Sen. Lindsey Graham to Newsmax: Trump Warned Putin, Xi — and They Feared Him
When Donald Trump was president, invasions like Ukraine didn't happen because "war criminals" like Russian President Vladimir Putin feared Trump, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., tells
Newsmax.
Appearing Thursday on
"Eric Bolling: The Balance," Graham said that he had breakfast earlier in the day with Trump, who shared with the senator how he dealt with tyrants, including Putin.
Putin is trying to intimidate people with his threats against anyone who helps Ukraine, Graham said, because "that's what bullies do." But, with an economy the size of Italy that depends on oil and gas, "We could crush it," Graham said.
"Now why didn't this happen on Trump's watch?" he asked. "I had breakfast with President Trump this morning, and he said he told Putin he wanted a good relationship. 'But if you go into Ukraine, I can't have a good relationship with you. And you don't want to do that.'"
Trump told Chinese President Xi Jinping the same thing about Taiwan, Graham said. "And they were afraid of him."
Graham said Biden should hold Putin "accountable" for the money he has "stolen from the Russian people."
"They say he may be worth up to $100 billion. Well, how did he get that money? He stole it from Russia," Graham said. "All of his buddies that have apartments and yachts, I would start taking them and looking and put them in jail. I would restrict travel to Russia, I would treat Russia as an extreme case of COVID and isolate it."
Putin is a war criminal, Graham said, because he has gone into the sovereign nation of Ukraine "and started killing people by force of arms."
"He's criminally killing civilians," Graham said, noting that the invasion itself is a violation of the 1994 Agreement signed by Ukraine, Russia, Great Britain and the United States that Ukraine would give up its nuclear weapons to Russia, and Russia, in turn, would never invade Ukraine.
Russia and China likely had a "secret handshake'' that "you don't give me a hard time on Ukraine and I won't give you a hard time about Taiwan," Graham said. "And again, President Trump made it clear to those leaders that if you go down the road of Taiwan and China and Russia and Ukraine, I can't help you and I'll be your worst nightmare."
The problem, he said, is that how Ukraine ends, determines what China does with Taiwan.
"Taiwan is the largest manufacturer of semiconductor chips in the entire world, so our whole high end economy depends on chips," he said. "Do you really want China to own the entire chip market?"
Additionally, he said, "Israel is in the crosshairs of a radical regime in Iran. If they get a nuclear weapon, Israel will have to respond. They can't let that ever happen. I think Israel would use a nuclear weapon to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.
"At that point, we could have the whole world in flames here if we don't watch it, so how we deal with Putin really matters."
When Donald Trump was president, invasions like Ukraine didn't happen because "war criminals" like Russian President Vladimir Putin feared Trump, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., tells Newsmax.
www.newsmax.com