to have a negative impact on
- 13:38Speaker 1: global warming. You and I both know Vladimir Putin could
- 13:42Speaker 1: care less about global warming. That's that's I mean, that's
- 13:46Speaker 1: a joke to even bring it up. It also shows how, how,
- 13:49Speaker 1: how you know, academic. You know, it's like they're smoking
- 13:52Speaker 1: weed and talking about foreign policy at a Harvard bar.
- 13:55Speaker 1: It's absurdity, uh that the except it's actually coming from
- 13:58Speaker 1: the people running this country right now. And you go
- 14:02Speaker 1: back to this what Donald Trump understood and I think,
- 14:06Speaker 1: and I give you a lot of credit, I want
- 14:08Speaker 1: to toot your hornet as well. You understood that there's
- 14:11Speaker 1: people like Vladimir Putin that you can at least you
- 14:16Speaker 1: can't always control them, but you can you can at
- 14:19Speaker 1: least mitigate their threat by one being oil independent, by
- 14:24Speaker 1: being energy independent, and two keeping the costs low, not
- 14:27Speaker 1: just to help the US economy. It's a two part right,
- 14:30Speaker 1: it's one that does help the American family. But but
- 14:33Speaker 1: but more importantly, you can keep them in check, and
- 14:35Speaker 1: not just them, you can keep bad actors in the
- 14:38Speaker 1: Middle Eastern check that without oil prices that are high,
- 14:43Speaker 1: they pretty much have to just kind of take care
- 14:45Speaker 1: of their own backyard and they can't afford to do
- 14:47Speaker 1: stupid things like what we're witnessing right now. And immediately,
- 14:51Speaker 1: not only did this president say no to that, but
- 14:54Speaker 1: he actually purposefully gave Russia their pipeline which would which
- 15:00Speaker 1: he knew was going to make them rich. How do
- 15:04Speaker 1: you make those two bad mistakes at the very same time. Well,
- 15:08Speaker 1: but it's even worse than that, because he enabled by
- 15:12Speaker 1: shutting down the American energy industry and American energy exports
- 15:15Speaker 1: to Europe. It meant that that European countries were even
- 15:19Speaker 1: more dependent upon Russian energy for their survival. You know,
- 15:22Speaker 1: they got half of their energy from Russia. We were hoping,
- 15:25Speaker 1: the Trump administration, our plan was to replace Russia as
- 15:29Speaker 1: a major energy supplier of Western and even eastern Europe,
- 15:33Speaker 1: and we were well on our way to doing that.
- 15:35Speaker 1: So what what the Biden people did? They enabled Putin
- 15:39Speaker 1: to do this because they gave him a lot of money,
- 15:41Speaker 1: right because he got rich again. And then they gave
- 15:43Speaker 1: him a lot of power because he had all this
- 15:47Speaker 1: economic and political leverage over the European nations. So Putin's thinking, wow,
- 15:52Speaker 1: this is my time. And then I think he also
- 15:55Speaker 1: in judging the incompetence of the Biden administration, put ha ha,
- 16:00Speaker 1: I'm gonna take full advantage of the weakness of President
- 16:03Speaker 1: Biden and his entire team. So that's why that's why
- 16:06Speaker 1: Putin figure I'm never going to have a better time
- 16:07Speaker 1: than this. Now, I think it's backfired on Putin, not
- 16:10Speaker 1: because of Biden, but because of the unbelievably heroic Ukrainian people.
- 16:14Speaker 1: Let's talk about the Ukrainian people real quick, and I
- 16:17Speaker 1: think what we are witnessing. You know, some of the
- 16:20Speaker 1: comments have been coming from this administration, things like, well,
- 16:23Speaker 1: we will continue to, you know, work with Zelenski as
- 16:27Speaker 1: long as he's legitimately in charge. That to me is
- 16:31Speaker 1: basically saying, go kill him and then we won't deal
- 16:33Speaker 1: with him anymore and we'll deal with who I mean.
- 16:35Speaker 1: I truly was taken aback by that statement from us,
- 16:39Speaker 1: the idea that we also undermined the people in Ukraine
- 16:43Speaker 1: by saying, well, if it's a small inclusion, if you
- 16:46Speaker 1: just invade not the whole country, but part of the country,
- 16:49Speaker 1: maybe we'll look the other way at least a little bit.
