Source: United States Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Environment and Public Works Committee, joined Meet the Press Daily with Chuck Todd to discuss the latest on Ukraine and Russia given his meeting with members of the Ukrainian Parliament and classified briefing with the intelligence community yesterday. He also discussed the Biden Administration’s regulatory obstacles to American energy development and the media’s obsession with President Trump. Excerpts and the full video are below.
On Ukraine:
“I think most Americans believe what [the Ukrainians] really need is better surface air to missile systems. The Ukrainians want more advanced systems. I think a lot of the urgency besides the ‘what’ is the ‘how fast.’ This is what’s being expressed, both by the Ukrainians and a number of us prior to the briefing yesterday.”
“Those of us on the Ukraine caucus met with five members from the Parliament of Ukraine and they said the same thing: ‘We need these things yesterday, if you can’t get them to us yesterday, please today or tomorrow at the latest.’ That’s the real frustration, the lack of certainty of how soon they can get these things and how effective they can be.”
“One of the takeaways for me at least was we’re not very well prepared for war. We’re prepared to slow down defeat for the Ukrainians, but I don’t see that we have a policy to help them win right now. We need to continue to apply enough pressure and provide enough tools, both on the sanction side as well as on the military side, to make sure Ukraine wins this war and we don’t just have a policy of delaying their defeat.”
On Vladimir Putin:
“Vladimir Putin says one thing, he does something different, you can’t really rely on it and understandably so. The guy hasn’t really been shooting straight with us for a very long time. Evidently, he’s not feeling enough incentive yet to negotiate in good faith. Obviously [Putin] needs to come out of this looking like he won something. I think right now if he got out of it, it would look like he did not. I think we have to be sure he doesn’t ever leave this war looking like he won something. So I think we’re a long ways from a truly negotiated, favorable outcome.”
On American Energy Production:
“There are 2,200 leases that have been granted in litigation right now. The biggest problem is not leases. 75% of the leases are being used. The problem is the permitting process. The Applications for Permits to Drill, the days it takes have doubled since just a couple of years ago, maybe even tripled. You can’t say ‘we’re going to punish you if you don’t use [the lease],’ but then at the same time not issue the permits they need to be able to drill. That’s just one of many regulations that provide a lack of certainty for this investment. These are capital-intensive industries. You don’t just turn a valve in the middle of the federal grasslands and oil comes out. It takes years and you have to have enough certainty. You need probably 5 to 10 years of certainty to attract the investment necessary to do the drilling.”
“The regulatory side of it is so unpredictable. The problem is under this Administration, the market signals have been so negative. There are these signals like blaming the oil companies for the rising prices of gas. They don’t benefit on rising prices of gas. They do benefit on the rising price of oil, but only if they can produce it. The natural incentive is to get out of the way and let them produce more. You can do that responsibly. In fact, it’s irresponsible to put this on other countries that are bigger polluters than we are – whether it’s Venezuela, Russia, African countries, or enemies like Iran – the last thing we want to do is empower them. So we can do it here in the United States, but the President has to change his tone as much as his policies.”
On the Media’s Obsession with President Donald Trump:
“We were going to believe everything out of Russia a few years ago when it was about Donald Trump. I said [Putin] is a war criminal that’s suggesting he will provide evidence there’s been a crime committed by Hunter Biden and by the Biden’s. Here’s the reality. If Hunter Biden’s name was Donald Trump Jr. or Eric Trump, you guys would be treating the war in Ukraine like was a Boy Scout camp gone bad.”
“Donald Trump is Donald Trump. It’s more interesting to the Washington press corps than it is to the general public. The reality is Vladimir Putin is a war criminal. If he had actual evidence a crime was committed – if any of us had evidence a crime was committed – we ought to present it. The problem is the source would not be a trustworthy source obviously. But once again Donald Trump baited you all. You all took the bait and now we’re having a discussion about the Bidens.”
“What the former president is doing is nothing compared to what the current president is doing in this circumstance. That’s really the bigger issue. We have a current president who has called for regime changes in Russia. That’s dangerous. We have a current president who says sanctions are never intended or would never deter Vladimir Putin. I’m way more concerned, and I think the American people are, with the current president and his behavior.”
“I might also add Chuck, when Donald Trump was president, Russia didn’t invade Ukraine. Russia has invaded Ukraine only when Biden has either been vice president or president. I kind of like [Donald Trump’s] style of leadership. By the way, he brought the price of oil and gas down by unleashing American innovation in energy.”