GRAHAM: "Ukraine has trillions of dollars worth of CRITICAL MINERALS in their country. Vladimir Putin cannot be allowed to access that money and those resources because he will share it with China."
WATCH SENATOR GRAHAM’S INTERVIEW AND READ THE ENTIRE GRAHAM INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT HERE:
They are saying the quiet part out loud now!
The following is a transcript of an interview with Sen. Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, on "Face the Nation" that aired on June 9, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. He joins us from London. Good morning to you, Senator.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Thank you.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I know you were at those D-Day remembrances earlier in the week, and you met with President Zelensky as well. He has asked for more training for his forces, and for that to happen faster and inside of Ukraine. Do you support the U.S. doing that?
SEN. GRAHAM: Yes, I do support us training inside the country. You know, the delay in weapons because of House inaction, we did lose momentum. But from the very beginning, the Biden administration, they did not impose pre-invasion sanctions to deter Putin. They didn't give weapons to Ukraine early on to deter Putin. And now we've got a chance to reset this war that they have the weapons. Here's what he wanted most of all, for us to go after the Russian assets all over the world, take the money from the sovereign wealth funds of Russia and give it to Ukraine. There's $300 billion sitting in Europe from Russian sovereign wealth, assets that we should seize and give to Ukraine. We have Russian money in America we should seize. We should make Russia a state sponsor of terrorism under U.S. law. When I suggested that to President Zelensky, he lit up like a Christmas tree. Making Russia a state sponsor of U.S.- state sponsor of terrorism under U.S. law would be a very big blow to Russia.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right. I don't know that the Biden administration would sign off on that, though, but in terms of what you just mentioned, with--
SEN. GRAHAM: They won't.
MARGARET BRENNAN: --with the assets, President Biden did say this morning he had reached an agreement with President Macron of France on the use of profits from those frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine. I know the Europeans haven't wanted to go ahead and seize assets because it would hurt their banks.
SEN. GRAHAM: Well, they- they want to use the interest to help people- either we're going to help Ukraine or we're not. It's now time to give them the F-16s, let them fly the planes, long range artillery to hit targets inside of Russia. Go after Putin's assets, wherever they're at, all over the world. Go on the offensive. I think this summer, Ukraine will regain military momentum. Everything we've done with Ukraine has been slow. It's been indecisive. But if we went after the assets that Putin has all over the world, take his money that's stolen from the Russian people, and help the victims in Ukraine, I think it would do a lot to end this war.
CONTINUED…
Senator Graham strikes me as the arrogant stereotypical bombastic American that the rest of the world despises! He thinks the world is his to instruct in his own vision… There is not much intelligence at the US top level these days but hopefully someone will tell him to pull his head in.