we re not angry at the russian people. but vladimir putin is a vicious dictator who has tortured and maimed and destroyed. he does everything that he can to destroy this country. and that is not in the international order that has really been in place in globally since the end of world war two. so i think it s very important and and i actually share some of senator ernst s concerns. i think we should have provided f-16s a long time ago for the ukrainians and those air defense systems. so again, i think that is generally the broad bipartisan view in congress. and we ve seen it with everybody from kevin mccarthy as speaker when he was in israel, when he got asked about it, too, chuck schumer talking about the need to support the ukrainians. so i think, again, it s unfortunate that some of those extreme voices are the ones who so often
there is more. the people are not setting policy. there is tremendous amount of bipartisan support for this war for all reason that senator ernst said, she u talkkrainis about the courageous ukrainians last p fall, i had a group of ukranian women military in my office, one thing a woman said toso cli said to her, ig this every opportunity i have there is as so clearly why this war is important. show she said, we need you to give us the weapons, so we can fight the russians so you don t have to. so you don t have to. i thin importanhet fo fror us this is o ukrainians on the fronnatl lines for democracies everywhere, it is in our national security as senatorn pe opleernst said to ensure that we help them defeat putin.ut
seeing how soviet, how the ukrainians lived, deepened my love of country, and that compelled me to recognize the strength, freedom and leadership we far too often take for granted. when i returned home, i joined army rotc and it was the best decision i have ever made. i served for 23 years in uniform, including my time as a company commander, leading 150 soldiers during operation iraqi freedom. my deployment sealed my intent to pursue lifelong service to our great country. america is imperfect, but our freedom, our concept of liberty and inalienable rights and the lengths we re willing to go to protect them comprise the most exceptional nation on earth. the founding fathers prescribed a federal government with limited responsibilities, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people
old soviet union, as we came together, the host families, they asked us questions, we they asked us questions, we expected that we about agriculture. buwas liket they were asking us about what it was like to be an american. and to be free. that struck me at that time how important it was to support whether it was ukraine or other soviet bloc country in their effort forcu country in their effort forcu freedom, russirity a sovereign nation. it is important to our own national security to step up and provide what they needdver to defeasarit the russians, russia is one of the top 4 adversaries of the unitedng states. b thack e ukrainians are doing an increcredible job of pushing back our adversary, because of what they have
grants, they could not get it done, they handed that over to u.n. russia. has a controlling vote. on how the dollars are spent. for humanitarian aid. our nato partners, friends and provid thise humanitarian support for the ukrainians. this is where we can provide savings, let s focus on what america does well and that is providing military platforms and those types of services. bret: senator shaheen, i als pointed ouo pot there is a fracture in some parts of g.o.p., but i should point ourobertt that democratic partys not complete ply united. robert kennedy is runningnato on part ofr er platform. your thoughts on the big picture. well, i would say that all of you in media like to focus on the extreme voices that i talked about in my open recession mark, i think