U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, says there is strong Republican support on Capitol Hill for Ukraine and against Russian President Vladimir Putin despite comments from Republican Former President Donald Trump praising Putin as a genius and supporting his invasion of Ukraine.
Blumenthal was one of almost 300 members of the Senate and House who on March 5 participated in a video call with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. During the call, Zelenskyy said that it might be the last time the lawmakers saw him alive. He pleaded for the imposition of a no-fly zone over Ukraine in view of heavy Russian aerial bombardment of the country.
“This call was very intensely emotional,” Blumenthal said. “He was truly magnetic in his presence and so passionate and courageous in his words. Plainly, after this phone call, there should be no doubt in the minds of any of my colleagues about the need for the $10 billion in supplemental assistance and I hope this week, literally, now, we will come together in a bipartisan way to approve that next down payment. It is by no means the end of what we need to do. President Zelenskyy made clear he needs more aircraft for his pilots, more ammunition … for his war fighters, more defensive measures to protect civilians that are literally under bombs and missiles, more medical supplies, more humanitarian assistance.”
The Business Journal asked Blumenthal what he was hearing from Republicans on Capitol Hill about former Vice-President Mike Pence breaking with Trump regarding his praise of Putin and the invasion.
“Whatever their initial inclinations, whatever their mimicking of the Trump line, my colleagues by and large see Putin’s invasion for what it is. It is pretty undeniable,” Blumenthal said. “I think they understand that our own national security demands that we stop this bully because he will continue if he is unstopped. I think my Republican colleagues are joining in the view that we need even stronger economic sanctions, military aid, more of it, and more effective forms of military aid as well as cracking down and tracking down Putin’s assets and making him pay.”
Blumenthal said that the call with Zelenskyy crystallized bipartisan support and that at the end Republicans and Democrats were applauding together.
The Business Journal asked whether President Biden would be made to look weak if Congress got too far ahead of the administration with respect to sanctions on Russia including the blocking of oil and gas imports from Russia.
“I have been calling for stronger sanctions now for months,” Blumenthal said. “I came back from my visit to Ukraine just seven or eight weeks ago saying that we should apply strong sweeping sanctions on all the Russian banks, disconnect them from the SWIFT financial system.”
Blumenthal characterized himself as being a little bit ahead of the Biden Administration but not in a way to be critical of it.
“We are seeing a sea change, a historic crossing point here when Germany is providing arms to another country and increasing its defense budget, when the Swiss and Sweden, two of the countries most identified with neutrality are now taking sides in a very palpable way, so the world is moving and I’m supporting a cut in the import of Russian oil and gas, an embargo, as is contained in bipartisan legislation that I’ve joined,” Blumenthal said. “We should be pressuring OPEC to produce more. They’re still at levels of production pre-Covid. American oil companies are making record profits. They should be pressured to produce more.”
Blumenthal emphasized that the war is Vladimir Putin’s war of choice.
“It is churning and disrupting the world’s market for oil and gas and for other commodities like wheat and corn, which eventually may cause rising prices as well,” Blumenthal said. “If you want to blame someone, it is Vladimir Putin’s war that is destroying the supply chain and the world market that is the source of affordable oil and gas. Whatever the United States does, Vladimir Putin’s war is going to continue to disrupt the world economy and as much as we rightly blame him for the loss of human life ”¦ he’s also to blame for the economic sacrifices and suffering that is felt around the world and Americans should be darn angry.”
