President Joe Biden visited a Lockheed Martin manufacturing facility in Alabama hailing the effort to send Javelin anti-tank missile systems to Ukraine.
“I’m once more urging Congress to quickly pass the supplemental funding bill for over $300 billion to help the Ukrainians so they can keep — they can keep all of the very, very — all of you very, very busy for a while here,” Biden said after touring the facility.
The president is actually asking for $30 billion for the war effort, but he said “$300 billion” twice during his speech and did not correct his mistakes.
Biden also mistakenly said that the United States had armed Russia with Javelins.
“Before Russia attacked, we made sure Russia had Javelins and other weapons to strengthen their defenses so Ukraine was ready for whatever happened,” he said, without correcting himself.
U.S. President Joe Biden is held by the hand as he speaks to employees at Lockheed Martin, a facility which manufactures weapon systems such as Javelin anti-tank missiles, on May 3, 2022 in Troy, Alabama. ( Julie Bennett/Getty Images)
The president boasted that the Javelins were helping the Ukrainians humiliate the Russians.
“You’re allowing the Ukrainians to defend themselves,” he said. “And, quite frankly, they’re making fools of the Russian military in many instances.”
Biden boasted that there were ten Javelins for every Russian tank in Ukraine.
“You’re making a gigantic difference for these poor sons of guns who are under such enormous, enormous pressure and firepower,” he said.
Biden cited stories of Ukrainian parents naming their children “Javelin” or “Javelina” in honor of the anti-tank weapon.
Watch Joe Biden’s Javelin reference below:
“Not a joke,” he added.
The president said he had sent Ukraine “more than 5,500 Javelins” to the country, which represents about a third of America’s stockpile.
Lockheed Martin is struggling to rebuild the American stockpile, asking for more money from the federal government and legislation to help them with the semiconductor chip shortage.
“I learned on the tour today that each of the Javelins you produce includes more than 200 semiconductors,” Biden said during his speech.
Biden also mistakenly referred to a “young Hungarian fighter” when he expected to say Ukrainian.
“Just a few days ago, the Wall Street Journal quoted a young Hungarian fighter saying, and I quote, ‘Without the Javelins, it would have been very hard to stop the enemy pushing ahead.’ End of quote,” he said, without correcting himself.
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