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Tags: ricgrenell | biden | putin | russia | ukraine

Ric Grenell to Newsmax: Putin Isn't Worried That Biden Will Retaliate

By    |   Friday, 31 December 2021 03:58 PM EST

Russian President Vladimir Putin probably isn't worried that President Joe Biden will retaliate if Russia invades Ukraine, former acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell said on Newsmax Friday. 

"There's a difference between a threat of military action and a credible threat of military action," Grenell, the vice president for international development and a national security contributor for Newsmax, said on "American Agenda."

"What I heard consistently from world leaders when I was ambassador to Germany was that leaders would complain, actually, that they just don't know what Donald Trump might do, and I always had a little glimmer in my eye when they said that because that's exactly where we want to be. You don't want the other side to know exactly what's going to happen." 

Meanwhile, Grenell said he doesn't believe Biden will run for a second term in office, considering his litany of failures already in his first year. 

"I think that he's saying that he's considering running just for the Washington, D.C., crowd and that crowd, as you know, is not based in reality," said Grenell. 

Grenell said the changes that have happened with Biden over the past 18 months are "evident to anyone willing to pay attention," but that hasn't included the newsrooms in D.C. 

"They have delved into this defending of the ruling party, and so we've got to stop expecting them to be unbiased or to give good press coverage, or fair press coverage," he said. 

It's hard to tell how Biden's political stance will change in upcoming months, said Grenell. 

"History would have shown us that he, as a 40-year politician, would cut deals with Republicans, and then he would meet in the middle, or he would just cut any deal to get the applause," said Grenell. "What the world leaders know about Joe Biden is that he is crippled with the idea that he has to be liked. He has to have the roar of the crowd."

But the progressives have "completely taken over" and Biden is "just a puppet," said Grenell. 

"The real question is what [the director of the United States Domestic Policy Council] Susan Rice and [White House chief of staff] Ron Klain do. What will they calculate when there's such a loss in the midterms?" asked Grenell. "Will they double down and just say, Now's our time to fight progressive ideas from the outside, blame everything on Republicans and go further left for the next person who's going to run? Everybody in Washington, everybody at the White House, knows Joe Biden is done."

Grenell also predicted the progressive Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., will become "more vocally radical" in 2022 if their party loses the House. 

"It's also really important that we call them what they are," said Grenell. "They are racists. They love to characterize and separate people by race. That is not what Dr. Martin Luther King wanted. They also are very antisemitic, and we need to be very clear about that and stop just saying that they're radicals. They are racists, and they are antisemites. And there's a lot of proof for that."

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Sandy Fitzgerald

Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics. 

© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.


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Russian President Vladimir Putin probably isn't worried that President Joe Biden will retaliate if Russia invades Ukraine, former acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell said on Newsmax Friday.
ricgrenell, biden, putin, russia, ukraine
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2021-58-31
Friday, 31 December 2021 03:58 PM
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