Mark Levin: We Cannot Allow ‘Nuclear Blackmail’ from Putin

Sunday on FNC’s “Life, Liberty & Levin,” host Mark Levin criticized the Biden administration for its response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and how it was reacting to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rhetoric.

Levin warned against “nuclear blackmail” from Putin dictating U.S. policy.

Partial transcript as follows:

LEVIN: You know, ladies and gentlemen, in past programs here and on radio and elsewhere, I’ve pushed back against the Putin-wing of the Republican Party. I’ve pushed back against the Putin-wing of the media, the appeasement of the executive branch and the President of the United States, our truly lousy Generals at the Pentagon and others.

It was abundantly clear to me that when Vladimir Putin had almost 200,000 of his men lined up on the borders of Ukraine, he intended to invade that country. People raised doubt about that.

Now, that didn’t make any sense, did it?

Five hundred tanks, 200,000 soldiers — God knows what else. He intended to invade. That was the time and even before that, for this administration, to arm up the Ukrainians, not three, four, or five weeks later. Not three, four, or five weeks later.

We all knew after the disaster that was Afghanistan and the surrender by this administration what was coming. We all knew when Biden was appeasing Putin in every possible way, whether it was a pipeline or a nuclear deal and so forth, we all knew that this day would come.

We all know that Communist China and Xi, another psychopath genocidal maniac has every intention of invading Taiwan. He has all but destroyed Hong Kong. We all knew that in Tehran, the Islamic regime there, the fanatical, dangerous neo-Nazi regime in Tehran is going to continue to build nukes to lock and attack Israel, its Gulf Arab neighbors, and yes, even the United States of America.

If we knew this, how is it that Biden didn’t know it? How is it that the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense didn’t know it? Well, I suggest they knew it, but they are weak and pathetic.

Now what? Well, people are wanting Putin to go ahead and decide what the battlefield should look like. He threatens nuclear weapons, they shake. He threatens other weapons, they shake.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, as I’ve said before, the old Soviet Union had nuclear weapons. Russia has had nuclear weapons for half a century. We have nuclear weapons, too. We cannot allow nuclear blackmail to determine what the fate of the world is going to look like, or what the fate of the United States is going to look like.

Putin is not going to use nuclear weapons. Certainly not now. How do I know that? Am I Nostradamus? No, it’s commonsense. If he wanted to use nuclear weapons, he’d use them. Why would he use nuclear weapons in response to MiG 29s? Old jets? Twenty five or 30 of them delivered to the Ukrainians?

Well, because it might stalemate? Well, we were just told by our Defense Department, told by our White House and all the phony experts on TV that it wouldn’t make a difference. So if it doesn’t make a difference, then why would Putin go to, to level one and use nuclear weapons in response to MiG 29s? He wouldn’t. That’s why.

Furthermore, Xi. We need to understand that we are more powerful than China right now. No thanks to this administration, but prior administrations. We are economically more powerful, militarily more powerful and it is important that we stay that way, even though we’re sliding as a result, particularly of this administration and the Obama administration.

We need to muscle up our military now. Not with a few billion dollars, but with a special Manhattan like project, not to go to war, but to prevent war, to make sure we are the most muscular military on the face of the earth no matter how many enemies we are facing. That is a deterrence. That is a response. That is peace through strength, as Reagan put it, and as Trump would put it, as well.

Then we have North Korea. North Korea was in a box under Trump. Look at it now. Now, it wants to fire its brand new shiny ICBM. That will show us, right? But even more concerning right now is Iran.

This administration has appointed Putin for all intents and purposes to negotiate on our behalf with the regime in Tehran that keeps talking about “Death to America, Death to America.” Now, they already fired ballistic missiles at our consulate, what’s the response of our government? Well, they didn’t mean to hit our consulate.

You know, the enemy hears this stuff, the enemy sees this stuff. What will happen if Iran gets nukes? What’s happened with Putin and nukes? He’s been waving them around. He’s been blackmailing us. He’s trying to control the battlefield, right, by threatening us.

You hear analysts and others say: Oh we’ve got to worry about this. What do you think Iran will do? If Iran unleashes Hezbollah against Israel, if it topples the government in Egypt or Saudi Arabia? Well, we can’t do anything because Iran has nukes. Or all over the world, Iran can make threats on behalf of its ideology, and its fundamentalism.

This has to be stopped, and yet the Biden administration through Putin is negotiating a deal that’s weaker than the deal in 2015. It will give tens of billions of dollars to the Iranian regime without restriction, it will ensure that they have nuclear weapons placed on ICBMs — intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach any corner of the earth.

It’s going to ensure that terrorists who right now who are on terrorist watch lists will be removed. They’re even talking about the Republican Guard, the Republican Guard that shot those missiles at our consulate, the Republican Guard that has created all these casualties with American soldiers. You see Tunnel to Towers, you see Wounded Soldiers, and many of those people have lost limbs, and have brain injuries, as a result of what the Iranian Republican Guard and other terrorist organizations have done.

Ladies and gentlemen, Joe Biden is going to unleash a nuclear competition, where third world countries will have nuclear weapons and it will be easier and easier to get and harder and harder to control that might even wind up in the hands of terrorist organizations if we do not put an end to this.

Peace through strength, not peace through appeasement or stupidity because that’s where we are right now and this Iran thing is not getting the attention that it deserves.

Remember, James Carafano was on here a couple of weeks ago, the expert from Heritage Foundation, and he served as the as a Lieutenant Colonel for 25 years in the United States Army. He is a brilliant, brilliant man. He gives advice to a lot of organizations and so forth. And he said, you cannot bifurcate Russia from China or China from Iran. And I call this the axis of evil.

They’re all working together. They’re all trying to backstop each other. If one runs out of oil, the other tries to assist. If one needs financial assistance, the other tries to assist. You better believe they are colluding, and why wouldn’t they? Particularly with a feckless President of the sort that we have.

So it’s very important that we, the American people, despite the mostly ignorant part of the media here, mostly the inattention of the media here, that we understand what’s going on in Iran and that’s why I wanted to bring on former Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. There is nobody better — and to also discuss further Russia and these relationships with these other countries and what we are doing in Ukraine with Congressman Michael Waltz.

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