- 16:53Speaker 1: And then you see us saying well, we'll get you out, Zalinski,
- 16:56Speaker 1: We'll send a plane for you, and we'll get you out,
- 16:58Speaker 1: and under minding the people again. And he's like, no,
- 17:02Speaker 1: I don't need you to get a plane to get
- 17:04Speaker 1: me out. I need you to get a plane over
- 17:06Speaker 1: here with ammunition in it, so that I can fight
- 17:09Speaker 1: for my own country. What an amazing story that is,
- 17:13Speaker 1: and what a great response from someone that's saying, you
- 17:17Speaker 1: guys don't understand us. We're not. We don't cut and
- 17:19Speaker 1: run like you guys did in Afghanistan and leave your
- 17:21Speaker 1: own citizens and the people that helped you sixty feet
- 17:24Speaker 1: away from you on the other side of a fence.
- 17:26Speaker 1: And we don't and we don't take orders from people
- 17:28Speaker 1: like Putin, like you guys took orders from the Taliban.
- 17:31Speaker 1: What an amazing moment to show the difference between the
- 17:33Speaker 1: Biden administration and true warriors like Zalinski. And it's such
- 17:40Speaker 1: a that is that everybody in the world expected Zelensky
- 17:44Speaker 1: to get on that plane. Everybody assumed that the Russian
- 17:47Speaker 1: I mean the Russian military would just smoke him within
- 17:51Speaker 1: twenty four or forty eight hours. Everybody assumed the Ukrainian
- 17:54Speaker 1: army would lay down its arms, and everybody assumed that
- 17:56Speaker 1: the Ukrainian population would just go along with it whatever
- 18:00Speaker 1: Putin wanted. And we have seen in the last couple
- 18:02Speaker 1: of days unbelievable heroism, and the tide is now turning.
- 18:07Speaker 1: The United Nations met on Friday. They met again on Sunday.
- 18:11Speaker 1: They're going to meet again on Monday, and they're now
- 18:14Speaker 1: censoring Russia. They're demanding Russia pullback. And the only country
- 18:19Speaker 1: and the Security Council the same voting no for this
- 18:23Speaker 1: is Russia. They're vetoing and everything. So they're abusing their
- 18:26Speaker 1: position with the United Nations to basically get away with
- 18:29Speaker 1: whatever they wanted. The latest numbers we have right now, Katie,
- 18:34Speaker 1: are three hundred and fifty two civilians have died, including
- 18:38Speaker 1: fourteen children. Ukrainian officials have said the UN as and
- 18:43Speaker 1: I really want to get your reaction to this, you
- 18:46Speaker 1: and votes to call this emergency session. The General Assembly
- 18:49Speaker 1: and the US Embassy has urged Americans to depart Russia
- 18:53Speaker 1: amid massive flight cancelations. US officials all say Russian momentum
- 18:58Speaker 1: slowed by the still resistance of the people in Ukraine,
- 19:04Speaker 1: which is incredible because a lot of people thought they
- 19:06Speaker 1: were just going to get steamrolled and that has not happened.
- 19:10Speaker 1: And now the UN seems to be taking a little
- 19:12Speaker 1: bit of action. Explain the dynamic there, all right. So
- 19:16Speaker 1: the United Nations Security Council, which is five permanent members
- 19:19Speaker 1: United States, Russia, China, Britain, France, India, and there then
- 19:25Speaker 1: another member of rotating members they took They've met over
- 19:29Speaker 1: the weekend and they took a vote of we would
- 19:31Speaker 1: like to condemn Russia for a dating pollet and unprovoked
- 19:34Speaker 1: invasion Pollet of Ukraine. And every one of the countries
- 19:38Speaker 1: either voted in favor of condemning Russia or in the
- 19:41Speaker 1: case of China, they abstained, but in the case of
- 19:44Speaker 1: Russia they vetoted, So Russia has a vetoed to sort
- 19:47Speaker 1: of take it off the table. Now, the United Nations,
- 19:49Speaker 1: which is not known for a sort of backbone and
- 19:52Speaker 1: courage in issues of this nature, they actually are showing
- 19:56Speaker 1: some real sunk their meeting again on Monday, and they
- 19:58Speaker 1: are going to condemn Russia for this action. But what
- 20:02Speaker 1: started to happen, and it's become to the Ukrainian President,
- 20:05Speaker 1: the mayor of keV, it's the Ukrainian people, it's the
- 20:08Speaker 1: Ukrainian military. In Ukrainians. When I was in keV right
- 20:12Speaker 1: after the Name's Maiden Square revolution in twenty fourteen, I
- 20:14Speaker 1: met with the chief of staff of the Ukrainian military
- 20:18Speaker 1: and he said, well, my son is taking up arms.
