Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., told Newsmax Thursday that the United States, through the Biden administration, is "sending a message of weakness" that is creating "chaos in the world."
During an appearance on Newsmax's "The Chris Salcedo Show," Tenney said that the U.S. has a vested interest in what happens in Ukraine, beyond the Eastern European country's borders.
"We're sending a message of weakness and we're inviting the type of aggression that you could potentially see in leaders like Xi Jinping of China, and the mullahs in Iran and North Korea," the congresswoman said. "When the U.S. is weak, when the U.S. is not dictating the terms of engagement with [Vladimir] Putin and with all of our enemies around the world, particularly our biggest adversary, China, you're seeing chaos in the world."
Tenney added that she hoped President Joe Biden would take Chinese President Xi Jinping to task on Friday about the disinformation campaign his government is waging regarding Ukraine.
The two leaders have a call scheduled, in their first known discussion in months, CNN reports.
According to Tenney, the Chinese government is blaming the United States and NATO for the war in Ukraine.
"The Chinese are weighing in and they are our biggest adversary," the congresswoman said. "They are a global power with military strength, and they are many times larger than Russia."
Citing senior U.K. defense sources, the Daily Mail reports that Russian forces may only be able to sustain full fighting capacity for another 10-14 days, after which Putin's troops will struggle to hold the ground they have already captured from Ukrainian fighters.
Tenney said that Russia may turn to China at that point to reinforce its war effort.
"The Chinese are going to be aiding the Russians in some way and prolonging their ability to exact a win," she said. "We cannot allow the Russians to win here."
Additionally, Tenney said that negotiations to resurrect the Iran nuclear deal have been concerning.
"Incredibly, Russia is one of the negotiators and negotiating on behalf of the United States, and we're relying on the malevolence of Russian actors and those who are certainly not looking out for our interests while they wage war in Ukraine," she said.
"Democrats were equally as enraged and upset with what they heard today about the almost $100 billion in sanctions that could be given to the Iranians without really any quid pro quo for us in preventing them from engaging and putting a nuclear weapon online."
"They're talking about giving them up to $7 billion in trading hostages, so we're going to get into this hostage situation, which is only going to incentivize them to have even more hostages, which they can exact more money and more sanctions relief from us," she added.
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