Source: United States Senator for Ohio Rob Portman
February 8, 2022 | Portman Difference
In an interview this afternoon with Fox News’ Your World with Neil Cavuto, Senator Portman, co-chair of the Senate Ukraine Caucus, discussed the escalating crisis in Ukraine. Portman underscored the need to support Ukraine and made clear that Russia will face severe consequences if they invade their sovereign neighbor. He also stressed the importance of passing a bipartisan package that will provide additional military assistance to Ukraine and sanction Russia for their aggressive posture.
In addition, Portman discussed his legislation prohibiting the Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) from accepting arrest warrants as valid proof of identification at airport security checkpoints and for other purposes.
A transcript of his remarks can be found below and a video can be found here.
PORTMAN ON THE NEED FOR THE SENATE TO PASS BIPARTISAN ASSISTANCE PACKAGE:
“Well, of course it should. We should act quickly and we should do it in a bipartisan way. Look, what the Russians and Vladimir Putin, in particular, are looking at is what will the consequences be if we do this. And remember, they went into a part of Ukraine called Crimea eight years ago, and the reaction, frankly, was not that strong. The sanctions we put in place were relatively weak, and I think they might be expecting the same thing this time. That’s not what’s going to happen. The sanctions will be strong, and the question is more precisely, what will they be? And what else can we put in this package in terms of helping Ukraine on cyber attacks, which happen every day Charles, as you know. The attacks are occurring not just on government websites but also on their critical infrastructure. On disinformation constantly being flooded into Ukraine. We can help there by pushing back and providing the correct and truthful information. And then military assistance. So it’s not just about sanctions, it’s also about helping the Ukrainians be able to protect themselves, not putting U.S. troops in harm’s way, but providing them the weapons so that we can help them with regard to tanks, with regard to aircraft, and with regard to ships. So this should be a combined package and I hope we can get it done even in the next several days here.”
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“Well, frankly, it’s about the sanctions and it’s about how tough the sanctions should be, generally. And it’s about whether the sanctions should be all after the fact. In other words, should there be an incursion and should the Russians make a terrible mistake and actually go into Ukraine, or should there be some now for what they’re already doing? I just mentioned some of the aggressive unwarranted actions that they’re taking. And then finally, it’s about Nord Stream 2. Remember, this is the pipeline that Republicans as a whole believe is a bad idea in the first place, and now it’s a terrible idea given what’s happened with regard to the build up of 120,000 Russian troops on the Ukrainian border. So those are some of the differences, but I hope we can iron them out.
“In general, there is a consensus, there is a unified voice that what Russia is doing with these aggressive actions is absolutely unacceptable and that we want to stand by the people of Ukraine. So I think it’d be smart of us to come together and issue a really strong statement. Get the House to pass it, get the President to sign it and that would just add to what’s already happening, which is really a strengthening of the transatlantic alliance. The NATO countries in particular are for the most part are standing up and helping. And I think Vladimir Putin may be surprised that one of the consequences of what he’s done is to strengthen NATO, not to weaken it.”
PORTMAN ON THE NEED FOR GERMANY TO DO MORE TO SUPPORT UKRAINE:
“Well, Nord Stream 2 is, as I said, a bad idea in the first place. It’s Russian gas going to Germany and Europe. And Russia has traditionally used these kinds of energy pipelines as political weapons. And so you don’t want to be dependent on Russia. I think a lot of people in Europe agree with that, but yet they’re having a real energy problem there. So what we’d like Germany to do is really three things. Number one is to step up on working with us on the sanctions that would be imposed should there be an invasion. Second is specifically on Nord Stream 2, to say publicly what President Biden said yesterday publicly, and I appreciate that he did, which is that, hey, if this guy comes into Ukraine, if we have an incursion into Ukraine, we’re going to stop this pipeline. Now we would do it through sanctions, which would be very substantial sanctions against the pipeline contractors and so on.
“And then third, what we’d love to see Germany do is to let countries provide arms to Ukraine. Ukraine is not asking for other countries to come in and fight for them. They are asking for help. And one example is the Estonians want to send them these howitzers that were made in East Germany a few decades ago and Germany still retains the right under a license agreement to say, hey, you got to get approval from us to send these to Ukraine. Ukraine wants them. Estonia wants to send them. Germany is not providing the approval. So I hope they will provide that approval soon. I hope they will provide other approvals. And we can all work together on this to avoid this terrible possibility, which is that, again, Vladimir Putin would make a bad mistake and go into Ukraine. Think of the lives that would be lost. Think of the impact on the economies and think of the instability that would cause Europe and the message all around the world in terms of a country coming in, an authoritarian country taking over a democracy here in the 21st century.”
PORTMAN ON LEGISLATION PROHIBITING TSA FROM ACCEPTING ARREST WARRANTS AS VALID PROOF OF ID:
“Yeah, well, we found out that the TSA is actually accepting in some cases from migrants their arrest warrants as a valid ID and that’s sort of silly on the face of it. But one of the real problems is that it’s based on data that’s not necessarily accurate. So when someone comes across the border illegally, there may be an arrest warrant that is written out based on information that the migrant is providing. We don’t know if that is accurate or not. We don’t have a database to be able to check that. So it’s certainly not a good idea to rely on that as the Real ID which they’re requiring now from all the rest of us, a secure ID in order to get on an airplane in the United States. So I don’t think this is a tough call. I would hope TSA would change their policy.”
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