- 20:22Speaker 1: And I said really, and he said, well, my son
- 20:24Speaker 1: is a lawyer, but he really feels that we need
- 20:26Speaker 1: to fight for Ukraine's independence. You Americans, you fought for
- 20:30Speaker 1: your independence, but we Ukrainians, we kind of got it
- 20:32Speaker 1: when the Soviet collapsed. We are going to need some
- 20:35Speaker 1: day to fight for our independence again. And so that's
- 20:37Speaker 1: what's happening. It's doctors as lawyers, its teachers, its housewives,
- 20:42Speaker 1: it's grannies who were taking up guns and they're ready
- 20:45Speaker 1: to fight block by block by block. So Putin overreached.
- 20:50Speaker 1: He could have gotten away with something smaller, but by
- 20:53Speaker 1: doing what he did, he had to do it quickly.
- 20:55Speaker 1: And because he couldn't do it quickly, he either looks incompetent,
- 20:58Speaker 1: right the great Russian military couldn't take on a bunch
- 21:00Speaker 1: of grannies, or he looks like a bully because he's
- 21:04Speaker 1: killing children. I think within a couple of days time
- 21:07Speaker 1: he will face ostensation from the world. And I think
- 21:10Speaker 1: the Europeans, especially Germany, have now decided, oh boy, we
- 21:15Speaker 1: really better help Ukraine. Nobody's going to send in troops
- 21:18Speaker 1: to help Ukraine, but they're going to give the Ukrainian
- 21:20Speaker 1: so weapons to fight by themselves for themselves. Why did
- 21:24Speaker 1: it take so long, Katie, for the US to send
- 21:28Speaker 1: these anti aircraft Singer missiles that we've just been told
- 21:31Speaker 1: are going to be going to Ukraine. Why didn't they
- 21:34Speaker 1: do this when they saw the build up of the military.
- 21:38Speaker 1: And I go back to this, I don't think it's incumbency.
- 21:41Speaker 1: I wonder if it was just you know what, Zelinski,
- 21:44Speaker 1: we don't like you, and we don't like that you
- 21:46Speaker 1: were friendly with Trump, and we don't like that you
- 21:48Speaker 1: legitimize that phone call that we wanted to impeach, and
- 21:51Speaker 1: and we don't like that you know what was going
- 21:52Speaker 1: on with my son in Barisma. I Otherwise, I don't
- 21:56Speaker 1: understand a reason not to do this. And now, all
- 21:58Speaker 1: of a sudden, as as the bodies are mounting, right,
- 22:02Speaker 1: we're seeing the body count go up. They're saying that
- 22:05Speaker 1: one thousand and six eighty two people the Ukrainian government
- 22:07Speaker 1: just announced, including one hundred and sixteen children, have been wounded.
- 22:11Speaker 1: This is a new statement coming from the Ukrainian government.
- 22:15Speaker 1: We all of a sudden, see, okay, this is unfolding
- 22:18Speaker 1: on TV. It makes I think this administration clearly look bad.
- 22:21Speaker 1: And they're like, all right, well, now we will send
- 22:23Speaker 1: you the missiles. That you need. It reminds me so
- 22:26Speaker 1: much of the famous movie Charlie Wilson's Warrant. He's like,
- 22:31Speaker 1: what does it take to shoot down the helicopters? Right,
- 22:33Speaker 1: what does it take to shoot down the Russian helicopters?
- 22:37Speaker 1: Give the Mugetian whatever they need to shoot down the
- 22:39Speaker 1: Russian helicopters. And it's the same thing here. It's like,
- 22:42Speaker 1: what do they need and why didn't they have it already?
