House Republican leaders spoke to reporters after Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky’s speech to Congress, sharply criticizing President Joe Biden’s administration and voicing their support for providing MiG fighter jets to the Ukrainians.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) began his remarks by noting that Zelensky had never asked for American troops to personally enter the battlefield. “All he’s ever asked for, is to give us the opportunity to defend ourselves — don’t let us fight with sticks,” said McCarthy, who said he was in favor of providing the MiGs so that Ukraine could create its own no-fly zone.
He commented that he had previously spoken with Biden and had advised him to provide armaments early on to deter Russian dictator Vladimir Putin from invading. Sanctions, McCarthy argued, “would take months to work,” but “the Ukrainian people cannot wait months, the world cannot wait months as we sit by and watch innocent people being murdered.”
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) praised Zelensky’s speech as “incredibly important,” and said “there is nothing less than genocide going on in Ukraine by Putin and his army.”
Zelensky was just asking for “more tools to defend their country,” said Scalise, and that was “why getting these MiGs in immediately is so important” because the delay was “costing lives in Ukraine.”
“This administration has been
House Republicans, said Stefanik, were “united in advocating for strong, tough sanctions for months predating the invasion, we stand strongly in support of MiGs, and making sure the weapons and ammunition needed get to the Ukrainian people as quickly as possible.”
“The problem is the delay,” said McCarthy. “The problem is this administration has delayed time and again creating a situation giving the wrong message to Putin.”
“All of that has been a mistake,” he continued. “The weeks he has waited now about whether the MiGs could go, how many people have died?”
Ukraine was in “an unwarranted war that they did not ask for,” McCarthy argued, but “are willing to defend the right of freedom” and the U.S. “should stand with anyone willing to defend freedom against the atrocities that Putin is doing.”
Watch the video above, via Fox News.