Gallagher on Mornings with Maria: "It's Time for America to Wake Up"

Today, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Armed Services Committee, joined Mornings with Maria on Fox News to discuss Russia's attacks on Ukraine. On Ukrainian's remarkable courage : "Clearly Vladimir Putin thought that he was going to be able to achieve a quick victory, collapse the Ukrainians will to fight, and collapse Zelenskyy's will to fight. And that's not what's happened. The Ukrainians have stepped up, they've demonstrated remarkable courage. Zelenskyy has been leading from the front, begging us for more ammunition...There is more we can do to provide military assistance in the form of stingers, javelins, sniper rifles, body armor, and mines to make this as costly as possible for Vladimir Putin, to get him involved in a quagmire and ultimately turn this into a long term humiliation for him...The lesson really is we should have been doing this on the front end. Shame on us for being so slow to help a friend, our friends in Ukraine who are demonstrating the will to fight." On Biden's reliance on Russia amidst his energy crisis: "I don't think most Americans understand that right now as Biden's threatening to turn Putin into a total pariah, the Biden administration is relying on Russia to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear program. And of course, Russia has not only been blocking the IAEA investigation into Iran's undeclared nuclear activities, it wants to sell uranium and weapons to Iran. If this administration announces an Iran deal brokered by Putin, that won't just be billions of dollars for the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, it'll be a massive win for Vladimir Putin in the Middle East. And I guarantee you, [the Biden administration will] justify it by saying that because of the energy crisis we have, bringing 1 to 2 million barrels of Iranian crude on the global market is a good idea and will help Americans at the pump. This is insane. I beg the Biden administration to drop this dangerous fantasy of trying to resuscitate the Iran deal. It would be a win for Putin and a loss for the United States of America." On the need to defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion: "If we don't defend Taiwan, that's the complete collapse of our position, not just in the Indo Pacific, but really our status as as the leader of the free world. And the lessons from Ukraine are obvious, right? You need hard power in place on the ground prior to the crisis to deter dictators and authoritarians, like Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. Second point, as former Prime Minister of Japan Abe just said, we should end our policy of strategic ambiguity with Taiwan and let there be no ambiguity about the fact that we will come to Taiwan's defense. And the third point, is that as much as the Chinese might protest the move, we should be increasing our partnership, particularly our military partnership, with Taiwan. And really put some pressure on them to invest in asymmetric capabilities, missiles, mines, things that will make it very, very difficult to [invade Taiwan]. But I fear that the weakness we've projected has just expedited Xi Jinping's timeline for Taiwan, and he might feel like he should make a move in the next two years because he can get away with it. So we need to do a better job, those of us in public office, of communicating why this is so important. It's time for America to wake up." // Subscribe to Rep. Gallagher's Channel!    / @mikegallagher3103   Subscribe to Rep. Gallagher's Newsletter! https://gallagher.house.gov/contact/n... Congressman Mike Gallagher has represented Wisconsin’s 8th District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2017. Mike was born and raised in Green Bay, where he now lives with his wife Anne and two daughters. Mike served for seven years on active duty in the United States Marine Corps, including two deployments to Iraq. Mike also served as the lead Republican staffer for the Middle East and Counterterrorism on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and worked in the private sector at an energy and supply chain management company in Green Bay. Mike currently serves as Chairman of the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, as Chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation, and on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. From 2019-2021 he served as Co-Chairman of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission. For more information visit: https://gallagher.house.gov Follow Rep. Gallagher on Twitter:   / repgallagher   Follow Rep. Gallagher on Facebook:   / repmikegallagher   Follow Rep. Gallagher on Instagram:   / repgallagher