Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) a top surrogate for the Trump campaign, is accusing President Joe Biden of “dragging his feet” on Ukraine as Republicans in the House stall foreign aid to the country.
Scott made the comment in an interview Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, earning pushback from host Jake Tapper.
“From the beginning of the Ukraine war, what we’ve seen is actually Joe Biden dragging his feet,” Scott said. “This is after we saw the botched withdrawal in Afghanistan. We’ve seen war in Ukraine. We have conflict in the Middle East. We have instability in the indo-pacific. What we need is strong American leadership.”
“I don’t understand how you can criticize President Biden for ‘dragging his feet’ when it comes to helping Ukraine when Donald Trump is out there saying that we shouldn’t, the United States shouldn’t, be giving any money to Ukraine,” Tapper said.
The CNN host also pointed out that Trump said recently said he would “encourage” Russia to do “whatever the hell it wants to do” to NATO countries that don’t pay enough .
“Let’s talk about what Russia’s doing right now, because this a key city of Avdiivka fell to Russian forces yesterday in a major setback for Ukraine. President Zelensky blamed the loss on the artificial deficit of arms and ammunition because of western inaction. He pleaded for Congress to act,” Tapper said.
“After Hamas attacked Israel, you said President Biden had “blood on his hands” because he hadn’t confronted Iran more aggressively, and Iran supports Hamas,” he continued. “If the US fails to support Ukraine right now in the fight against Russia, will Congress have blood on its hands?”
The Senate passed a bipartisan foreign aid package with assistance for Ukraine and Israel. Twenty-nine senators, including Scott, voted against the package. It’s unclear whether House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will even bring the bill to the floor for a vote.
“We’ve already supported Ukraine for over $100 billion, and when I said that Joe Biden dragged his feet getting into this conflict at the beginning, I meant that,” Scott said Sunday. “Look at the fact that we followed Germany to help a NATO ally out — to help Ukraine, not a NATO ally — but they help Ukraine. That is a really important first step that set us back by months.”
