Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) repeatedly accused President Joe Biden of being too weak toward Vladimir Putin – unlike Donald Trump! Yet Daines also said he thought the summit should be held on the U.S. southern border, to highlight America’s immigration problems.
Daines was prodded into his criticism by host Sandra Smith who suggested we should all be horrified that Biden called Putin a “worthy adversary.”
DAINES: [Biden is] showing weakness towards Russia, and he’s being tough on America. President Biden needs to go in with a position of strength. Remember President Reagan? It was peace through strength. We need that out of President Biden.
But, unfortunately, rather than being tough on Russia, what are we seeing? We’re seeing these huge cyberattacks that are going on in America that are crippling our infrastructure. We’re seeing President Biden greenlighting a natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany at the same time he killed the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Here’s what I’d like to see happen. He should move that meeting from Geneva, move it to the southern border, bring Putin to the southern border. We could talk about America energy, we could also talk about the out of control border crisis we’ve got right now going on in our own country.
Yeah, because nothing says "strength" like inviting an adversary to visit the site of an "out of control border crisis."
DAINES: Bullies understand one thing, and that’s strength. If you go into a meeting with a bully with weakness, guess what? The bully comes out on top.
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These cyberattacks, these ransom wire attacks are a very serious threat to our country, our economic security, our entire national security. We need a forceful president confronting Putin about what’s going on here with Russia attacking our country and we need a president right now who will stand up for America and help our country instead of being weak toward Russia.
Biden has already sanctioned Russia over the hacking. He has said that if Putin “"chooses not to cooperate, and acts in a way that he has in the past relative to cybersecurity and some other activities ... we will respond in kind."
Even more shockingly, Smith and Daines complained about a media “double standard” because Biden’s diplomacy is not getting the same criticism as Trump did - as if Biden's faint praise is the same as publicly siding with Putin over the U.S. intelligence community on Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
“Trump came in to meet with Putin with strength. Biden’s going in to meet with Putin with weakness,” Daines said, with a straight face. “And I tell you what, that doesn’t end very well for our country. You’ve got to confront Russia head on.”
You can watch Smith and Daines rewrite the history of Trump’s obsequiousness toward Putin below, from the June 15, 2021 Your World.