President Biden flip-flopped during his Thursday press conference in Brussels when he declared that sanctions were never meant to deter Vladimir Putin from invading Ukraine despite constant proclamations from the administration to the contrary. On The Lead, CNN chief political analyst and global affairs analyst Susan Glasser reacted to Biden’s dishonesty by talking about former President Trump.
Guest host Pamela Brown simply asked Glasser to comment on the reversal: “Susan, quickly, President Biden got a little testy today when he was asked about why sanctions haven't -- haven’t been a deterrent. What did you make of -- of his answer to that and the push-back that he gave saying that was never the intent?”
Glasser decided not to answer that question and instead discussed how sanctions affect Putin’s war effort, “Look, when you impose sanctions after the war has already begun, you know, I do think there's an enormous effort to -- to go ahead and essentially try to shut the Russian economy down, the military industrial complex, but that's going to take time. That may have an impact on the war but not a short-term impact.”
She then turned to Trump:
You know, the tragedy is that the war began. There were sanctions that could have been ratcheted up over the years since 2014, but a final point to remind you that we had a president of the United States before Joe Biden who contemplated lifting sanctions at one point, who wanted Russia not only to be part of the G-20, but to rejoin the G-7 as recently as the summer of 2020 he was proposing that. So, obviously there was a lot of steps along the way to this tragedy unfolding.
Contemplating something is not the same thing as doing it, but Glasser’s opinion of Trump’s Russia policy has nothing to do with Biden’s change of tune.
This segment was sponsored by Safelite.
Here is a transcript for the March 24 show:
CNN The Lead with Jake Tapper
3/24/2022
4:13 PM ET
PAMELA BROWN: Susan, quickly, President Biden got a little testy today when he was asked about why sanctions haven't—haven’t-- been a deterrent. What did you make of—of-- his answer to that and the pushback that he gave saying that was never the intent?
SUSAN GLASSER: Look, when you impose sanctions after the war has already begun, you know, I do think there's an enormous effort to—to-- go ahead and essentially try to shut the Russian economy down, the military industrial complex, but that's going to take time. That may have an impact on the war but not a short-term impact. You know, the tragedy is that the war began. There were sanctions that could have been ratcheted up over the years since 2014, but a final point to remind you that we had a president of the United States before Joe Biden who contemplated lifting sanctions at one point, who wanted Russia not only to be part of the G-20, but to rejoin the G-7 as recently as the summer of 2020 he was proposing that. So, obviously there was a lot of steps along the way to this tragedy unfolding.
