Conservative Fox News Contributor Praises Biden’s ‘Excellent’ Russia Speech

President Joe Biden delivered an 11-minute speech at the White House on Tuesday amid increasing concerns that Russia may invade Ukraine.

“The United States has put on the table concrete ideas to establish the security environment in Europe,” he said. “Proposing new arms control measures, new transparency measures, news strategic stability measures. We’re willing to make practical result-oriented steps that can advance our common security.”

Biden noted Russia has claimed that it has moved some soldiers away from its border with Ukraine. “That would be good, but we have not yet verified that,” he said.

The president also stated he is prepared “to engage in diplomacy with Russia,” but that the U.S. would not “sacrifice basic principles.” He also said that if Russia invades, Nord Stream 2 – the pipeline set to deliver natural gas from Russia to Germany – “will not happen.”

Following Biden’s address, Washington Post columnist and Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen appeared on The Story with Martha MacCallum to offer his reaction.

“All of these tanks and troops may be moving around a tiny bit today, but not really retreating in any significant way,” said MacCallum. “Is [Putin] going to get what he wants here?”

“Well, first of all, I thought President Biden’s speech was excellent,” Thiessen replied. “He basically said Ukraine will be able to associate with who it wants. He rejected Putin’s demand for guarantees that they not join NATO. He’s made clear that another Putin demand that they not have U.S. Forces or missiles or anything in eastern Europe and NATO countries. He made’s clear we’re gonna defend those countries.”

He went on to state that Biden spoke in “coded” language about potential sanctions against Russia so as not to spook European allies.

“He spoke in coded terms, but he said if Putin invades, there’ll be significant pressure on financial institutions and key industries,” said Thiessen. “Translation: He’s gonna kick you out of the SWIFT banking system and there are gonna be energy sanctions. He’s speaking in code because the Europeans are hesitant about that, but Putin is gravely miscalculating. If he does intervene in Ukraine, he’s gonna force Europe to go along with massive sanctions on energy exports and they’re gonna have to search for alternatives such as American liquefied natural gas and other things. So when the sanctions are potentially lifted, if they ever are, those exports are never gonna come back for Russia. So, there’s significant costs that he’s threatening to the Putin regime.”

Watch above via Fox News.