Source: United States Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee, joined Mornings with Maria on Fox Business today to discuss the situation in Ukraine and Federal Reserve nominees. Excerpts and the full video are below.
On Ukraine:
“The ball is in Vladimir Putin’s court. The notion that somehow the United States could unilaterally make the decision to not allow Ukraine into NATO is ludicrous on its face. Not to mention, it’s just not what we would do. Then to suggest that somehow the removal of troops, as if we are aggressor here or that Ukraine is aggressor when Vladimir Putin puts well over 100,000 troops on the border, again is ludicrous on face. But this is how Vladimir Putin plays. This is why though, Maria, the signal coming from United States needs to be strong, needs to be specific, and needs to be unified. Not chaotic and not weak. At the same time we have to continue to unify our NATO allies and all of Europe, on the same side of this issue.”
“A lot of people say they do expect [Russia to invade Ukraine]. It looks like an acceleration is hard to deny that. At the same time, I am not completely convinced that Vladimir Putin’s ultimate goal is an invasion as much as getting something done. Let’s not forget, at the heart of a lot of this is the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, something Vladimir Putin wants, something that is built. All that needs to be finished is the certification and the acceptance of the natural gas. It’s hard to know how far he would go to make that the norm. In other words, to this point the norm has been ‘let’s stop it.’ I still believe there is plenty of opportunity for [Putin] to do right thing but he’ll only do the right thing if we send the right signals.”
On Federal Reserve Nominees:
“I have great concerns about Bloom Raskin. In fact, I still have some of the same concerns about Lael Brainard for Vice Chair. Bloom Raskin has been even more radical in terms of approach on climate and fossil fuels. Remember a lot of times how you say things matters as much as saying them. To Bloom Raskin’s credit, she’s been so blatant and blunt there’s no question. At one point she said a transformation of the American economy is the only way to really deal with climate change. Well, we have the greatest economic system in the world and I don’t want it transformed fundamentally or any other way. Our markets work really, really well.”
“Lisa Cook is just fundamentally not qualified in my mind. So, no I don’t think it will be a bipartisan confirmation process. My hope is we fight like heck as Republicans to get some moderate Democrats on board and stop one or two of these.”