On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Source,” Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) said that, thusfar, Vladimir Putin hasn’t indicated he wants peace and “I don’t think he wants to continue to antagonize all of Europe and the United States. And I think, ultimately, it will cause him to fail as a leader. It will cause Russia to fail as a state. But I think he’s used to the meat grinder.”
McCormick stated that the U.S. might need to put more pressure on Russia and NATO needs to do more, but you can’t draw red lines during a negotiation because doing so doesn’t work, and while Putin’s actions are “egregious and evil,” “we don’t want to pin him down so we make this negotiation even more difficult.”
Host Kaitlan Collins then asked, “Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) wrote [yesterday], ‘Putin doesn’t want peace. He’s stalled every negotiation and…keeps bombing civilians.’ Do you agree with him that Putin does not want peace here?”
McCormick responded, “He sure hasn’t indicated it so far. I don’t think he wants to continue to antagonize all of Europe and the United States. And I think, ultimately, it will cause him to fail as a leader. It will cause Russia to fail as a state. But I think he’s used to the meat grinder. He’s used to sacrifice. You look at what they did in Afghanistan. Look what they’ve done historically. Look at the gulag archipelago with 60 million people dead. This country has a long-standing history of an abusive government with evil intent, killing lots of people. So I think that’s the history of Russia. Unfortunately, until they get better leadership, it’s going to continue.”
McCormick further stated that Ukraine isn’t likely to get Crimea back, though he wishes they would.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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