This war in Ukraine, or the United States' involvement in it, "could've all been avoided" had President Joe Biden gone the diplomatic route, Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told Newsmax Saturday.
The rhetoric about the use of nuclear weapons "could've all been avoided, if we would have just minded our own business and gone the diplomatic route," Burchett told "Saturday Report."
"But we didn't. We chose not to. And we gave Russia the upper hand."
Harkening back to when Russia was mobilizing forces stretching along the Ukraine border for what they claimed at the time were "military exercises," Biden suggested during a Jan. 19 press conference that Russia would face minor consequences for a "minor incursion."
"I think what you're going to see is that Russia will be held accountable if it invades," the president said. "And it depends on what it does. It's one thing if it's a minor incursion and then we end up having a fight about what to do and not do, etc."
At that time, Biden's comment was quickly rebuked by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who stated "that there are no minor incursions" or "minor casualties."
Reflecting on the president's comment, Burchett said, "It showed President Biden's ineptness ... for handling international incidents.
"You know," the congressman added, "when he ran for office, in the debates, he sort of bragged during the debates about how he could handle the international community; and currently, we're a laughingstock in the international community."
On Thursday, President Zelenskyy's head adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said that Ukraine "rejects" communications with both the United States and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Still, the Department of Defense announced on Friday that Ukraine would be receiving $725 million in military aid.
"'We will win this war, then we will decide the fate of Russia.' Kyiv also rejects talks between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin," German reporter Steffen Schwarzkopf tweeted Podolyak as saying.
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