Donald TrumpRussia’s energy independence policy has been maintained Vladimir Putin under control, according to the deputy adviser to the former president for national security K.T. McFarland, who said Thursday that the president Joe Biden had to sanction the Russian oil and gas industry after its invasion of Ukraine.
McFarland said she deliberately chose to wear yellow – one of the colors of the Ukrainian flag – when she appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida.
After dozens of Republicans accusing Biden of weakness in failing to prevent Putin’s attack, McFarland said Trump’s energy policy has helped curb Russian aggression.
“If oil costs $ 40 a barrel, which was when President Trump left office, the Russians are ruined,” she said.
“They can’t afford to go to war. War is expensive.
KT McFarland, Trump’s deputy national security adviser at the White House for four months, said the former president’s energy independence policy had kept Putin under control.
McFarland said oil was priced at $ 40 a barrel when Trump left office. But it has since risen sharply, filling Vladimir Putin’s coffers and funding his military machine.
In this photo, taken from a video published by the press service of the Ukrainian police, military helicopters, apparently Russian, fly over the outskirts of Kiev, Ukraine
In the Glukhov region, the Ukrainian military collided with an armored column of 15 T-72 tanks with American Javelin missiles
Moscow, the world’s largest natural gas supplier and one of the world’s largest oil producers, could only “play big” on the world stage if energy prices are high, she said.
Biden, she said, immediately reversed Trump’s policies.
“So he immediately shut down the American energy industry, oil and natural gas, the energy we exported to other countries, which stopped, and what happened, the price of oil skyrocketed,” she said.
“Vladimir Putin is rich and can choose when to invade.”
McFarland was deputy national security adviser for the first four months of the Trump administration.
She initially served under Mike Flynn and was asked to step down after he was fired for failing to reveal talks with Russia’s ambassador to Washington.
She said Biden’s sanctions would not hit Putin where it hurts – the oil and gas industry.
Her remarks added flesh to Republican cries that Biden was guilty, but Democrats opposed it, saying Trump’s comfortable relationship with Putin meant he would not curb it.
She spoke as Ukrainian forces battled Russian invaders from three countries after Moscow launched an attack on land, sea and air, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.
Republicans lined up to accuse Biden of weakness.
“As we pray for the Ukrainian people, make no mistake: THIS happens when America’s enemies see the weak and incompetent @POTUS,” tweeted US spokesman Scott Perry, adding the hashtag Bidenisafailure.
Republicans in the House of Representatives said: “President Biden’s weakness on the world stage has encouraged our enemies. China, Iran and North Korea are watching.
Matt Schlap, who heads the organization behind the CPAC and a leading conservative voice, said the issue of Russia and Ukraine would be a key topic for the next four days.
The attack reached Ukraine on all fronts with bombs and missiles dropped on targets across the country in the early hours, followed by attacks by troops from Crimea, Donbas, Belgorod and Belarus, as well as helicopter landings in Kiev and power plants on the Dnieper River. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant also fell into the hands of Russian forces
Russian Ka-52 combat helicopter seen in the field after forced landing Kiev, Ukraine
He said there were differences between the party coalition spread.
“You know, Liz Cheney’s Wing of the Republican Party.” he is becoming increasingly marginalized and discredited, “he told DailyMail.com. “So that makes people turn to different voices to try to say, well, you know, if you’re not a military expert, do you think we should use America’s power, its treasure, to intervene?”
“And I would say that I think most people here would actually listen to the case to defend Ukraine, but the president has to do it.
“He has to somehow transform himself from this man who reads a line in the middle of the day into a president who gives big speeches in prime time, including press conferences, about what he thinks we should do.”
Recent polls show little support for the US role in the conflict.
The Associated Press’s Center for Public Affairs (NORC) found that only 22 percent of Republicans believe the United States should play a major role in the conflict, compared with 32 percent of Democrats.