By Sandy Fitzgerald
There are “absolutely veto-proof majorities” in the House and Senate who will vote to stop importing Russian oil to keep U.S. funds from going toward the invasion of Ukraine despite the White House’s reluctance to approve a ban, Rep. Mike Turner told Newsmax Friday.
“This is about freedom,” the Ohio Republican said on Newsmax’s “John Bachman Now.” “This is about supporting those who are fighting for self-determination. It’s about our allies, and it’s about threats to the United States. Vladimir Putin has openly threatened the United States. We certainly shouldn’t be his customer while he threatens us on the world stage.”
Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, have introduced the legislation calling for a declaration of national emergency and to direct President Joe Biden to impose a ban on Russian oil imports, and Turner said he agrees with them — and to his surprise, so does House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — that importing Russian oil must stop.
The congressman also on Friday told Newsmax that it was “unfortunate” for Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to call for Putin’s death, even though on Friday, the senator walked that back to instead call for the Russian leader to be sent to jail.
Graham is “certainly a very knowledgeable internationals scholar and policymaker,” said Turner, but “We shouldn’t be making statements like this.
“We wouldn’t want people making statements like that in reverse as they affect our country, but I think what’s important here is how the senator has been moved by what he’s seeing by Putin himself, killing civilians, bombing their homes, killing young children and also then attacking Ukraine’s power plant,” said Turner.
“Attacking the power plant just shows how reckless and how irresponsible Putin is, and certainly I think, you know that’s where people are rising to this anger.”
The Ohio lawmaker also discussed calls from former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to recognize Taiwan as a free and sovereign nation.
“What’s important here is that we need to shift our policies to be able to support those democratic governments that need military support,” said Turner, adding that it was “so sad” to hear Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy say President Joe Biden acted too late to save his country.
Former President Donald Trump sent in lethal weapons to Ukraine, after the Obama administration refused, said Turner.
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“He’s the one who sent them the original javelin [missiles] and we’ve seen how effective they are,” he added. “We need to make sure that people can defend themselves because obviously aggressiveness from authoritarian regimes is going to continue.”