Bill Barr said he suspected that Vladimir Putin would see the President Joe Biden as “weak” and begins to “grab whatever he wants” with more bravado.
Former Attorney General who served under Donald TrumpThe US administration added that Biden’s victory does not give Russia “any incentive to use diplomacy,” especially after the president’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and the deprivation of US energy independence.
Speaking with Fox NewsBarr said: “Given Biden’s apparent weakness, Putin is likely to feel he’d be better off not making any concessions at all.”
Bill Barr said he suspects Putin will see President Joe Biden as “weak” and “grab whatever he wants” with more bravado.
Last night, in an interview with Fox News Special Report, Barr explained that he made predictions about Russia’s behavior in his new book, One Damn Thing After Another: A Memoir of an Attorney General.
An excerpt from it read: “I fear that with a hesitant, periodically wary Joe Biden in the Oval Office, Vladimir Putin will be more assertive in pursuing Russian strategic goals and will not feel the need to find an agreed framework with the United States.”
Referring to the “gates of Russia,” Barr hinted that by moving the state away from diplomatic relations after Trump’s defeat, Russia has become bolder.
He said that while “Russia is in steep decline” and “Putin has made a big mistake,” Biden’s decisions could “drastically increase Russia’s influence,” making Putin’s behavior, in Barr’s opinion, “inevitable.”
Biden announced his plans to withdraw troops from Afghanistan last April and defended his decision when the Taliban took over the country in August in a White House speech on August 16, in which he also blamed Afghan leaders for their failure to prevent the collapse.
Speaking to Fox News, Barr said: “Given Biden’s apparent weakness, Putin would probably feel he’d be better off not making any concessions at all.”
A US Marine grabs an infant through a barbed wire fence during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, August 19, 2021.
“I fully support my decision,” Biden said. “After 20 years, I have learned a lot. That there was never a good time for the withdrawal of US troops. That’s why we are still there.
In his speech, he also said that “US troops cannot and should not fight in a war and die in a war in which the Afghan forces are unwilling to fight for themselves.”
Later that night, Biden authorized up to $500 million in emergency funds to meet Afghanistan-related “unexpected urgent” refugee needs, including for special Afghan immigrant visa applicants, the White House said.
On the day he gave his speech, a video from Kabul showed desperate Afghans clinging to the sides of a US military plane as it tried to leave the city’s airport.
Another showed people falling to their deaths from a C-17 transport aircraft.
Biden also pointed the finger at former President Donald Trump’s agreement with the Taliban to withdraw American troops by May 1, 2021.
“So, it remains for me to ask again those who argue that we should stay: how many more generations of daughters and sons of America do you want me to send to the war in Afghanistan if the Afghan troops do not?” Biden said.
“How many more lives, American lives, is that worth? How many endless rows of headstones are there in Arlington National Cemetery?
Afghans board a passenger plane at Kabul airport amid chaotic scenes as civilians struggle to find a safe way out of the Afghan capital after the Taliban takeover.
Donald Trump shakes hands with Vladimir Putin during a press conference in Helsinki, Finland, 2018.
“I am clear in my answer: I will not repeat the mistakes we have made in the past. The mistake is to stay and fight indefinitely in a conflict that is not in the national interest of the United States,” he continued.
– Double down on a civil war in a foreign country. About trying to remake the country through the endless deployment of US military forces, ”the president added.
His speech lasted about 18 minutes. At its conclusion, he left the East Room, ignoring the reporters’ screaming questions.
Biden’s decision was criticized by Democrats and Republicans alike, with many criticizing the move amid the nation’s fall to a terrorist regime.
Mitch McConnell said Biden’s decisions are “forcing us to move towards an even worse continuation of the humiliating fall of Saigon in 1975”, while Republican Lindsey Graham tweeted: “It will only be a matter of time before our homeland is threatened again from Afghanistan.”