- 22:45Speaker 1: Well they did. President Trump reverse the Obama administration's decision,
- 22:50Speaker 1: and President Trump sent Ukraine lethal weapons because they knew
- 22:54Speaker 1: that they had to have the lethal weapons now because
- 22:57Speaker 1: eventually the Russians would attack. What happened when Biden came
- 23:00Speaker 1: in again, he wanted to undo anything Trump again. He
- 23:03Speaker 1: stopped sending me the weapons. He's beginning blankets and food
- 23:06Speaker 1: and you know, and so their Ukraine is naked and
- 23:09Speaker 1: they needed the weapons. If we had given the weapons
- 23:12Speaker 1: to them over the last year, it would have even
- 23:14Speaker 1: been a more difficult situation for the Russians. I don't
- 23:17Speaker 1: think the Russians would have had the nerve to attack.
- 23:19Speaker 1: But the biggest thing, the biggest thing of all, was
- 23:22Speaker 1: the energy. Because Biden made Russia rich, and he emboldened
- 23:27Speaker 1: Russia to use blackmail against the European nations. But let's
- 23:31Speaker 1: talk about Putin. This is somebody that obviously has a
- 23:35Speaker 1: former deput national security advisor. You got to study his history.
- 23:39Speaker 1: I've always said, respect your energy, your your enemy, and
- 23:43Speaker 1: know them well and understand them. This is not the
- 23:48Speaker 1: normal way that Russia does things. Usually they'll surround and
- 23:52Speaker 1: choke hold and starve you out. They minimize the loss
- 23:56Speaker 1: of their own lives, their own of their own military right.
- 23:58Speaker 1: They'll they'll make it hell for you where you finally
- 24:01Speaker 1: give in. Seeing the way that Vladimir Putin is acting now,
- 24:05Speaker 1: I am worried about him, and I'm talking about his
- 24:08Speaker 1: state of mind because I think there seems to be
- 24:11Speaker 1: some sort of manifest destiny with him at this point
- 24:13Speaker 1: where it's like, all right, I know America quote won't
- 24:16Speaker 1: stop me. I know the world doesn't have the appetite
- 24:19Speaker 1: to stop me right now. And I watched how weak
- 24:22Speaker 1: America is an Afghanistan, where they wouldn't go sixty feet
- 24:25Speaker 1: to go get Americans, they wouldn't get out their own people,
- 24:27Speaker 1: much less to people that helped them for the last
- 24:29Speaker 1: two decades. And they were taking orders from the Taliban.
- 24:33Speaker 1: I can do whatever I want. And I think that
- 24:35Speaker 1: he truly believes that his destiny is to put back
- 24:40Speaker 1: the USSR and thinks that that should have never even
- 24:43Speaker 1: happened in the first place. What do you think his
- 24:46Speaker 1: mindset is, Well, your thoughts are right on, and you're
- 24:51Speaker 1: a very stute to think that. I went back and
- 24:54Speaker 1: read Vladimir Putin's college dissertation. He was a KGB agent
- 24:59Speaker 1: during the Cold War. The Soviet Union collapsed after President
- 25:02Speaker 1: Reagan won the Cold War. I was part of his administration,
- 25:05Speaker 1: the Reagan administration, and then Fimurputin had a career court change.
- 25:10Speaker 1: He decided why I'm gonna go to grad school? He
- 25:12Speaker 1: wrote a dissertation because he had an eye to politics.
- 25:16Speaker 1: In his dissertation, he said, We're going to rebuild the
- 25:19Speaker 1: Soviet Union. We're going to make Russia grade again by
- 25:21Speaker 1: taking energy, our oil and antro gas resources out of
- 25:25Speaker 1: the hands of the oligarchs, putting them under the state
- 25:27Speaker 1: government control. We're going to build pipelines, We're going to
- 25:31Speaker 1: make Europe dependent upon our energy, and we're gonna make
- 25:33Speaker 1: a lot of money from our energy to rebuild the
- 25:36Speaker 1: former Soviet Union, and that has been his mission. He
- 25:39Speaker 1: is a man who thinks destiny has given him this
- 25:42Speaker 1: role in this moment to recreate the Soviet Union and
- 25:47Speaker 1: to break NATO. And that's what this is all about.
- 25:50Speaker 1: I mean, yesh Ukraine. But his real goal is to
- 25:53Speaker 1: drive a wedge between NATO and show NATO to be
- 25:56Speaker 1: impotent and really an anachronism. That's what he's really asked.
