President Joe Biden has had all kinds of time to meet with NATO in Brussels, but instead, by waiting over a week to travel, he has given Russian President Vladimir Putin a "lot of running room" on Ukraine, former National Intelligence Acting Director Ric Grenell told Newsmax.
"The president of the United States that has a plane just sitting there waiting for him to make a move announces during this war developing in Europe that he's going to go to NATO headquarters in Brussels in nine days," Grenell told Monday's "National Report." "What kind of signal do you think that sent?"
Secretary of State Antony Blinken also spent all of last week in Washington, D.C., rather than overseas, and "he also has a plane at his disposal," Grenell added.
"Why in the world is the Biden administration shoving diplomacy, peaceful diplomacy to the wayside?" he added. "I don't understand why Antony Blinken is not on his plane and in Moscow. Why isn't he talking directly to the Russians? Why are we waiting nine days to get together in Europe to talk?"
This shows the administration must "wake up and start doing peaceful diplomacy, diplomacy with muscle," Grenell said. "Get creative."
Meanwhile, there have been four rounds of peace talks that have not been successful, and the Americans remain on the sideline, said the former ambassador.
"We've seen the Turks trying to jump in and do diplomacy," he said. "We've seen some in Europe pushing for more diplomacy. Meanwhile, Joe Biden and his plane have been stuck in Washington D.C.
"What we have to do is recognize that the Biden team has shoved diplomacy aside. We've put weak diplomats out front, and it's no wonder that the world is scrambling outside of America to try to solve this problem."
Meanwhile, Germany has agreed on a deal for liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar to lessen its dependence on Russia, and Grenell said the position of the United States has always been that Europe should diversify its sources while including the United States in the mix.
"What they need to do is broaden out all of their different sources of energy," Grenell concluded. "They've cut nuclear energy; they're dialing back on coal; and therefore they put themselves in this position of having to rely on Russia. I think it's good that the Europeans are looking for LNG and other energy alternatives. Qatar should be part of that mix, but so should the United States."
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