Biden’s All Talk, No Action on Russia, and America Suffers

If the president is truly convinced that Russia is going to invade imminently, why wouldn’t he be taking additional steps to stop it?

President Biden at Lorain, Ohio, February 17, 2022. AP/Alex Brandon

As President Biden departed the White House for Ohio today, he said that the threat of Russia invading Ukraine is “very high” and that he believes it could happen “in the next several days.” He added: “Every indication we have is that they’re prepared to go into Ukraine, attack Ukraine.”

Now, why would he say that? What’s the point? No one really knows what’s going to happen.

Earlier this week, the White House said President Putin would launch an invasion Wednesday, as in yesterday. Didn’t happen. The president gets top-secret briefings every morning, and my guess is there’s a lot of ambiguity coming from the intel agencies.

These assessments are always put in terms of probabilities. There are often disagreements among the intel agencies.

If the president is suggesting that Russia will go in maybe this weekend, or whenever, he’s basically saying his diplomacy failed. Or, if he is truly convinced that Russia is going to invade imminently, why wouldn’t he be taking additional steps to stop it?

We don’t know what he said to Mr. Putin last Saturday, but why wouldn’t he say to the American people — and to our NATO allies and the rest of the world, for that matter — something like, “Beginning tonight, we are imposing strict banking sanctions on Russia. Their central bank and their large commercial banks will be prevented from any dollar-based transactions on the global Swift system, and there will be sanctions on the Russian oligarchs who own these banks, and of course sanctions will be restored on Nord Stream 2 — sanctions thant never should have never removed in the first place.”

You see what I’m saying? What he’s doing just doesn’t make any sense. If you really know the Russians are going in, then take action. 

I believe these sanctions should’ve occurred right at the beginning of this drama, but even now America looks more and more like a paper tiger. 

If the president knows the Russians are going into Ukraine, then do something for heaven’s sake. 

On Tuesday, Mr. Biden said that a Russian invasion could have an impact on our energy prices. We don’t know if that’s with or without sanctions.

Then he said, “We are taking active steps to alleviate the pressure on our own energy markets to offset rising prices.”

No one knows what those actions might be. An obvious thought is to stop the radical, greenie jihad against American fossil fuel companies. Tell them to open the spigots. And, by the way, re-open the XL pipeline and the drilling in Alaska, and rescind the fee hike imposed for drilling on public lands.

In other words, go back to America’s energy strength. Tell our great fossil fuel producers that they have our confidence and we need them now more than ever. Of course he didn’t say that, though, and frankly, I don’t think he ever will. 

Oil prices are now more than $90 a barrel, and climbing.

Incidentally, gold prices are now above $1,900, and stocks are down.

In other words, the president is communicating weakness and uncertainty, and despite promises, he has failed to take any action. His entire communication strategy is undermining American strength and undermining the American economy. It’s a sad state of affairs.

________

From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business News.


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