- 26:01Speaker 1: So he thought he could do Ukraine, snap dab done,
- 26:06Speaker 1: and then turn his forces, which who are already there
- 26:10Speaker 1: right already on the border of Ukraine. He could put
- 26:12Speaker 1: his forces and break off the Baltic republics Estonia, Latia
- 26:17Speaker 1: and Lithuania, who are NATO members. Ukraine has not heard
- 26:20Speaker 1: of NATO, but those NATO members in the Baltics. And
- 26:23Speaker 1: if Putin did that, if he grabbed those three Baltic states,
- 26:27Speaker 1: which he could do within a couple of well really
- 26:29Speaker 1: a couple of hours, then he would present NATO with
- 26:32Speaker 1: the FATA complete. And then he would have to say
- 26:34Speaker 1: to the NATO countries, Okay, what do you can do
- 26:36Speaker 1: about it? You want to go to war with Russia
- 26:38Speaker 1: to get back three little inconsequential countries That's what Putin's
- 26:42Speaker 1: goal was, and I don't know that he's going to
- 26:44Speaker 1: be able to achieve it now because I think the
- 26:46Speaker 1: world is looking at him for what he is, a bully,
- 26:50Speaker 1: and then a bully who has exploited the situation and
- 26:53Speaker 1: killing women and children. And that's the next question I
- 26:56Speaker 1: was going to ask you, and is about NATO. If
- 26:59Speaker 1: Ukraine is able to hold off Russia, should American citizens
- 27:05Speaker 1: be advocating for us getting them in NATO? And do
- 27:10Speaker 1: you think that would be a wise move? No, I
- 27:14Speaker 1: think there's no reason for that right now. Let's just
- 27:18Speaker 1: play out. Let's see what happens. Let's see if Vladimir
- 27:22Speaker 1: Putin is even in office. You know, a month from now,
- 27:27Speaker 1: he's going to have a lot of blowback domestically from
- 27:30Speaker 1: his people, who are going to say, why did you
- 27:32Speaker 1: get us in this mess? And he's also going to
- 27:35Speaker 1: have blowback from China. China was expecting Putin to grab Ukraine,
- 27:40Speaker 1: potentially break NATO, and then China was going to grab Taiwan.
- 27:44Speaker 1: They were all going to do that within the next
- 27:46Speaker 1: year or two. That's all put a pin put on hold. Now.
- 27:49Speaker 1: I think we have to just wait and see how
- 27:51Speaker 1: this crisis plays out, maybe Russia eventually guess hold of Ukraine,
- 27:55Speaker 1: but maybe not. You know, if you'd ask me then,
- 27:59Speaker 1: when we first saw each other at the beginning of
- 28:01Speaker 1: the Seapac conference five days ago and Russia had begun
- 28:04Speaker 1: to invade Ukraine, I never would have thought Ukrainians would
- 28:07Speaker 1: do what they're doing. And they are changing world opinion.
- 28:10Speaker 1: And now if you're not on the side of helping Ukraine,
- 28:13Speaker 1: you know you're on the side of the big nasty bully.
- 28:15Speaker 1: And so I think you'll see a number of countries,
- 28:17Speaker 1: including Germany. Now Germany has done something unprecedented in the
- 28:22Speaker 1: last twenty four hours. They're now sending weapons to Ukraine.
- 28:25Speaker 1: And Germany, who've been freeloaders on NATO for decades, they've
- 28:29Speaker 1: said that they're now up their defense spending and they're
- 28:32Speaker 1: going to be a full participant in the NATO alliance.
- 28:35Speaker 1: So things are changing very rapidly, and frankly, it's really
- 28:39Speaker 1: heartening to see it. It is inspiring, Katie. I mean
- 28:43Speaker 1: that sincerely. I appreciate you spending time explaining this to
- 28:46Speaker 1: so many people that are listening. I look up to
- 28:50Speaker 1: very few people in politics with the way that I
- 28:54Speaker 1: look up to someone like you, and I mean that sincerely.
- 28:56Speaker 1: I look at you as a mentor of foreign policy
- 29:00Speaker 1: for people like me that are trying to connect these dots.
- 29:03Speaker 1: So not only thank you for your friendship, but thank
- 29:05Speaker 1: you for coming on and talking to so many others
- 29:07Speaker 1: about this, explain it to them, and for your services
- 29:10Speaker 1: country what you've done. And I'm going to bother you,
- 29:12Speaker 1: I'm sure over the next few weeks and get you
- 29:13Speaker 1: back here again real soon. All right. Lastly, please make
- 29:16Speaker 1: sure you hit that subscribe button or auto download button
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